Team performance management might seem like a fantastical idea consisting of lists, expectations, and lofty goals, but it’s so much more. In its purest form, it’s about showing your team they can exceed the limits they’ve set for themselves and that they have way more potential than they realize.
It’s so much more than a way to control output. Honestly, if you view it that way, you’ll likely make your team resent you. They’ll feel tracked and pushed as if their effort equals failure if they don’t reach the moon. Any team performance management tactics you use need to have a better origin than that, or you’ll create more work for yourself.
It’s 2024, and jobs are more challenging to fill than ever before. So, it’s way smarter to use honey than vinegar in these situations. Good people are hard to come by, and if you make the ones you have to feel invested in like you care, that output is just one factor you look out for. Suppose we could control your brain for a second. In that case, we’d implant the idea that team performance management should be centered on the “employee experience,” as that will get you way further than focusing solely on “performance.”
That’s why we’re walking you through how to use team performance management effectively and in a way that pays it forward, helps your team improve, and gives management peace of mind.
In this post, we cover
- What is Team Performance Management?
- Why Team Performance Management Is Important
- Examining The Performance of Both Managers and Team Members
- The Team Performance Management Cycle
- How To Responsibly Manage A Team’s Performance
- Common Challenges To Team Performance Management
What is Team Performance Management
Team performance management monitors, coordinates, and controls a team’s progress toward predetermined objectives. It’s a way to closely examine and understand how the team is doing. It often involves dividing up the employees into specific teams and groups, performing evaluations, and setting diversified goals based on the skills and weaknesses of your team.
The goal of team performance management is to improve their performance, which can be done by finding opportunities for optimization, changing incentives, or adjusting goals. In other words, you collect data that is relevant to your organization’s definition of performance, and you use that information to adjust the course.
This data is also really helpful for improving processes and systems that could be affecting your team.
Why Team Performance Management is Important
Everyone, and we do mean everyone, has room for improvement—that includes management, team members, upper management, etc. Just because you have a fancy title does not mean you are perfect. On the same note, we are not saying you have to push your employee base to the limit and ask them to give up their runs to the bathroom or lunch breaks.
Team performance management is extremely helpful in looking at the team like an organism, with all these different moving parts. Using these techniques, you can see what is fueling the organism and what is hindering it, and make systematic, sustainable changes to make the experience of each part better.
Not only does it help the team function better, but it also helps improve collaboration and teamwork. One tactic commonly used in team performance management is separating everyone into a handful of teams that work independently on their own goals (goals set with that team and its members specifically in mind). Sometimes, different employees can go years without ever crossing paths with each other—team performance management changes that.
One of the most notable benefits of using team performance management is that it allows you to systematically instill accountability into your company culture. Most of you reading this would likely benefit from spreading accountability and autonomy throughout your organization. This practice will help with that.
Examining Performance Managers & Team Members
Now that we’ve examined what this whole thing is and why you need more of it let’s get into the next layer. When you are “evaluating performance,” what exactly does that mean? It’s hard to tell. It can mean just collecting data, but it can also mean watching procedures happen in real-time and deciding where improvements can be made. The meaning can change again depending on the type of employee you are evaluating.
So, we’ve decided to lay out what “performance” means for both managers and employees. Here are some of the most common responsibilities of managers followed by those of employees.
Manager Responsibilities & Performance Indicators
- Do they provide clear goals and expectations to each team member?
- Do they clarify details and define standards for team members when a misunderstanding occurs?
- Do they make efforts to center team focus and energy on objectives?
- Are they encouraging and supportive of the team, or do they lead with reduction and punishment?
- Do they lead by example? (For example, learning new productivity tools and encouraging usage like that.)
- Do they educate team members?
- Do they empower team members to solve problems themselves?
- Do they encourage team members to see mistakes as learning opportunities?
- Do they infuse autonomy into every experience possible?
- Do they have faith in their team members? Are they able to express it?
- Can they recognize team members publicly, even if it’s in little ways?
Due to the nature of the management role, you’ll notice there is more to consider. Unlike the employee or team member, management needs to have their eyes on more than just what’s happening day-to-day. And because of that reality, there are more requirements for them than for your average team member.
Employee Responsibilities & Performance Indicators
- Do they make sure their goals are aligned with the priorities of the department and organization?
- Are they able to perform their assigned role?
- Do they handle assigned tasks without needing assistance or supervision?
- Are they able to work towards their goals in a timely manner?
- Are they transparent about the status of their work and even what they are working on?
- Do they take ownership of wins and losses?
- Are they open to feedback of all kinds?
Ultimately, employee performance looks quite different from one organization to another. Some managers might be looking for people who 1) show up, 2) do their jobs, and 3) don’t ruin anyone else’s day doing it. Others might need more effort than that. Use the above questions to guide your exploration of what “performance” means to you and your team.
The Team Performance Management Cycle
Team performance management is, like many management processes, cyclical. You have to first decide what information is relevant, how you’ll collect it, and what you’ll do with what you’ve learned. Some of these stages will linger and last longer than others, but over time, you will notice that, eventually, each of these steps will be ticked off.
1. Make A Plan
When beginning the team performance management process, you’ll need to make a lot of decisions. We recommend you lay out each of the following.
- Each person’s role – What was this person brought on to do?
- Each person’s responsibilities – What is the bare minimum you need this role to accomplish?
- Each person’s SMART goals – What objectives can you set that meet the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) criteria?
- The company’s needs/goals – How can each person’s contribution further the organization?
During this stage, you are building a sort of business strategy as well as choosing the goals of individuals and teams. Be sure to choose things you can measure. Metrics in team performance management are key. So, identifying each person’s and team’s KPIs is really necessary.
Also, remember that management and employee roles are vastly different, which means it would be helpful to consider what makes those positions unique as you make these plans.
2. Collect Your Data
At this point, the team is shown their objectives, questions are answered, and you take off. Data is collected, progress is observed, management supports that progress (something that is also observed), and communication is as frequent and regular as possible, basically, up until the point where it hinders the job or is annoying.
Something you should discuss with everyone is process evaluation. Let each person (who is the most informed of what their role requires) bring up any issues they find inside systems, processes, and procedures.
Team performance management is about watching how people perform and finding new ways to improve that performance. There might be little systematic ticks that no one has considered removing—even though they are making everyone’s lives more annoying. By collecting all of this information, on top of those aligned with the team performance management model, you’ll likely find loads of possible improvements.
3. Review It All
While some organizations might plan all of these tasks around calendar markers (months, quarters, and years), that’s not really necessary. You can handle the timeframe of team performance management however you prefer. If you’d like to simply track for about three months starting tomorrow for no other reason than you are curious, you can do that.
No matter how you want to handle this, you’ll need to sort through all of the data you’ve collected. Systematic, process, and procedure notes will need to be reviewed along with actual performance data.
We recommend that you have a large meeting where each issue is brought up and discussed. Understand exactly what part or process the originator is referring to, discuss why that aspect can or cannot be changed, and, if possible, discuss workarounds and alternatives.
And when you have performance reviews, work to make them as supportive, productive, and fruitful as possible. Don’t just point out everything they did wrong and why they suck. Have them help you understand why they might be underperforming and point out every place they are meeting standards.
If their performance was great and you don’t want them to change a thing, say that. Go through each topic and tell them how great they are. We are not saying you stroke egos, but we are saying that people need to know they are doing a good job.
4. Make Their Effort Pay Off
We are very, very serious when we say that this is the most important step. Jobs? None of us want them. So, when employers recognize that most are here because we have to be—not because we want to be—life is easier for everyone.
And even if you love your job, which hopefully you do, there are aspects that you hate.
All of that is to say you need to make sure your team (employees and managers alike) know that their work is appreciated. Not only does that keep people engaged, but it also helps encourage loyalty. If you treat them well, they will not leave.
We recommend that you find out what each team member is excited by (bonuses, additional compensation, vacation time, increased schedule flexibility, or promotions) and deliver what you can. But whatever you do, DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
How To Responsibly Manage A Team’s Performance
Some ways that you can make this whole process easier and more effective include
- Encourage feedback as much as you give it
- Involve the team in the goal-setting process
- Find ways to track team performance and make that method as transparent as possible
- Transparent communication is always your friend
- If you split people up into teams, make sure the combinations make sense in relation to the goals
- Select capable leaders for each team
- Host meetings where people can openly discuss wins and losses on their way to achieving goals
- Encourage management to take a “supportive” stance and not a “controlling” one
Remember to handle team building with care if that is the strategy you take through team performance management. Don’t set up goals to make one person work harder than the others—that happens a lot.
5 Common Challenges To Team Performance Management
As with any management tactic, things can go awry. And when you take the time to evaluate these systems, the patterns start to show themselves. Here are some of the most common challenges to team performance management.
1. Management is impatient.
Basically, everyone who is not on the ground thinks that everything should change overnight. Performance should be sky-high from the get-go, and that is not how this works. High-performing teams are crafted, created, and supported. They are not born; they are made—usually slowly.
2. Objectives aren’t clear.
Management can’t decide what they want. One stakeholder needs THIS, but another will die if they don’t see THAT. Then, suddenly, the team has 18 things they HAVE to do, and they don’t complete one of them. Goals need to be specific and set one (or few (as in maybe three)) at a time. Do not overload them and then angrily ask why they couldn’t do 18 things at once.
3. People are controlled and not supported.
Those words have very different meanings, and for good reason. Supporting your team looks like helping them through issues, communicating instead of judging, and finding ways to make their lives easier. Controlling your team looks like watching them over their shoulders, not showing them the vision, and gatekeeping information for no reason. Be honest, which one are you?
Speaking of control, when setting goals, the organization prioritizes metrics that sound a lot like “more money, more sales! More! More! More!” And there is no real reason. Instead, focus changes on making people’s (team or customer) experience of your organization better. You’ll get a lot further that way.
4. Progress isn’t tracked.
If anything, metrics are ignored. Leadership thinks it’s better to go by when things feel done. *Insert eye roll.*
5. The plan is left on the shelf.
Management takes all kinds of time to set up these plans and get the team into this idea, only to drop it when the next “thing” comes up. Don’t do that. Change the plan. Don’t abandon it. That’s not nice.
Use Team Performance Management The Right Way
So, you want a high-performing team? Well, it’s not impossible, but it takes a good deal of work. Of course, like with most things that are hard work, the result is very worth it.
Team performance management in the modern workplace looks a lot more inclusive than most are used to, and it’s not a bad thing. Autonomy is more important in the workplace than ever before, which means you have to appeal to the professional more than the paycheck. In other words, if you use team performance management like the whip driving the ox instead of seeing it as improved feed or care, you need to reevaluate your whole stance on management.
It’s a bold statement, we know, but it’s true. When team performance management is a consistent and caring act that management uses to support their teams, they are able to do the following.
- Measure results and adjust systems to enhance them
- Increase accountability in the workplace because people feel safe to own up when they fail and then do better
- Communicate team values and gently discourage characteristics you don’t like
- Improve transparency so that each team member understands what their counterparts are working on
- Help people expand and enlighten their career choices (and perform better) because they start to see their potential
Team performance management is a powerful tool. It just has to be wielded the right way.
Let New Ideas Find You
Here at A.McBeth, Inc., we know it’s better to open our thinking caps, receive new ideas, and use them occasionally than act like we know everything. Project management is pretty uncomfortable with that attitude, so we are offering up new (and old) ideas all month long, so sign up to be notified the next time one pops up. You won’t want to miss it!
