Book Recommendations
from Bret L. Simmons

From Bret's review: "Guy defines enchantment as 'the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea. The outcome of enchantment is voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial.' I like that a lot. People that are delighted behave entirely differently than those that are simply satisfied. For me, the last seven chapters were better than the first six, but I think the entire book is worth your time and effort."

Order now from Amazon!

From Bret's review: "In this book, Nayar tells the story of how he transformed an already successful company, HCLT, into one of the fastest growing IT service partners in the world. The personal story Nayar shares is compelling, insightful, and at times funny and brutally honest. Have your highlighter handy when you read this because it is packed full of wisdom and quotable passages."

Order now from Amazon!

Communicating Concerns About Performance: Follow-up!

October 26, 2009 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Behavior, Leadership, Video

Communicating Concerns About Performance: Follow-up! from Bret Simmons on Vimeo.

This is my fifth and probably final video message in this series. If you’ve had a good conversation about behavior or performance with your employee, understood why they are doing the things they are doing, partnered with them to help improve the performance, and documented your conversation and shared your commitment, then you MUST follow-up on all of this to ensure success.

Follow-up first to make sure you do the things you told the employee you were going to do to help them improve their performance. Holding yourself accountable is the foundation for holding others accountable.

Follow-up next with the employee when and how you agreed to follow-up to make sure they are making progress on improving the performance. If you don’t follow-up, you will send the message that it really doesn’t matter. Good follow-up also gives you the opportunity to once again demonstrate that you are transparent and fair in the way you deal with people.

If the behavioral change is successful, celebrate! Not only have you helped an employee, but you have also shown them a process that they can use to help others as they progress in their career.

If the behavior does not improve and you end up having to terminate the employee, it’s very important how you get to that point. Never forget that when that employee leaves, the employees that remain need to believe that you are fair and that you care.

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated!

Communicating Concerns About Performance: The Importance of Documentation

Communicating Concerns About Performance: Focus on Behaviors

Communicating Concerns About Performance: Watch Your Motives

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Tags: Bret Simmons, commitment, communication, Credibility, employee performance, fairness, justice, partnership
Posted in Behavior, Leadership, Video

4 Responses to “Communicating Concerns About Performance: Follow-up!”

Wally Bock says:

October 27, 2009 at 2:35 pm

Great series, Bret. In my experience, if a boss is fair, everybody knows it. There are very few secrets when it comes to fairness or consistency and they’re not secrets for long.

[Reply]
Bret L. Simmons Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Totally agree, Wally. Everyone except the leader seems to know about the fairness of the leader. Or maybe the leader knows and just does not care. Fairness is one of the biggest things to care about. Thanks!! Bret

[Reply]
Sharon Markovsky says:

October 28, 2009 at 9:44 pm

Bret,
These are really great! I love how you took it outside. And, by being outside, I see more of you in the video. Awesome stuff!

[Reply]
Bret L. Simmons Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Thanks, Sharon! Let me know if you have any suggestions. Stay tuned! Bret

[Reply]