Managing by the Number (Pt II)

 Part II:

I’ll admit I was fairly proud at the advances made in tracking the team’s success. My employees were more engaged in their work (as compared in previous years without the tool) because they received accurate and timely feedback. Secondly, I was a better leader because I could zero in on specific areas where each employee was succeeding or struggling and provide better individualized support.

After collecting data for a number of quarters I could begin to gain tremendous insight into how to support the team from a strategic level. The first example is of a very difficult problem I encountered: an underperforming employee (see the graphs below).

In this instance I saw Avery as the underperformer. As with any underperforming employee it was key to document specific examples of poor performance to engage with him on an improvement plan. Unfortunately, Avery did not adequately respond to the improvement plan and as a result, he was asked to leave the organization. By being able to plot out the performance data (as seen here) that difficult conversation (although not easy) was made much simpler.

What is even more interesting is to see the overall team performance improve after his departure despite other employees absorbing his work (as can be seen in the last graph on this page). This was a good example of where data was used to have a more informed conversation and make the right choice.

I can only begin to tell you how valuable this data was when managing the team. I’ll call out a few more specific instances as they might relate to your company’s challenges.

Investing in Employee Development

Early in this process the “Employee Development” piece was rather uninspiring. I assigned a few goals such as “read a book” or “build a list of your network contacts.” Over time I noticed the team was not making great strides in this area.  I wanted to see these people learn and grow as professionals so I sought external help.

I made the investment to bring in an outside expert to coach our employees on how to develop themselves professionally and also myself – on how to encourage this development. The guest facilitator was brought in during Q1 2014. Along with some coaching we adjusted each member of the team’s goals by letting them select their own. I found it was fascinating to see the impact this change had in the staff personally as their engagement in their own development.

Validating a New Hire

One of the most significant investments any company will make is in the people they hire. As I am sure many of you do, I spent a great deal of time vetting and getting to know potential candidates before extending an offer. Once a new employee starts it is vital to track their progress to ensure he or she is keeping pace with the learning curve and are building a good foundation for the rest of his or her time at the company.

Using the data I was able to plot the performance of three new hires over the course of their first several quarters on the team. While the baseline data may not be “statistically significant” it helps to provide advice to the new teammates when giving them feedback on how they are doing. The “New Hire Avg Q1, Q2, etc…” are the benchmark averages of where new hires have been at that point in their tenure.

Testing a New Program

A component of any manager’s responsibilities is to develop innovative ways for his or her team to improve and achieve loftier goals. These efforts come with an investment of time and resources with the intent of elevating a team’s performance. It is easy to look at the final numbers vs goals and say “Yay! / Ney…” on whether the new initiative worked but how do you know if it was actually because of the initiative? How do you know if you were just un/lucky or if a few all-star team members carried the team?

I ran into these questions myself in Q3 of 2014 when I tried to set a higher financial performance goal for the team. This goal each of the regional managers to take on more responsibility for completing a more detailed analysis of their branches’ financial reports in order to identify improvement areas.

I noticed after a few quarters we were not tracking toward our goals. When I dug into the data I found not even the top performers were making progress. The scorecard was adjusted so if they were following through on the initiative, they should have easily seen a bump of .25 in their performance scores.  Instead of blasting out a “WORK HARDER!” email, I was able to have a targeted and purposeful conversation with certain members of the staff. Within these conversations, I learned certain members of the team lacked the training and felt too overloaded to fully contribute to the initiative.

Having this data allowed me to make better decisions on adjusting the team’s approach.

There is nothing more frustrating that sitting in a meeting where people are giving feedback or criticism based solely on anecdotal experience. Having this information is especially vital to give appropriate direction in managing a team. There is no model that can capture all the nuances of human behavior and how teams function, but depending on your organization’s goals there is a way to paint a more complete picture.