Evaluate Performance and Decide on Actions in a #bestpractical way

Part of a leader’s role in driving business performance is to evaluate the past performance and decide on how to remedy the situation going forward.  An observation is how often leaders do not run a monthly meeting with their top teams to evaluate performance and decide on actions.

Manage forward

At a professional services company, we introduced a monthly leaders meeting. In the first meeting the evaluation showed a problem in profitability despite great revenue.

We traced the root cause to a leading indicator, and within one month they were able to improve their profit by 25% through their own remedial actions.

Once you know the root cause for a poor result, you must merely decide on the plan of action and execute. In the next cycle you should see the improved result. If not, consider changing the plan.

Team dysfunction

Team dysfunction can have an impact on the way you evaluate performance and decide on actions.

A common problem lies in the dysfunctional behavior of the team.

It is true that Visibility leads to Accountability, resulting in Performance.  But people do not want to be shown up, so how you run the meeting determines their response.

If the leader becomes overbearing about the historic performance, the team starts to feel exasperated and tends to:

• pull away,
• defend their position or
• “bad news” is sugar coated.

If you can build a culture where “bad news” just becomes data to evaluate, the team will be more open to build into a cohesive, high-performing unit.

3 #bestpratical tips to effectively evaluate performance and determine actions

Tip 1: Consistently run at least one monthly leaders meeting

Refer to “Tips to Improve Meetings” blogpost for #bestpractical ways to improve the quality of meetings.

Tip 2: Don’t focus too much on the past – manage forward

It becomes overbearing and does not contribute to improved performance or team cohesion.

Tip 3: Always share “bad news” first and be brutally honest

If you lead with good news, people won’t listen to what you’re saying because they worry about the bad news coming.

Conclusion

When there is a consistent platform where leaders need to account for their area (e.g. a monthly leaders meeting), they immediately become more accountable for the underlying performance.

Such a platform enables the leadership team to evaluate performance and decide on actions.

If you manage forward, you will influence the results in the next period.

This is a single step in our Profit Improvement Signature Solution where we help business leaders grow their profits in a #bestpractical way.

If you feel stuck in your business performance, and want to talk through your thinking, then reach out to us on THIS LINK for a quick Discovery call.