Archive for category Performance
Are You Happy With Your Job?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Government, Leadership, Motivation, Performance, Productivity, Relationships, Roles, The Ken Blanchard Companies, Trust on September 14, 2011
They say that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. This statement is true for some but unfortunately, there are several federal government employees that are less than satisfied with the work they do on a daily basis. A study released by the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte focusing on job satisfaction of federal employees reported that those who have been on the job for three years or more are less satisfied with their jobs versus those that have been in their role for less than three years. In addition, effective leadership and employee relationship and interaction with their supervisors had a major impact on the individual’s level of satisfaction. Pay, training, and opportunity for advancement also played a significant role in on-the-job fulfillment.
Fifty-nine percent of individuals indicated they had left an organization due to trust issues.
Trust is a key influencer of job satisfaction. When employees lack trust with their immediate supervisor, motivation and productivity decline and performance falters. So how can leaders improve trust with their direct reports? The Ken Blanchard Companies has researched how trust impacts work relationships and has designed the TrustWorks! ABCD Trust Model. The model is comprised of four elements of trust that leaders should take into account when working with the people they lead. The Trust model can assist leaders with increasing the level of trust or repair relationships where trust has been lost.
The four elements are Able, Believable, Connected, and Dependable.
- Able is about demonstrating competence.
- Believable means acting with integrity.
- Connected is about demonstrating care and concern for other people.
- Dependable is about reliably following through on what the leaders say that they are going to do.
Do you fully trust your supervisor? How can your leader improve your level of trust?
Here are 8 ways your agency can enhance the trust between you and your leaders and coworkers.
3 Key Elements of an Effective Performance Review
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Coaching, Communication, Direction, Goal Setting, Leadership, Performance on July 13, 2011
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry positioned his strategy for implementing a more effective performance review process within the Federal Government at the Excellence In Government conference this week. Berry has referred to the current review process ad “infrequent and rote.” His vision is to encourage managers to give frequent recognition and praise for good work to keep employees motivated and to ensure an increase in the lines of communication. In addition, the OPM just completed a pilot mentoring initiative in June and plans to implement a mentor program later this year.
You don't want to save up feedback until somebody fails.
In their new book, Helping People Win At Work, leadership experts Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge support Berry’s sentiments. Ridge believes that there are three aspects of an effective performance review; planning, execution, and review and learning. Both Blanchard and Ridge use the analogy of providing students with the final exam and giving them the answers. Managers sit with their direct reports once a year to establish SMART goals and create the employee’s ‘final exam,” they then must coach them throughout the year to support the agreed upon goals and tell them how to accomplish those set goals. They call this philosophy, “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A.” The last aspect, review and learning, helps managers and employees look for any learnings they may have encountered and determine what is working and what isn’t.
The concept of continuous coaching throughout the year has the biggest impact on performance. While goal-setting provides direction and gets performance started, what keeps performance going and helps achieve the goals is day-to-day coaching. Unfortunately, this is the step that is missing in most agencies. Typically, when annual reviews are complete and goals are set, they are filed away until the following year.
I agree with and support John Berry’s initiative to improve the overall performance process with frequent recognition and praise. This form of communication is an excellent motivator and builder of trust among mangers and their direct reports.
How often do you communicate with your manager about your performance?
Listen to Garry talk about how the power that managers have is within the people around them.
Does Your Training Program Pass the Test?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Direction, Goals, Government, Leadership, Performance, Results, Training on June 29, 2011
It’s very common for things to be out of date or expire and it’s up to us to update or renew those things that have a limited shelf life, like your computer, the latest app and even the gallon of milk in your fridge. But what happens when your training program becomes outdated? Who is responsible for updating training resources?
You can expect more from your training program if you inspect more.
Luckily for government agencies, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has a Training Evaluation Guide that outlines regulations and best practices to assist agency leaders in evaluating their training programs and initiatives. According to the guide, the main purpose of evaluating your agency’s training program is to make good use of the agency’s resources, determine whether the current training is effective, and make adjustments to the programs, as needed.
Five key factors drive the efforts of this guide:
1. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management Training Evaluation Regulations – 2009 OPM regulations require agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of their training programs. These regulations form the foundation for this field guide, and will increase the contribution of training to agency mission effectiveness.
2. Accountability – Expectations for wise and documented use of training dollars are higher than ever. Clear connections between effective funding usage and agency outcomes are expected.
3. The Open Government Initiative – The current administration has put an emphasis on government accountability. It has detailed a mandate that government spending and related outcomes be made transparent to the public.
4. Training in the Federal Government – Within the Federal Government where mission accomplishment is vital and change is the only constant—training, and the effective evaluation of training, is critical.
5. The Federal Chief Learning Officers Council – This group of high level federal government learning leaders has made it a priority to accomplish the previous three factors, and have committed their time and resources to collectively make it happen.
High performing agencies are constantly focusing on improving their capabilities through learning systems, building knowledge capital, and transferring learning throughout the organization. These agencies seek knowledge about the work environment and employee performance. They treat mistakes and failures as important data, recognizing that they often can lead to breakthroughs.
How does your agency’s training program measure up?
Three Cheers to the OPM!
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Coaching, Collaboration, Commitment, Communication, Employee Engagement, Goals, Performance, Productivity on June 22, 2011
Last week, the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Training and Development Wiki was presented with an Innovation Award by the Training Officers Consortium (TOC). The award is included in the TOC’s Annual Distinguished Service Awards Program which recognizes trainers and training programs that have made a valuable impact within the Federal Government. The Innovation award nominees include individuals, teams, or agencies that have implemented a new training strategy to achieve desired performance results.
An agency that is filled with self leaders is an agency with an empowered workforce.
”The Federal Training and Development Wiki is another example of how OPM employees are innovating every day,” said OPM Director John Berry. “The Wiki improves efficiency and best practices for agencies by providing a forum to share ideas and training tools. This will help agencies address their learning and development needs to best support the mission and career success of federal employees. I am proud of our program experts for developing this award-winning tool.”
The recognition was announced just as the OPM released the 2010 Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program (FEORP) report to Congress that found an increase in the number of women and minorities in senior-level positions in the federal government.
High performing organizations rely on new and existing leaders to utilize training programs and tools, like the Federal Training and Development Wiki, to support and encourage their direct reports and get them involved in building the agency’s vision. When leaders incorporate skills that blend goals with ongoing communication, they are actively engaging individuals and increasing their level of motivation and commitment to the organization.
What leadership programs have you encountered that have made an impact on your productivity and performance?
How Motivated Are You?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Attitude, Employee Passion, Engagement, Leadership, Motivation, Performance on May 25, 2011
Let’s face it; there are some days when you are just not that motivated. We’ve all seen the commercial on television where the guy is out with friends and asks a raspy-voiced woman to call his place of employment to say he will be out sick for the day. While the commercial is all in good fun, for some people, calling in “sick” can be a sigh of relief when they lack motivation or passion in their role.
Motivation is a skill that can be taught, learned, developed, and nurtured.
So what motivates people to excel in their job and truly enjoy what they do?
Dr. Drea Zigarmi and Susan Fowler with The Ken Blanchard Companies have been researching what exactly motivation and passion mean to individuals and how they can leverage both to improve their state of mind at their workplace.
Employee passion is the positive emotional state of mind resulting from our own perceptions of worthwhile work, autonomy, collaboration, growth, fairness, recognition, connectedness to our colleagues, and connectedness to our leader, all of which lead to standards of behavior that include effort, long-term commitment to the agency, peak performance, low turnover, and increased tenure with the agency. Motivation increases the probability of employee passion that results in three intentions highly valued by any agency:
- The intent to stay, support, and use good judgment on behalf of the agency
- The plan to perform at or above expectations
- The willingness to demonstrate organizational citizenship behavior
Want to learn more? Drea and Susan will be discussing the results of their cutting-edge research and the implications on how we work and lead within the workplace on June 1st in Washington, DC. They will also be sharing key skills needed to engage employees and sustain optimal motivation and employee passion.
Registration is currently open for this briefing.
A Light at the End of the SES Tunnel
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Direction, Employee Passion, Leadership, Leadership Development, Performance, Productivity, Roles on February 23, 2011
Senior Executive Service employees have had several changes take place regarding their roles and responsibilities over the past year but a recent memo delivered to the organization may be music to some folk’s ears. Senior Executives have been tasked with identifying poor –performing programs, eliminate some of the reporting requirements placed on agencies and maintain new requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act, all while seeing smaller pay raises. A recent study by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) found SES members received an average 2.7 percent increase in pay, the lowest in the five years since a pay-for performance system began.
When people are empowered, their organizations benefit.
All this may push someone to throw in the towel. However, good news came in the form of a memo to SES members on Friday from Jeff Zients, Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management and John Berry, Office of Personnel Management Director outlining proposals developed by the President’s Management Council to streamline the performance appraisal process and certification system, boost recruitment for SES jobs and improve executive engagement and career development opportunities.
Key initiatives include:
• Stronger links between employee appraisal systems and agency performance goals, as well as improved personnel performance planning, assessment and recognition.
• More engagement of senior agency leaders in SES issues through coordination with the PMC, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council and the Performance Improvement Council, along with agency-specific SES forums.
• Additional opportunities for SES career development, including a one-year onboarding program for new executives; government wide leadership development curricula and events; networking programs; and a pilot project offering rotational opportunities for upper-level GS employees.
• Improved recruitment for SES jobs through a resume-based hiring pilot project, external talent searches and a cross-agency effort to market and recruit for open positions.
Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executive Association was very happy with the efforts of the organization to collaborate with the government on improving opportunities for SES employees. Such opportunities can increase employee passion and dedication to the organization. Scott Blanchard and Drea Zigarmi of the Ken Blanchard Companies conducted a study on what kind of leadership has the greatest impact on performance. The team discovered that employee success included things like employee satisfaction, employee loyalty, employee productivity, perceptions of one’s relationship with his or her manger and the team environment, and more tangible measures, like absenteeism, tardiness, and vandalism.
What are other positive results that can be created from this opportunity?
Find out what Blanchard believes are the 8 factors that lead to employee passion.
Performance Management…Is There Room for Improvement?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Coaching, Communication, Goal Setting, Goals, Leadership, Performance on January 5, 2011
When President Obama announced the federal pay freeze late last year, I am sure a lot of private sector employees felt the pain of the federal workers that will be affected by this decision. Pay cuts and salary freezes have been quite common with the declining economy and many people from both the public and private sector have had to perform the same job for less money.
All good performance starts with clear goals.
In my last blog, I wrote about ways to incentivize employees to keep them motivated and their morale high, without hurting the already cut budget. I came across some great ways managers can accomplish this, but how are managers evaluating their direct reports’ performance and providing feedback, good and bad, to direct employees towards success?
An article on GovExec.com assesses the government’s employee performance appraisal process and where there is potential room for improvement. Are leaders working with their staff to create goals and ways to accomplish those goals? Are they defining how each individual can contribute to the goals of the organization they work for? Authors and leadership specialists, Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge, wrote Helping People WIN at WORK with a philosophy called, “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A” in mind. The basis of this philosophy is to tell your employees how to accomplish their goals to ensure that they achieve what they set out to do.
The book outlines three aspects of an effective performance review:
Planning – The process starts with both the leader and the direct report agreeing on essential functions that describe the responsibilities of the employee within their job position.
Execution – When everyone is clear on the observable and measureable goals, leaders need to help their team reach their goals by coaching them on a daily basis.
Review and Learning – It is important to take the time to pause, review progress, and look for learnings – whether mistakes have been made or not. You don’t want to save up feedback until someone fails.
How do you think the government can improve the employee appraisal process?
Click here to watch a webinar on how to develop an employee performance development process that will create an engaging work environment.
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