Performance Conversations By Christopher D. Lee Book Summary

Performance Conversations, How to Use Questions to Coach Employees, Improve Productivity, and Boost Confidence (Without Appraisals!) By Christopher D. Lee

Recommendation

The traditional performance review has few remaining adherents. According to longtime chief human resources officer Christopher D. Lee, organizations should replace such reviews with regular, one-to-one feedback sessions between frontline managers and their reports. Lee explains why these conversations are critical to employee engagement, retention and company performance. Moreover, he writes, managers must learn to act as coaches rather than bosses, which means asking the right questions to learn what’s working, what’s not and how to help employees grow.

Take-Aways

• Managers should have six-to-twelve, 30-minute performance conversations with employees every year. 
• Ask the right questions – genuinely, gently and positively – to have breakthrough conversations.
• Be a coach, not a boss.
• Offer frequent, neutral feedback to build trust, hold employees accountable and help them achieve their goals.
• Use seven expertly curated questions during feedback sessions – in particular, “What can I do for you?”
• Broaden the scope of coaching conversations at least once or twice a year to discuss promotions and career options.

Performance Conversations Book Summary

Managers should have six-to-twelve, 30-minute performance conversations with employees every year. 

Employees and managers – millennials in particular – despise traditional performance reviews and will leave organizations that insist on using them. This remnant of 20th-century management has no place in the fast-paced, work-from-anywhere world of modern business.

Rather than wait a year, or even six months, to review a person’s performance and then assign a pointless rating, managers should adopt the “Performance Conversations” approach. These conversations address performance (as the name implies) from a coaching perspective. They emphasize servant leadership – managers working in partnership with their reports to achieve performance goals.

“The world’s best athletes all have coaches…Why would employees go to work and expect to achieve A+ outcomes without a great coach – their manager?”

Good manager coaches express concern for both the employee and his or her performance. Short (30-minute), regular (6-12 times per year), well-planned, structured and scheduled meetings between team members and manager-coaches develop closer relationships and greater trust. In these semi-formal sessions, managers make their reports feel appreciated and supported, so that employees invest emotionally in their work, improving their engagement and performance.

“On average, only 15% of employees who work for a manager who does not meet with them regularly are engaged.”

A growing number of organizations realize the inadequacies of annual performance reviews and have switched to regular meetings between team members and their managers or supervisors. Google refers to its replacement for performance appraisals as “one-to-ones”; others call them “feedback sessions.” Whatever you call them, do them. It’s time very well spent.

Ask the right questions – genuinely, gently and positively – to have breakthrough conversations.

Kids, students, lawyers, mediators, doctors and detectives all rely on questions to learn and do their jobs. Well-placed questions can open people to deeper conversations, solve problems and build rapport and trust, while communicating warmth and care.

“The question asked determines the answer received.”

Choose the right questions for your purpose. At their most basic, questions either elicit binary responses (yes or no), or invite an open-ended response. Good questioners use both types; they ask blunt, direct queries when they want simple responses and open-ended questions when they seek dialogue. In addition to open-or-closed questions, leading questions can narrow responses, follow-on questions can pursue a topic more deeply, and even “trick” questions can influence the course of the conversation.

Managers will be best served when they use thoughtful, honest and open questions. Instead of asking, for example, “Why were you late again this morning?”, a wise manager might ask, “What is keeping you from getting to work on time more often?”

Never interrogate. Gently ask genuine questions. Focus on the positive. Frequently invite team members to ask questions, too. Use well-chosen questions to open up a conversation about work, with the goal of helping employees relax and feel positive about their contributions. Don’t check items on a form or take notes during the meeting; lean in and engage in genuine dialogue. The overarching goal of your conversation is performance improvement, but this comes through coaching and support rather than fear and intimidation.

Conversations and dialogue trump evaluations and ratings every time. Focus on people’s accomplishments to elicit positive emotions and bolster relationships. Employ positive psychology to help people find meaning in their work. Emphasize employee strengths rather than their weaknesses. Using this approach, you might say, “Take a minute to reflect on this past year; how would you say you’ve changed and grown in that space of time?” Questions like these can open the dialogue to a wide range of positive outcomes.

Be a coach, not a boss.

Much of work today requires drawing on skills employees may have in greater quantity than their bosses. Additionally, workers may not come into the office at all, removing the traditional supervisor’s go-to performance gauge: face time. Today’s workers need managers who help them build new skills and knowledge, who remove obstacles, and partner with them to solve problems and achieve goals. Where possible, each worker will also benefit from a mentor to guide them more broadly (typically a more senior person to whom they don’t report directly), or a sponsor to advocate for them.

“Coaching is different in its idea, intent and practice. A relationship is warmly developed with the coach, while a boss-employee arrangement is only designed to facilitate work.”

Performance conversations focus on the positive, but managers can’t always avoid negative feedback. The difference rests in the relationship, the trust and how manager-coaches deliver negative feedback. Once you have earned trust and separate ratings from feedback, employees will accept constructive criticism intended to help them succeed.

Offer frequent, neutral feedback to build trust, hold employees accountable and help them achieve their goals.

Construct your performance conversations around five key principles: 

1. Feedback – Use feedback to reinforce positive behaviors and stop negative ones. Use it to identify problems and opportunities, and to make constructive suggestions. No employee can improve without feedback, but keep your comments neutral and never assume a posture of appraisal (or judgment).
2. Feedforward – Use “feedforward” to anticipate measures needed to improve future outcomes or avoid repeating mistakes. AI studies your patterns and preferences to offer recommendations. Coaches can do the same as they get to know their reports better. These insights are especially important in assigning work or placing people in teams. Effective coaches play to people’s strengths and put in place measures to shore up their weaknesses. Rather than wait until the end of the year to address performance issues, feedforward helps you identify and test ideas with your reports, and make real-time adjustments that might lead to improvements. Encourage accountability and boost performance by asking questions like, “What different approach might you take this time?” or “How can we work together to ensure success?”
3. Frequency – Managers who meet with their reports regularly increase engagement by nearly 300%. To ensure other obligations don’t get in the way, effective managers schedule their performance conversations. If necessary, they reschedule or even cancel the odd meeting, but never two in a row. Make your meetings a habit and emphasize their importance by sticking with them. Put them off, and you might miss crucial information needed to avoid future problems. Schedule meetings at intervals between four and sixteen weeks, depending on the maturity of your team and the work it performs. Adjust frequencies during times of crisis. Consider more frequent meetings with remote workers.
4. Follow-up – During check-ins, gauge progress against the goals and actions identified in previous meetings. It holds you and your reports accountable and builds trust by demonstrating your authentic interest in their development. Knowing that you will ask direct questions about their progress in the next meeting – just weeks away – focuses your reports on their progress. Ask how you can help when they come up short of goals or expectations.
5. Familiarity – The manager-employee relationship is both the context for and the result of the other four principles. The principles combine to establish trust and rapport, so that your feedback and assistance is well-received. Without trust, nothing else you do will matter.

Make your performance conversations work by agreeing in advance on topics for discussion. Invite employees to prepare questions ahead of time, too. Keep notes from past sessions and encourage your reports to do the same. Keep evidence of their performance and accomplishments in the intervening period. This record-keeping facilitates dialogue and provides opportunities for recognition in each meeting. Have the same meetings with remote workers – but consider increasing their frequency.

Use seven expertly curated questions during feedback sessions – in particular, “What can I do for you?”

Seven “Magnificent Questions” apply to everyone and every firm. They keep the conversation focused on work and performance, and address everything from accountability and feedback to goal management and relationship-building: 

1. “What is going well?” – This question opens the door to appreciation and positive feedback. It gets the conversation off to a warm start, prompting reflection on past work and aspirations for future accomplishments. It hones focus on priorities and can steer the conversation toward the future. If you go off topic, or want specifics, ask, “What’s going well with project X?” Then ask, “How do we replicate this success?” or “What have you learned from this achievement?”
2. “What is not going well? – Frame this question positively. Rely on the trust and rapport you’ve built to get crucial, honest answers that let you offer the right assistance. Employees will anticipate this question because you always ask it. They’ll know they can’t dodge it. Remind them that even the greatest athletes have coaches to help them. Make asking for and receiving help normal and expected. Prompt responses by asking about obstacles, concerns and even personal issues. Ask them why they think they encountered problems, their plans to course correct and what, specifically, you can do to help them.
3. “What else is going on?“– This neutral question changes the course of the conversation, opening it up to things you might not know to ask about. It doesn’t have to focus only on work. However, if you stray too far into non-work-related topics, refocus by asking, “What else is happening in your work with team C?” or “Do you think we’re making the right decisions here?” Then ask them for ideas on how to improve things, or about their main worries at work.
4. “What is the status of your goals, action plans and follow-up items?” – This query offers your best chance at coaching. No matter how your team members respond to this question, you have to do something. If they demonstrate better than expected progress, praise them and ask how the pace can continue. If they have fallen behind, propose ideas and offer help; ask for their ideas on how to get back on track. In your short meeting you can’t solve major issues, so schedule a separate time to deal with those. Focus them by asking how their goal achievement benefits the rest of the firm. Consider asking, “What is the status of our goals?” Use “we” rather than “you” as often as you can.
5. “What can I do for you?” – This is the most important question of all. Ask it often. Let it take up as much time as needed in your meetings. It boosts accountability because, once offered, an employee can’t make excuses. Employees might give tough answers. They may even implicate you as an obstacle in their responses. Nevertheless, ask how you can support them, make their lives easier, get them the resources they need or remove obstacles.
6. “How are your professional relationships going?” – People need connections and relationships. If they feel isolated or excluded they cannot perform at their best, and they will leave the company. This question speaks to belonging. Ask your team members if they feel valued, and how their work makes a contribution. Ask if they have friends at work, and who among their peers deserves more appreciation.
7. “How are you?” – This question communicates caring. If people don’t believe you care about them, they won’t care about your feedback. Again, invite personal responses but steer the conversation back to work-related matters if inappropriate topics arise. This question gives you a chance to connect more deeply. You might learn about a death in the family or an upcoming celebration. Follow up on these things in future meetings to tighten relational bonds. If you want to bring the conversation back to work, ask, “How are things at work?” or “Do you feel challenged, overworked, stressed?”

Add additional questions tailored to your employee’s role and work. And, from time to time, ask questions such as, “How have you adjusted your goals to target the firm’s new XYZ initiative?”

Broaden the scope of coaching conversations at least once or twice a year to discuss promotions and career options.

Where the work matters most, professionals use checklists. In 30-minute meetings, you can’t cover everything you need to discuss with your employees. Use a checklist to make sure that at least once or twice a year you discuss career options, promotions, engagement and retention, among other big-picture topics.

“If the manager does not create a multiplicative effect on the employee’s performance outcomes, then the manager represents nothing more than unnecessary overhead costs.”

Always keep in mind the overarching goal of performance conversations and coaching: improved employee performance. After all, if you don’t improve your team members’ performance, you have no viable role as a manager. Prepare your conversations well, listen more than you talk, monitor your body language and your tone of voice and plan your opening. Keep your questions constructive and honest.

About the Author

William & Mary University’s chief human resources officer Dr. Christopher D. Lee has spent the better part of the past three decades as a Chief Human Resources Officer. He also teaches HR at the University of Richmond.

Video & Podcast

[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]

Performance Conversations, How to Use Questions to Coach Employees, Improve Productivity, and Boost Confidence (Without Appraisals!) by Christopher D. Lee

Recommendation

The traditional performance review has few remaining adherents. According to longtime chief human resources officer Christopher D. Lee, organizations should replace such reviews with regular, one-to-one feedback sessions between frontline managers and their reports. Lee explains why these conversations are critical to employee engagement, retention and company performance. Moreover, he writes, managers must learn to act as coaches rather than bosses, which means asking the right questions to learn what’s working, what’s not and how to help employees grow.

Take-Aways

• Managers should have six-to-twelve, 30-minute performance conversations with employees every year. 
• Ask the right questions – genuinely, gently and positively – to have breakthrough conversations.
• Be a coach, not a boss.
• Offer frequent, neutral feedback to build trust, hold employees accountable and help them achieve their goals.
• Use seven expertly curated questions during feedback sessions – in particular, “What can I do for you?”
• Broaden the scope of coaching conversations at least once or twice a year to discuss promotions and career options.

Summary

Managers should have six-to-twelve, 30-minute performance conversations with employees every year. 

Employees and managers – millennials in particular – despise traditional performance reviews and will leave organizations that insist on using them. This remnant of 20th-century management has no place in the fast-paced, work-from-anywhere world of modern business.

Rather than wait a year, or even six months, to review a person’s performance and then assign a pointless rating, managers should adopt the “Performance Conversations” approach. These conversations address performance (as the name implies) from a coaching perspective. They emphasize servant leadership – managers working in partnership with their reports to achieve performance goals.

“The world’s best athletes all have coaches…Why would employees go to work and expect to achieve A+ outcomes without a great coach – their manager?”

Good manager coaches express concern for both the employee and his or her performance. Short (30-minute), regular (6-12 times per year), well-planned, structured and scheduled meetings between team members and manager-coaches develop closer relationships and greater trust. In these semi-formal sessions, managers make their reports feel appreciated and supported, so that employees invest emotionally in their work, improving their engagement and performance.

“On average, only 15% of employees who work for a manager who does not meet with them regularly are engaged.”

A growing number of organizations realize the inadequacies of annual performance reviews and have switched to regular meetings between team members and their managers or supervisors. Google refers to its replacement for performance appraisals as “one-to-ones”; others call them “feedback sessions.” Whatever you call them, do them. It’s time very well spent.

Ask the right questions – genuinely, gently and positively – to have breakthrough conversations.

Kids, students, lawyers, mediators, doctors and detectives all rely on questions to learn and do their jobs. Well-placed questions can open people to deeper conversations, solve problems and build rapport and trust, while communicating warmth and care.

“The question asked determines the answer received.”

Choose the right questions for your purpose. At their most basic, questions either elicit binary responses (yes or no), or invite an open-ended response. Good questioners use both types; they ask blunt, direct queries when they want simple responses and open-ended questions when they seek dialogue. In addition to open-or-closed questions, leading questions can narrow responses, follow-on questions can pursue a topic more deeply, and even “trick” questions can influence the course of the conversation.

Managers will be best served when they use thoughtful, honest and open questions. Instead of asking, for example, “Why were you late again this morning?”, a wise manager might ask, “What is keeping you from getting to work on time more often?”

Never interrogate. Gently ask genuine questions. Focus on the positive. Frequently invite team members to ask questions, too. Use well-chosen questions to open up a conversation about work, with the goal of helping employees relax and feel positive about their contributions. Don’t check items on a form or take notes during the meeting; lean in and engage in genuine dialogue. The overarching goal of your conversation is performance improvement, but this comes through coaching and support rather than fear and intimidation.

Conversations and dialogue trump evaluations and ratings every time. Focus on people’s accomplishments to elicit positive emotions and bolster relationships. Employ positive psychology to help people find meaning in their work. Emphasize employee strengths rather than their weaknesses. Using this approach, you might say, “Take a minute to reflect on this past year; how would you say you’ve changed and grown in that space of time?” Questions like these can open the dialogue to a wide range of positive outcomes.

Be a coach, not a boss.

Much of work today requires drawing on skills employees may have in greater quantity than their bosses. Additionally, workers may not come into the office at all, removing the traditional supervisor’s go-to performance gauge: face time. Today’s workers need managers who help them build new skills and knowledge, who remove obstacles, and partner with them to solve problems and achieve goals. Where possible, each worker will also benefit from a mentor to guide them more broadly (typically a more senior person to whom they don’t report directly), or a sponsor to advocate for them.

“Coaching is different in its idea, intent and practice. A relationship is warmly developed with the coach, while a boss-employee arrangement is only designed to facilitate work.”

Performance conversations focus on the positive, but managers can’t always avoid negative feedback. The difference rests in the relationship, the trust and how manager-coaches deliver negative feedback. Once you have earned trust and separate ratings from feedback, employees will accept constructive criticism intended to help them succeed.

Offer frequent, neutral feedback to build trust, hold employees accountable and help them achieve their goals.

Construct your performance conversations around five key principles: 

1. Feedback – Use feedback to reinforce positive behaviors and stop negative ones. Use it to identify problems and opportunities, and to make constructive suggestions. No employee can improve without feedback, but keep your comments neutral and never assume a posture of appraisal (or judgment).
2. Feedforward – Use “feedforward” to anticipate measures needed to improve future outcomes or avoid repeating mistakes. AI studies your patterns and preferences to offer recommendations. Coaches can do the same as they get to know their reports better. These insights are especially important in assigning work or placing people in teams. Effective coaches play to people’s strengths and put in place measures to shore up their weaknesses. Rather than wait until the end of the year to address performance issues, feedforward helps you identify and test ideas with your reports, and make real-time adjustments that might lead to improvements. Encourage accountability and boost performance by asking questions like, “What different approach might you take this time?” or “How can we work together to ensure success?”
3. Frequency – Managers who meet with their reports regularly increase engagement by nearly 300%. To ensure other obligations don’t get in the way, effective managers schedule their performance conversations. If necessary, they reschedule or even cancel the odd meeting, but never two in a row. Make your meetings a habit and emphasize their importance by sticking with them. Put them off, and you might miss crucial information needed to avoid future problems. Schedule meetings at intervals between four and sixteen weeks, depending on the maturity of your team and the work it performs. Adjust frequencies during times of crisis. Consider more frequent meetings with remote workers.
4. Follow-up – During check-ins, gauge progress against the goals and actions identified in previous meetings. It holds you and your reports accountable and builds trust by demonstrating your authentic interest in their development. Knowing that you will ask direct questions about their progress in the next meeting – just weeks away – focuses your reports on their progress. Ask how you can help when they come up short of goals or expectations.
5. Familiarity – The manager-employee relationship is both the context for and the result of the other four principles. The principles combine to establish trust and rapport, so that your feedback and assistance is well-received. Without trust, nothing else you do will matter.

Make your performance conversations work by agreeing in advance on topics for discussion. Invite employees to prepare questions ahead of time, too. Keep notes from past sessions and encourage your reports to do the same. Keep evidence of their performance and accomplishments in the intervening period. This record-keeping facilitates dialogue and provides opportunities for recognition in each meeting. Have the same meetings with remote workers – but consider increasing their frequency.

Use seven expertly curated questions during feedback sessions – in particular, “What can I do for you?”

Seven “Magnificent Questions” apply to everyone and every firm. They keep the conversation focused on work and performance, and address everything from accountability and feedback to goal management and relationship-building: 

1. “What is going well?” – This question opens the door to appreciation and positive feedback. It gets the conversation off to a warm start, prompting reflection on past work and aspirations for future accomplishments. It hones focus on priorities and can steer the conversation toward the future. If you go off topic, or want specifics, ask, “What’s going well with project X?” Then ask, “How do we replicate this success?” or “What have you learned from this achievement?”
2. “What is not going well? – Frame this question positively. Rely on the trust and rapport you’ve built to get crucial, honest answers that let you offer the right assistance. Employees will anticipate this question because you always ask it. They’ll know they can’t dodge it. Remind them that even the greatest athletes have coaches to help them. Make asking for and receiving help normal and expected. Prompt responses by asking about obstacles, concerns and even personal issues. Ask them why they think they encountered problems, their plans to course correct and what, specifically, you can do to help them.
3. “What else is going on?“– This neutral question changes the course of the conversation, opening it up to things you might not know to ask about. It doesn’t have to focus only on work. However, if you stray too far into non-work-related topics, refocus by asking, “What else is happening in your work with team C?” or “Do you think we’re making the right decisions here?” Then ask them for ideas on how to improve things, or about their main worries at work.
4. “What is the status of your goals, action plans and follow-up items?” – This query offers your best chance at coaching. No matter how your team members respond to this question, you have to do something. If they demonstrate better than expected progress, praise them and ask how the pace can continue. If they have fallen behind, propose ideas and offer help; ask for their ideas on how to get back on track. In your short meeting you can’t solve major issues, so schedule a separate time to deal with those. Focus them by asking how their goal achievement benefits the rest of the firm. Consider asking, “What is the status of our goals?” Use “we” rather than “you” as often as you can.
5. “What can I do for you?” – This is the most important question of all. Ask it often. Let it take up as much time as needed in your meetings. It boosts accountability because, once offered, an employee can’t make excuses. Employees might give tough answers. They may even implicate you as an obstacle in their responses. Nevertheless, ask how you can support them, make their lives easier, get them the resources they need or remove obstacles.
6. “How are your professional relationships going?” – People need connections and relationships. If they feel isolated or excluded they cannot perform at their best, and they will leave the company. This question speaks to belonging. Ask your team members if they feel valued, and how their work makes a contribution. Ask if they have friends at work, and who among their peers deserves more appreciation.
7. “How are you?” – This question communicates caring. If people don’t believe you care about them, they won’t care about your feedback. Again, invite personal responses but steer the conversation back to work-related matters if inappropriate topics arise. This question gives you a chance to connect more deeply. You might learn about a death in the family or an upcoming celebration. Follow up on these things in future meetings to tighten relational bonds. If you want to bring the conversation back to work, ask, “How are things at work?” or “Do you feel challenged, overworked, stressed?”

Add additional questions tailored to your employee’s role and work. And, from time to time, ask questions such as, “How have you adjusted your goals to target the firm’s new XYZ initiative?”

Broaden the scope of coaching conversations at least once or twice a year to discuss promotions and career options.

Where the work matters most, professionals use checklists. In 30-minute meetings, you can’t cover everything you need to discuss with your employees. Use a checklist to make sure that at least once or twice a year you discuss career options, promotions, engagement and retention, among other big-picture topics.

“If the manager does not create a multiplicative effect on the employee’s performance outcomes, then the manager represents nothing more than unnecessary overhead costs.”

Always keep in mind the overarching goal of performance conversations and coaching: improved employee performance. After all, if you don’t improve your team members’ performance, you have no viable role as a manager. Prepare your conversations well, listen more than you talk, monitor your body language and your tone of voice and plan your opening. Keep your questions constructive and honest.

About the Author

William & Mary University’s chief human resources officer Dr. Christopher D. Lee has spent the better part of the past three decades as a Chief Human Resources Officer. He also teaches HR at the University of Richmond.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]