How Management Impact Performance
Before the WWII management was known in organizations by following orders, as the main tasks were to maximize the productivity of the factory/business to meet clients demand, so basically its Supply Vs Demand. As change is crucial and an ongoing factor since the discovery of Fire, Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution, the new face of Management we know was after the WWII on the hands of the Management Guru Peter Drucker, and the revelation of the Management by Objectives was an eye opener to a lot of industries/organizations to find new ways to increase the Demand in order to increase the supply to increase profitability, and that yielded to a new era of competition.
So how management can impact performance? What is widely known in any type of business is that employees would work and get motivated when they have clear goals! But that’s a factor from many factors that can get employees not just to perform but also to excel, be innovative & loyal to the business. But what few managers do is they find ways to engage their team members other than the cascaded down goals, they even start with discussing the organizational goals with their teams, and how each team member can participate in achieving them, finding new ways and even taking ownership of those goals.
Smart consultant team recommends the following tips to optimize team performance and engagement:
• Conduct an annual team meeting; yes, conduct a strategy meeting with your team, discuss the organizational goals, their goals and ask them how as a team we can support each other in achieving those goals.
• Create a collaboration environment, for example in the L&D industry we call it learning culture, let each team member to write down an important developmental topic that the organization & the team will benefit from, let them vote on the top 4 for example and then each one of the team will take a developmental topic and then conduct knowledge transfer sessions, and if it’s that important to the team, make sure that an On -the- Job -Training takes place.
• Make sure as a manager to review and give feedback more often, let it be planned for example on monthly basis, so the team would realize as early as possible where are the pitfalls and how to avoid them.
• Coaching is one of the very important tools for managers, developmental coaching is an engaging tool and participates in creating the learning culture also.
• And our golden tip is to receive feedback from your team on the way you manage them; conducting monthly or by monthly feedback sessions with your team to let them give you feedback, make sure to make a clear goal out of those sessions, and it’s a golden opportunity to even develop your managerial skills, apply them and gain feedback and engagement from your team.
So, at the end of the day, its not only about objectives & goals, authority, power, and above all its not about Ego. It’s about the legacy you want to leave behind, and that’s a crucial strategy some organizations adopt to make it as a competitive edge to increase the loyalty and profitability. Yahia Maklad Learning & Performance Development Director.
