Top 5 Performance Management Articles You Need to Read in 2020

This selec­tion of arti­cles, which cov­ers every­thing from per­for­mance coach­ing to AI, will help you trans­form your organ­i­sa­tion this year.

In the world of man­age­ment, there is always some­thing new to learn. There are always skills to strength­en and old, back­wards habits to out­grow and elim­i­nate. The more we read and become famil­iar with mod­ern per­for­mance man­age­ment trends, the stronger our organ­i­sa­tions and work­force will be. 

There is a wealth of infor­ma­tion online about mod­ern per­for­mance man­age­ment trends, but here are five stel­lar arti­cles to read with your morn­ing cof­fee. These arti­cles will help devel­op your appre­ci­a­tion of men­tal health issues in the work­place, and teach you how to men­tor your employ­ees and deliv­er effec­tive, qual­i­ty feed­back that will inspire great performance.

1. Tips for Deliv­er­ing Feed­back More Effec­tive­ly at Work by Dan McCarthy

For­ward-think­ing busi­ness­es need to be on the ball with regards to feed­back. Man­agers need to know how and when to deliv­er feed­back to their employ­ees. Like­wise, they need to under­stand the impor­tance of solic­it­ing feed­back — doing so will improve and enhance your per­for­mance man­age­ment process­es.

This arti­cle on deliv­er­ing feed­back by Dan McCarthy is a must-read for any­one strug­gling with the exchange of effec­tive feed­back. Dan high­lights how pow­er­ful great feed­back can be, while also point­ing out the rea­sons why man­agers hate to deliv­er feed­back. Dan goes on to give ten great tips for deliv­er­ing feed­back, includ­ing the impor­tance of being time­ly. Dan also notes the impor­tance of focus­ing on spe­cif­ic feed­back, rather than the employ­ee in ques­tion, which can be real­ly help­ful if you want to avoid the nat­ur­al and built-in ​“fight or flight” response we expe­ri­ence when we feel threat­ened or criticised.

2. Ten Signs You’re a Boss — But Not a Leader by Liz Ryan

The pur­pose of per­for­mance man­age­ment is not only to improve per­for­mance but also to improve rela­tion­ships between peo­ple. After all, with increased famil­iar­i­ty, trust and con­fi­dence in lead­er­ship, employ­ees are able to thrive and achieve high­er lev­els of suc­cess. At its heart, per­for­mance man­age­ment is all about peo­ple, which includes our mind­sets and rela­tion­ships with one another.

With this in mind, this arti­cle about lead­er­ship by Liz Ryan is an enlight­en­ing read. Liz cov­ers the dif­fer­ences between a tra­di­tion­al boss and a real leader. While a boss might pos­sess a lot of tech­ni­cal know-how, they won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly have the abil­i­ty to inspire and moti­vate. For a leader to be tru­ly effec­tive, they need to empha­sise growth and devel­op­ment, care about employ­ee engage­ment and cul­ti­vate great rela­tion­ships. This is some­thing we all need to remem­ber and prioritise.

3. Can AI Help with Per­for­mance Man­age­ment? By Adi Gaskell

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) is influ­enc­ing near­ly every field today, from sales enable­ment to med­ical ani­ma­tion. It’s also hav­ing a huge impact on the world of busi­ness and start­ing to influ­ence the per­for­mance man­age­ment field. In this AI-cen­tric arti­cle, Adi shows us how this rev­o­lu­tion­ary tech­nol­o­gy can help us spot weak spots in our team. The arti­cle cov­ers per­for­mance through the lens of pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball, but the author uses the oppor­tu­ni­ty to high­light the pos­si­bil­i­ties of AI for per­for­mance man­age­ment and HR in the long run.

4. How to Start Men­tal Health Con­ver­sa­tions with Your Employ­ees by Fat­ma­ta Kamara

In 2020, man­agers will need to devel­op a more thor­ough under­stand­ing of men­tal health and how it impacts employ­ee per­for­mance, moti­va­tion and morale. Men­tal health con­di­tions are on the rise, and employ­ees need their man­agers to be both under­stand­ing and on the ball with regards to well­be­ing and wellness.

As such, we rec­om­mend read­ing this arti­cle about ini­ti­at­ing men­tal health con­ver­sa­tions with your employ­ees. Such con­ver­sa­tions don’t come nat­u­ral­ly to a lot of peo­ple. On top of this, some man­agers may be afraid of caus­ing offence, which might lead to them not rais­ing the issue at all. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es how to talk about men­tal health with employ­ees in a sup­port­ive, open way. Fat­ma­ta also dis­cuss­es the impor­tance of reg­u­lar­ly catch­ing up with employ­ees for one-to-one dis­cus­sions while keep­ing all con­ver­sa­tions entire­ly confidential.

5. The 4 Best Ways to Coach Your Employ­ees to Great­ness by David Finkel

Per­for­mance coach­ing is some­thing we’re pas­sion­ate about at Clear Review. So much so that every one of our employ­ees has an assigned per­for­mance coach. It has a mas­sive pos­i­tive impact on employ­ee engage­ment and gen­er­al morale, and ulti­mate­ly leads to great per­for­mance. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es ways to effec­tive­ly coach employ­ees. Impor­tant­ly, David dis­cuss­es the neces­si­ty of coach­ing with pur­pose in order to ensure devel­op­ment and growth.

Lean more about Con­tin­u­ous Per­for­mance Management

For more high-qual­i­ty read­ing, down­load our free per­for­mance man­age­ment eBook — it will give you all the ground­ing you need to intro­duce agile per­for­mance man­age­ment and give your com­pa­ny the per­for­mance shake-up it needs.

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