Quote of the week
“Instead of waiting for leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.”
— Stan Slap
Editor’s Corner
If there is one thing governments spend a lot of time doing, it’s thinking about, and reporting on, performance. And this is a good thing. Since, if we can’t improve on our ability to meet the new challenges we face, we risk becoming irrelevant to our political masters and citizens.
At the federal level, the new Performance Management Program for employees is designed to increase employee performance as well as management’s accountability for dealing with poor performers and ensuring effective talent management.
The management of performance, of course, is all about leadership in the management of people. Such leadership should encourage behaviours that improve results…and it is something that leaders too often don’t spend enough time on. This should change.
So for the moment, forget about the institutional demands regarding performance and ask yourself: “What am I doing to improve performance in my organization?”
Are you making sure your people understand their obligations and how their work is aligned to government and deputy head goals? Is your workforce motivated? Are you improving its engagement through openness and ongoing communication?
Are you building an atmosphere of trust in your organization? And, to come full circle, are you having full, frank and open discussions with your employees about their individual performance goals, progress being made, and successes?
You will need to be realistic about these goals and invest precious time on ongoing feedback throughout the period, so that there are no surprises when the year-end review is done.
If you can manage all this, you will be moving toward developing a motivated workforce that will improve the performance of your organization. Oh, and you may be a step closer to meeting the institution’s demands related to performance.
