Managing Staff Performance: An Introduction

Many managers would agree that supervising staff is one of the hardest jobs around. Striking the right balance between leadership and support, delegation and oversight, team and individual responsibility can be challenging.

Surveys have shown that employees value the following qualities in their managers:

• gives clear directions;
• communicates well, verbally and in writing;
• good listening skills;
• plans and organises ahead, in consultation with staff;
• sets a good example/acts professionally, e.g. turns up to meetings on time;
• gives regular, positive feedback to staff;
• is willing to consider new ideas and suggestions from staff; and
• is fair, courteous and committed to your organisation.

Frequently, people find themselves managing staff but have no training or previous experience in the field. If you find yourself in this position, consider asking your organisation for training and professional support in your new role. Note that previous experience in management is not one of the qualities listed above - if you can be organised, and communicate well with your team, you are well on your way to managing staff effectively.

If your organisation can't afford to give you staff management training, you could explore some of the following possibilities:

• seeking out a mentor from another organisation who has management experience you can draw upon. Set up regular meeting times (e.g. monthly) to go over management principles and air your concerns;
• reading books on managing staff, but be selective. Some are very prescriptive or rely on 'personality testing' type philosophies, which are interesting but short on practical application; and
• drawing up a list of all the bosses you've had, both good and bad. Identify the things you liked and didn't like about working for them. This will give you a good idea of the kind of management style that will suit you.

When starting out as a manager of staff, consider calling an initial meeting of your team, introducing yourself and asking them about their ideas and work to date. Inform the staff you will be meeting with them individually to get to know them and their work better. Use these individual meetings to get to know individual staff, and to find out what their expectations of their job (and you) are.

Consider the following basic management strategies:

• Set up a regular meeting time with the team, and regular individual meetings with each staff member to discuss, prioritise and allocate work
• At least annual you will generally need to do performance reviews of staff members. Your organisation may have its own performance appraisal system already in place.

Back to Staff: Performance Management

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