This month we’re talking all about toxic cultures, and this week’s topic is a doozy…

It’s easy to spot poor performance… deadlines not being met, staff getting distracted on the job, or budgets blowing out.

Addressing poor performance can be tough.  

Business owners tend to avoid bringing up poor performance like the plague, and when they do – it can become a futile, messy and mishandled task.

However, what if I told you managing performance could be something you look forward to?

What if you were to transform poor-performance-talk into an opportunity to provide powerful feedback?

What if both you and your staff member actually start to enjoy addressing poor performance?

This is absolutely possible.

It starts with making sure you’re approaching these conversations with the following in mind:

1. It’s got to come from a place of trust.
2. It’s got to come from a safe place.
3. It’s got to come from a place of respect.

From the wise words of Paddy McCord from Netflix.

“ If you only do something once, like something like performance reviews once a year, how can you ever be any good at it?”

“It’s exactly the same thing in the case of feedback. If you’re only using feedback for negative, and you’re only doing it when something really goes wrong, then of course people are going to associate feedback with something that’s negative.”

Here are four strategies I use with my clients to help them switch the conversation to shift into utilising a powerful and positive feedback model.

1. Establish an open feedback culture.

Create a culture, with actions, behaviours and rituals instilled into your business which encourages people to ask for feedback and are not scared of it. Change the lens of feedback so people actually see it as people caring about them and what they contribute, as opposed to making them feel as if they are letting people down.

2. “Practice” more.

When addressing performance, people can take their efforts personally – especially when they’re committing to the job 100%, yet simply lack a set of skills.

Focus on encouraging the staff member to “practice more” positive specific feedback as this can be easier and help build the feedback muscle.

3. Develop one skill every 90 days.

Every 90 days, everyone in your organisation should be focusing on at least one thing that could improve their overall performance.

Use this as an opportunity to see where individuals self-assess where they’re at, and what skills they believe to be useful towards their job.

To find out more on how to implement these strategies into your business, and to discover the fourth way of establishing a powerful feedback model, click on the video link to hear me expand on the above.

4. Celebrate improvements in performance.

The last thing to keep in mind while developing performance is to acknowledge and provide feedback around positive improvements.

This could include observations around turning work in before a deadline, becoming more time efficient in their ability to execute on tasks, and demonstrating new positive behaviours that uplift team morale.

Watch the video below to find out more.

Want to start developing a powerful culture within your business? Here are 3 ways on how to get started:

1. Take the Culture IQ Test – this is a simple, free 10 minute, comprehensive assessment of your business that covers 13 critical areas that make up an organisation’s culture. How do you rate?
2. From there, you can take the 5 Day Culture Experiment – a quick and immersive 3 step experiment that provides a “quick win” for your business to start a valuable conversation with your staff about creating an award-winning culture.
3. Start the 90 Day Culture Accelerator – which covers the 4 critical areas of business: DEFINE, ATTRACT, MANAGE & GROW. These areas have the highest yielding impact on your profits, people and productivity.

Much love,

Paulette “Shifting One Culture At A Time” Kolarz