The October issue of CLO Magazine had an interesting article titled “How to Promote Behavioral Change“.  Too often, I have seen the performance appraisal process used as a “one time event”.  Even worse, the contents of the appraisal are often a surprise to the recipient.  How can a manager expect a team member to perform to his best ability, if throughout the year he has no idea if he is meeting the expectations of the job?!  Worse still, what if expectations have not been clearly defined from the outset.  According to the article, top performers are known for three things:

1. “They know their stuff.
2. They focus on the right stuff.
3. They build a reputation for being helpful.”

So if these are the metrics for top performers, as a manager how do you coach and manage your team to do these seemingly simple behaviors?  As the manager, one of your roles is to help your team be successful.  You must give them opportunities to develop the necessary skills and then provide constant feedback along the way.  But there are some additional tactics that the article outlines such as:

• Tap into the employee’s personal motivation.  Help the employee see the bigger picture and how they fit in it.
• Continue to help them develop their personal abilities.  This could be in the form of training, but there are other creative ways to do this such as aligning the employee with an expert that they can emulate.
• Encourage social motivation.  In other words, have your employees hang out with other motivated employees.
• Match the employee with a mentor.
• Incent the employees to put their best foot forward with short term rewards to meet their goals.
• Allow the employee to have some control over their workspace.  For example, if sitting next to the mentor can make a difference, do it!  Even if that means the employee is not sitting in their functional area.

 The article has other great tips, as well as, a case study to review.