Page 96 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

76 Building a High Morale Workplace

Next, establish with
Avoid Failure and
Prepare for Success each employee clear and
If you involve employees in specific performance
the development of their own per- expectations. Invite your
formance standards, they’ll be more employee to discuss his or
likely to openly discuss with you any her own parameters for
obstacles they perceive as getting in measuring performance.
the way of their success. Research
This will tell you what the
shows time and again that when
employees are involved in measuring employee believes is real-
istic.
their performance, they are more
likely to accept and meet the chal- Step 2. Stretch employ-
lenge of their managers.
ees and get buy-in on
improving performance.
Getting employee buy-in isn’t about being manipulative.
Employees want to buy into standards of excellence that are
truly worthy of their time and energy. Performance building is a
joint venture between managers and their employees. It’s a

partnership. When this happens, employees are far more likely
to be willing to stretch themselves to reach higher performance
levels.

Step 3. Be clear about the scope of responsibility you are giv-
ing. Be explicit. Ask if your employee understands who exactly

is responsible for what. When employees understand their
responsibilities in relationship to everyone else, the possibility of
confusion is quickly reduced or even eliminated.

Step 4. Don’t just document what’s agreed on—create a
course of action! Make a detailed, written list of all the perform-

ance standards you and your employee have agreed on. But
that’s still not enough to ensure success. Now you must be spe-
cific about what it’s going to take to reach these expectations.
For example, let’s say Sarah must be able to handle all of

the budgeting requirements for her department to be successful,
but math is not her strong suit. You know that Sarah is capable
of handling the levels of performance you require, but she just
needs a nudge in the right direction. Therefore, Sarah might