Performance Management
An effective performance evaluation process creates a line of sight for employees through performance goals and measures of achievement that connect to organizational priorities and success of the college and individual departments. Our dynamic and changing environment demands good performance evaluation skills and making performance feedback a routine part of your partnership with your team.
Coaching Your Team
When employees have a clear understanding of the expectations of their role, the goals they’re trying to meet, and how their goals contribute to the success of the team and to the shared goals of the college, it leads to better outcomes and higher employee engagement.
Coaching Strategies
Know Your Staff
To be a great leader you must really know your team. Learn about each person’s strengths and weaknesses; what they excel at and what challenges them; what motivates them and what they find discouraging.
Foster Openness
Being open with your employees helps to build trust, form relationships, and ensure that everyone is on the same page. By starting with openness at the top, you help to foster an organizational culture of open communication.
Create Clear Objectives and Goals
Clearly defining objectives and goals is done with strategic planning. Schedule a team planning meeting to encourage team members to brainstorm ways to meet the team’s longer-term goals. This is a good time to draw from individual strengths and ask for the team’s dedication, commitment, and creativity. After goals are created, develop a timeline that includes milestones and check-ins to keep everyone accountable and help you gauge your team’s progress.
Celebrate Success
Celebrating milestones and goals achieved is one of the best ways to keep your team on track, motivated, and inspired. It is important to celebrate the individual successes of your team members as well as those of the group.
Create Mutual Trust
Creating a foundation of trust with your team is essential. Fostering openness, being clear and kind in your communication, showing your employees that you care about them, and sharing your investment in their success will help maintain a high level of trust.
Build a Roadmap to Success
You can’t expect your team to operate effectively without providing the tools and support for them to do so. Therefore, it’s critical for your team to have access to training, resources, materials, and anything else they might need to be successful in their roles. If something is lacking, offer support as quickly as you can.
Share Constructive Feedback
Sharing positive and constructive feedback with your team members is one of your most important roles as a supervisor. Consider what your employees are doing well and invite them to offer suggestions around how improvements can be made. Involving your employees in the dialogue will create a stronger sense of belonging and commitment to the goals created. When giving feedback, be as clear as you can and always provide specific examples.
Ask for Feedback
Being open to feedback on the support you are providing your employees will show your employees that you are willing to remain open minded and flexible.
Maintain awareness of challenges amongst the team
It is natural that conflicts will arise between your team members. It’s your responsibility to keep an eye out for interpersonal issues within your team, providing timely interventions and work to avoid these kinds of problems in the future. Addressing issues as they arise may help them from evolving into larger issues.
*Suggestions above are adapted from an article by the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness