Reinforcing Progress: How to Build Sustainable Success

One of the biggest fallacies managers hold on to is the assumption that if people know the best way to do something, they will do it. As a leader, it is important to always remember that people don't do what they know is best; they do what they have always done. For successful leaders, initial success is only the beginning. It is a leader's job to reinforce success so that it can become a sustainable norm.

Reinforcement is one the most crucial elements of the coaching process. As a leader, when you reach success, you must use your own success as a model for reinforcement with your team.

You have to first experience success before you can reinforce it. This means when you teach a new skill, you must provide the employee the empowerment to go get results and succeed. By providing an environment that tolerates risk and failure, you will empower your team to continually push for greater success.

Creating an environment that accepts intelligent risk-taking and some failure is only part of the process to building sustainable success. You must also provide the right feedback and make sure that you are constantly following up. The follow-up and feedback will allow you monitor progress and maintain accountability, while also identifying additional coaching opportunities.

Maintaining accountability is key when building sustainable success. Remember that employees often want to go back to their old practices, so making employees accountable for their work is critical. When you do see an accountability issue, handle it immediately. Whether it is due to nonperformance or a mistake, continue to coach through this process.

Building sustainable success requires a leader to be trusting, ready to provide feedback, and prepared to engage in coaching at all times. It is a time-consuming process that requires round-the-clock care. There is a very large time commitment upfront to ensure acceptance and accountability, but after you've put in the time, you will have employees who understand not only how to succeed, but how to do it over and over again.

Performance Reviews: A Leader's Guide to Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are an event to dread for some managers. For others, they are an important tool to boost performance, evaluate employee engagement, and determine yearly progress. To conduct a proper performance review, you should dedicate time and effort to ensure that your review is accurate, fair, and productive. There are numerous other considerations to take into account when conducting reviews. This article will focus on some techniques you can use to make a performance review an opportunity for growth and understanding rather than an obligation to human resources.

Prepare
Spend time preparing the assessment. Make sure you collect the proper data to support your points, and send over the assessment to the appraise before the meeting.

Positive
Focus on positives first. As a manager, it is important to spotlight successes and celebrate them. Your focus on success sets the stage for the rest of the review and helps build a reservoir of goodwill.

Coach
The performance review should be an opportunity to coach rather than to judge. A leader coaches first and foremost. Provide constructive feedback, and coach employees through growth opportunities. Make sure when you provide coaching on mistakes or improvement areas that you try to depersonalize the mistakes and let the other person save face. Only when you focus on the mistake itself can you coach through the issue.

Moving Forward
There is always room for improvement and growth, even with the best employees. Provide a clear expectation and develop a mutual plan for improvement. Revise the current standards, and update for the planned improvements.

The Close
End on a positive note. Make sure there is mutual agreement on a development plan, and give the individual a big image to live up to.

Energizing Yourself for Change

One of the challenging results of organizational change is that it can leave you feeling fatigued. All of your efforts are focused on new tasks, responsibilities, and relationships. Because of this, you need to look for strategies to maintain and even increase your personal energy during times of change.

Create a Vision
Nothing is more personally motivating than creating a compelling vision. Visualize yourself succeeding as a result of the change. Imagine the benefits of growing as a result of the change -- creating new opportunities, building a more exciting and dynamic future, and opening up new opportunities for success.

List Opportunities
What are the opportunities presented by the change? Make a list of all the ways that you can grow, add new skills, meet influential people, and add valuable experience to your resumes.

Create Networks
It's difficult to create energy in a vacuum. Most people need the stimulation of other individuals and their ideas, input, feedback, and support. Times of change offer an opportunity to add to the network of people who understand you, believe in you, and are willing to help you move forward.

Build Bridges
Organizational change normally involves the establishment of new relationships. Sometimes you resist these new relationships, especially if it involves a new supervisor or a perceived loss of your authority. Instead of retreating from the new relationship, draw energy from it by embracing it and building bridges between yourself and people you encounter. Meeting new people is usually highly energizing because it gives you the opportunity to find commonalities in your values and goals and in the creativity of collaboration