Understanding Gov Performance Management Basics

Are you creating clear, attainable goals for your team and offering constructive feedback along the way? Or are your employees left feeling confused about the role they play in meeting your agency’s mission?

In our most recent Supervisor Community of Practice virtual networking discussion, we sat down with Patrick S. Malone, Ph.D., Director, Key Executive Leadership Programs, Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University, to discuss how, as a leader, you can polish your performance management skills to better guide your team to meet its goals.

Let’s explore a few key takeaways from that session below. You can also watch the discussion in its entirety on demand for more practical advice on performance management.

1. Why is it important to make agency goals more transparent for employees? “Sometimes, we (as supervisors) assume you already know the connection between what I want you to do and the goals of the organization,” Malone said. “Often, (employees) don’t have the same level of appreciation, because they’re not at the same level in the organization. They’re focused in a completely different world. So, as supervisors, I think we must help people understand how what they do ties directly to the mission.”
2. What are some effective strategies for delivering constructive, timely feedback that encourages improvement rather than defensiveness? This kind of conversation takes a lot of buildup, he said. “People really want to do well, and they want connection, and they want to trust, but all that stuff takes work. When that’s all done well, when there’s a real environment of inclusion and candor, but also of kindness, they can work together, and they work together quite well. And all of a sudden, feedback doesn’t become that big of a challenge anymore, because people know who you are, they know what you stand for, they know that you’re there for them, they know that you’re there for each other. They know that you both have a mission and goals that you both agree on and you’re working toward.”
3. What are common obstacles preventing teams from focusing on accomplishments and outcomes rather than activities? Malone explained that, “sometimes as teams, we think of the activities that we are doing as kind of a checklist, like, okay, we did that, we did that, we did that, and then we sit back and wait. That’s boring for everybody. Nobody wants that, and it certainly doesn’t connect well with our goals and our organizational mission. Activities do play an important role, though, because they feed the technical side of the brain. So if, for example, we find ourselves as teams focusing on just check marks, maybe one way to change that would be to start the meeting with ‘what are we going to try to accomplish?’ And then end the meeting with, ‘okay, what did we learn? What did we accomplish, and what did we learn, and where do we go from here?’ And that kind of ties all the activities together in a coherent strategy toward the next step.”

Want more tips on becoming a better supervisor? Join us Monday, Feb. 23, at 4 p.m. ET for “Improving Team Motivation,” where we’ll talk about practical ways to re-energize and inspire your team.