Introduction

As a manager one of your main responsibilities is to manage the performance of individual members of your team. It involves

• setting individual objectives for team members (which contribute towards achieving the overall team's purpose)

• monitoring and evaluating performance against those objectives

• providing feedback on performance.

In some organizations performance management is part of a formal appraisal and work review system. In others it's up to individual managers to manage team performance as they see fit. What's important is that you actively manage the performance of your team.

In this section of the Workbook we'll be looking at how you can use regular reviews to manage your team's performance

Performance Management and Team Building

Actively managing the performance of your team is an essential part of any manager's role. It is a process which, when properly undertaken, will provide enormous benefit for individual team members, the team as a whole and the team leader.

When a group of senior managers was asked about performance management, these are some of the comments they made:

June, senior manager in a local authority:

My team now realizes that performance management is a constructive process. It's not about blaming, or pointing out weaknesses or threatening people. Performance management provides people with a regular opportunity to sit down with me and discuss what they're supposed to be doing, to what standard, whether or not they are, in fact, achieving the standard. If they're not achieving, then it's up to me to find a way...