- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
Among our greatest challenges is finding the right skills and expertise. Another challenge is compensating them. Another issue we always face is that we may not be the first priority for job seekers. We provide training but our turn-over rate makes it hard for us to raise productivity.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
Our potential employees are appraised on what is expected of them before I sign them for the job. Upon their acceptance of the offer, I equip them with the tools necessary to accomplish our goals. There is always support for employees who need it, any time.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
One of the major challenges is how to build the trust between the employees and me. When trust has been established, coaching on the technical aspects of their duties can take place easily. I can also easily coach them on behavioral conduct in the bank as well.
- How do you go about appraising the performance of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
There are methods I have in place to evaluate their performance. I base the evaluation on their objectives and the weighting of those objectives. I also consider the level of their behavioral competence in comparison to the bank’s standard.
One of the challenges in implementing the performance appraisal is that our organization has a “curve” that is only a certain fraction of the employees can have their excellence evaluated, which eliminates the assessment of the rest, who, as a result, may not be motivated to perform better. Further, this can hamper trust, which is an important element in the running of the organization.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
The challenge of managing a high performer is that the performer may interpret positive feedback as perfect excellence, which would make it difficult to coach them in order for them to improve their work. It may not be easy to reward a high performer because the approval of senior management may be required. The senior management is always in as close contact to the high performer as the lower management so they may not understand that the performer deserves to be appreciated.
In the case of a low performer, if attempts to improve the low performer fail, his/.her poor performance by drag back the rest of the employees, deterring the progress of the company in the process. The labor laws here don’t allow us to relieve the low performer of his/her duties. An productive approach give that employ tasks that don’t affect the general performance of the organization greatly.
- Based on your experience, what makes a training program truly effective and value-added?
A training program would yield high results if skilled trainers are used, as well as the right trainees. The trainers and the trainees should establish good relationships by understanding each other in terms of personalities, culture and background. The quality of the programs weighs more than compensation. A very effective program is one that produces a leader in every trainee.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
Reading works and materials about the world’s greatest leaders solved problems, both in the past and currently is a good way to sharpen leadership skill. I don’t consider the nature of the problem. If there is a problem and a lead is required to solve it, that will be a great read. I also spend time and socialize with our senior leader during breaks.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
If there is so much work to do, the manager’s productivity will fall. A lot of mental energy will be used worrying rather than doing part of the work that should be done.
However, if the leader has a very strong team, then it will be easer for the leader to perform effectively. So it depends on the strength of both the leader and the team.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
It takes and effective leader to develop effective leaders. The effective leader must also posses the ability to pass on skill to the leaders he/she is nurturing. I have experienced occasions when upcoming leaders have exhibited the same skills as those of their trainers or coachers.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Development goes hand in hand with leadership. And it takes leaders to make leaders of others. To accomplish this, there need to be sacrifice and investment in terms of compensation and training. It will be productive if an employee’s time is sacrificed to train him or her because he/she might be more productive after the training be more valuable to the organization.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
It is important that our employees carry on with the same level of energy and the enthusiasm as they had when they joined our company. Our greatest challenge is making sure that that level if that level can’t be stopped from diminishing, it does not reduce so much. It has been noticed that a few of our employees become less motivated with time. Some of the reasons are the working of the environment, failure of the company to meet the expectation they had, dislike for the culture of the company or they may be in the process of searching for other jobs. A good leadership, I believe, one that makes sure that the motivation of employees is considered in the company’s management.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
To familiarize our employees with what their value-added jobs entail, we take them through an extensive training program for a week, during which there are familiarized with the company’s daily activities. They also take learning classes together with practical opportunities. We share with them the company’s mission statement and ask them how they are going to contribute towards our pursuit of the mission. It is important that we equip our employees with the learning tools they would need for their new jobs in our company.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
We recognize that our employees will have different background in terms of culture, language and others. Handling background diversity can be both fascinating and challenging. One way we intend to hand the challenge is to creating a conducive and accommodating environment by organizing general meeting for the entire staff of the company. An additional approach is to coach our employees in a manner that takes into account the background diversity aspect.
- How do you go about appraising the performance of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
The appraisal of each employ is based on a standardized form we have in the company. Lately, we introduced an electronic way of monitoring how well each employee is performing on the basis of how many leases by a certain time each will have signed under their own efforts. In this manner, we are guaranteed a fair appraisal of every employee.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
For a high performer, the company will want the performer to continue with the good work. To do this, is important that the performer is kept inspired, which is challenging. One has to watch the performer closely which demands full attention. Being that they are key to the organization’s success, we always to keep a high performer happy to maintain their productivity. On the other hand, a low performer needs to be encouraged to improve. Having taken them through a costly week of training, you need to incorporate coaching and with effective feedback to raise their performance.
- Based on your experience, what makes a training program truly effective and value-added?
The effectiveness of a training program is measure by how much the employees transfer the skills they learnt in the training to the workplace. Our trainers must not only be knowledgeable and skillful, they must also have the passion to pass on the knowledge and skills to the trainees. Trainers must also be well prepared and be able to use a variety of materials in the training: audio, video, slides, practical ideas etc. The trainers must also be sensitive to the diversity of culture and background of the trainees. Their method of training must be lively, full of fresh ideas and energy. the trainers must also be able to verify if the transfer of skills and knowledge to the trainees is happening successfully.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
To develop the organization and heighten the performance of the employees, I frequently closely scrutinize reports and discuss them with our accounting department. We have noticed that doing this has continued to improve our performance. Me and my employees attend professional seminars and meetings together, systematically.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
When a leader becomes too busy, they have so much workload. They get worried and stressed. Some of the causes of accumulation of work is poor time management. A lot of the leader’s mental energy is spent on stress and worrying. They end up not being able to deliver.
- What are the barriers to a manager’s personal development?
One barrier is lack of humility. Some managers think they are too high in rank to communicate with lower employees. Other managers are to overconfident to develop themselves. Some managers only want to take credit for success and blame the lower employees for failure rather than looking for the source of the problem and handling it.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
Understanding the background, needs and values of our employees is good for the relationship and interaction between our staff. There should also be freedom and involvement in the decision making in the organization. Third performing employees need to be rewarded. It is hard for managers to focus on other aspects of the organization and take care of its employees at the same time. Usually, employees are overlooked.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
First, our employees are held accountable; they should be ready to answer questions when something goes wrong. Second, evaluate the performance of each employee in relation to fellow employees and relation to their performance in the past, and reward impressive performers. Third, we establish trust among management and all employees.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
The challenge of coaching our employees arises fro the fact that they are from different backgrounds and cultures. Hence it is difficult to find coaching methods that is in line with the different cultures and backgrounds. Another challenge is that when employees join, they have different levels of skills and expertise. So it is always hard to know which level to start from.
- How do you go about appraising the performance of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
We evaluate our employees on their performance. The evaluation process is not conducted by the management alone; the employee themselves are involve. This is important to make them see the fairness in the evaluation. the employees are appraised based on their productivity and their compliance with the conducts and ethics of the organization.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
Managing a high performer can be challenging because the performer may think he or she does not need any more training or guidance. The high performer can also feel that he or she is too important to the company feel too confident. The management may be afraid to correct and guide the performer for fear that he may leave the organization. I low performer can also be hard to handle. Labor laws protect him or her from being fired. It is a drawback to the organization since the place would have been occupied by a more productive employee. The low performer is usually given tasks that would not affect the organization greatly.
- Based on your experience, what makes a training program truly effective and value-added?
A training program will be effective if the trainers are good at what their do and they understand the diverseness of the trainees. The training should be lively and should involve a variety of methods, especial the practical ones. The trainers should be fully familiar with the company in terms of its culture and operation in order to align the training with it well. Such kind of training will be very productive to the company. The training should also include ways of assessing its outcome and making adjustments wherever necessary.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
In the same way that I evaluate my employees, I give my employees the opportunity to evaluate me. I believe that a person’s weakness is better more visible to other people than the person himself. By taking the approach, I will be able to identify and work on the weakness on my part that I am not able to notice. My employees evaluate me anonymously. I believe that that help give honest evaluation.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
Being busy can reduce the performance of a manager and as a result the performance of the organization. When running an organization, there can be a lot to duties to perform within limited time. The manager can be too stressed and worried to perform his or her duties. It is important that a manager has time management skills and the manager should also be focused in his/her work.
- Based on your experience, what are the key practices for developing effective managers/leaders?
The key practices for developing effective managers and leaders is to provide the employs with challenging tasks and let them know that they are expected to deliver. The exposure to unusually difficult tasks makes the employees learn new skills and ideas, in addition to developing their leadership skills. Each employee is also assigned a mentor. The mentors should have exceptional leadership skills.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
One of the greatest challenges is actually finding the right people and providing them with the right compensation. Another issue is that we are really not one of the sought after places to work in. Although we do provide a lot of training, we have a high turn-over rate which makes it hard to increase productivity.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
Beyond having them sign the job description, I explain to my employees what goals I expect from them and provide them with the tools to achieve them. Whenever they need help, I am there for them.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
One of the main challenges is getting their trust to confide in me. Once I have their trust, I can start to coach them in not only the technical aspects of their jobs, but the behavioral ones as well.
- How do you go about appraising the performance of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
I evaluate their performance based on their objectives and the weighting of those objectives. I also take into account their behavioral competencies and whether or not that have reached the desired level in each of those competencies. A challenge in doing an accurate performance appraisal is that our organization has implemented a “curve” i.e. only a certain percentage is allowed to get an evaluation of excellent which makes it very hard to accurately assess them and keep them motivated. This in relation with the previous question could make it very hard to have an employee of yours trust you after not being able to give them the evaluation that they actually deserve.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
A challenge associated with managing a high performer is that with time, that employee could be sensitive to constructive feedback which could make it harder to coach them to enhance his/her skills. It could also be difficult during rough times to increase the compensation for that particular employee when you are not able to convince higher management to approve such an increase. Now for a low-performer, if you have tried everything to boost that individual’s performance with no outcome, this could have a negative impact on the rest of the team by decreasing their performance. The labor laws here make it quite difficult to fire someone so you might as well be stuck with that employee. You can only hope to delegate simple tasks to that certain employee to do in hopes that it will not affect the overall performance of the team.
- Based on your experience, what makes a training program truly effective and value-added?
A training program will truly be effective if the right people are chosen as well as the right trainers. Compensation does play a part but not as much as the quality of the program. If the goal of the program is to produce leaders in our industry, then that program will truly be special.
I like to read short stories of leaders from the past as well as spend time with some of our more senior leaders in our organization.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
A leader’s performance will definitely decrease when he/she becomes busy but it also depends on the team. If that leader is an effective one, then the team will understand that this is only a temporary situation.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
I would say that when there is heavy workload, that manager might not find time for self-development or even take any training courses.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Developing effective leaders requires leaders. When leaders are able to coach developing leaders, they will in turn develop them properly. I have seen this on a number of occasions where emerging leaders actually display leadership traits of their mentors.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Development requires leaders and to obtain leaders, you must be willing to invest a lot in terms of training, compensation, and maybe even productivity e.g. sacrificing time of an employee to put him/her through a training program.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
The first challenge is finding the right people. That is by far the most difficult. Finding the sales people that are creative, can think outside the box, but can sell at the same time is not easy. Then it is a constant give and take between what you can trust them to do and what you need to show them to do.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
Constant training, one on one discussions, and trying to be very clear on what is needed on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Rewards when things are done correctly and penalties when they are not.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
Time. Never enough time to truly keep improving.
- How do you go about appraising the performance of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
We set goals that need to be achieved on a monthly basis. Then we break it down to four weeks and track each week. Outside sales is about having a high internal drive for success. Since I am not with each AE everyday, and most of the other time is spent outside the office, it is on them to create their own success. But we regroup each week and make sure that they are on track. If they are on track we continue on. If they are not on track, we stop, regroup and strategize.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
Great question! here is a complicated answer for a complicated dilemma. If you are lucky, a high performer continues to want to improve and do even better and can be a true asset to themselves and the company. Or a high performer can start to get bored and leave, start to become complacent and not push for more, or worst of all feel like they don’t need to be a team player anymore. This means they feel like they don’t need to listen to anyone and make their own rules.. thus becoming a low performer. This can be a very destructive force. The negativity rubs off on the other employees and turns possible good employees into low performers, because they feel like they can act the same way
- Based on your experience, what makes a training program truly effective and value-added?
Training never stops. In the beginning, does the training give them the basics to successfully complete their jobs? Then continue to teach. No one will remember anything in the first round. Find ways to bring the most important values, in your opinion, up again and again, week to week.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
I read a new book on management each month. I also go back to books that got me where I am now and read the highlights. Lots of self evaluation too. Do I feel like my message is easily understood by my AE’s? can I find better ways to convey my message? Most importantly, constantly find people in your life that inspire you to do better.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
Another great question. once spread too thin things start to get overlooked. Basic company values are forgotten and structure starts falling apart. With good strong team things can be fixed. If a leader is too busy to even find the right people or is missing then that leader is forced to pick up the slack from those individuals. That means back tracking instead of moving forward. Moving back is purposely to move forward-good. Going backwards with no sight of forward
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Time
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the performance /productivity of your people?
The greatest challenge is accepting that not everyone will care as much as I do. I cannot expect all of my writers/ freelancers to go about their work with the same precision and care as me, because ultimately they have priorities. It is my job to make sure I pick up the ball when they drop it.
- What specific steps do you take to insure that each of your employees know exactly what their value-added job entails?
To ensure that freelancers understand the importance of what they are doing. I call them back to check in and make sure that they begin writing. I have outlined my expectations. By calling them, I am creating a more personal relationship. By outlining what I need in writing , they know what I am looking for.
- What are the challenges associated with “coaching” your employees?
Coaching freelancers proves to be interesting because writing is very subjective. Something may not be wrong. But I might feel like it could be better. That is tough to explain to people sometimes especially because writing is a very personal form of expression.
- of each of your employees? What are the challenges you face in conducting a formal performance appraisal and review?
I make sure to always give feed back. I want them to know what I liked and didn’t like. I remember freelancing and how frustrating it was to send an article and never hear a word about it. It is helpful for both sides to make a few quick comments.
- What are the challenges associated with managing a “high performer”? A “low performer”?
Challenges with managing a high performer are that they feel that they do no wrong. There is always room for improvement and high performers don’t always see it that way. Challenges with managing a low performer are that it is exhausting to keep correcting them and it is frustrating when they repeat mistakes.
- On a personal level, what do you do to continue your development and improve performance as a manager?
A training program is effective when it is hands on. Once you go through the steps, it clicks.
- Based on your experience, what happens to a leader’s performance/effectiveness when they become too busy?
I strive to listen more than speak in my personal and professional life. It helps to hear what others are saying and tune in to what’s around you rather than hearing your own voice and thoughts all the time.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Performance and effectiveness are definitely affected, but it should break a leader. Mistakes happen but you have to move forward
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Barriers to manager’s personal development might be policies that are in place from within the company. Sometimes great ideas come along that I’d love to implement, but they cant be brought to life for whatever reason.
- What are the greatest challenges you presently face as a leader in increasing the
Performance /productivity of your people?
Key practices for developing managers/leaders are choosing to invest in people that genuinely care about your company. If they care, they go the extra mile