Ackley Corp

Posts Tagged ‘Performance’

Sales managers/administrators are ineffective. The delusional that believe they are effective are usually a result of being placed through cronyism or nepotism and so protected till the company fails. Raging with understandable insecurity, these sales managers are unable to understand the selling method, that specialize in managing activities to demonstrate they at least doing one thing and otherwise pay more time telling the bosses what they wish to hear instead of what desires to be done. The fault lies with command and control company structures that a sales culture will not mix with. Managing sales performance is a responsibility of senior leadership however few understand or see the price/responsibility of this role.

Sales management has traditionally been defined with three components: recruiting, coaching and managing. Sales forces have come back beneath increased pressure to form results due to the high costs of turnover and resourcing compared to any results of real profitable growth created…whether or not a compelling product/service is out there to them or not.

How is your average salaried, benefited, company automobile, expense account, company trained sales rep performing?…the reality to sold results is poor.

In this installment of our guide to organizational management we look at performance management…

Performance management plays a key role in ensuring that an organization, including its subsystems such as employees, teams, departments and processes, are working in a way that achieve the overriding goals of the company. Performance management comes in the form of general reviews, or more specific reviews of quality, quantity, time-frame relevance, or cost.

It should be undertaken at regular, pre-determined intervals, and also if it becomes suddenly apparent that a particular subsystem is underperforming. The same standard procedure is followed in most organizations, though exactly how the steps are carried out can vary widely, depending on the focus of the performance efforts and who is in charge of carrying it out.

Step one in the process is to prepare a documented plan that sets out the desired results, the way the results will be measured and the standards the performance are based on.

The plan needs to be prioritized with first-level targets being at the top, and drilling down for each first-level target where it makes sense to do so. The results must be realistic and able to be achieved or there will be no value derived from the exercise. Finally, staff needs to be made aware of what the performance goals are.

Performance management is defined as a process that contributes to effective management of teams and individuals aimed at achieving high levels of performance in an organization. Hence it creates a shared understanding the objectives and the means to lead and develop people to ensure the achievement of the same. Generally, this is a strategy that relates to every organizational activity set in the context of human resource culture, policies, communications systems and style (Armstrong & Baron, 2004). The strategic nature is dependent on the organizational context and may vary from one organization to another. Performance management has in recent times come in handy to replace performance appraisals.

Performance Management

Appraisals forms or performance appraisals and reviews can be said to be diminishing in effect.

They always come as an annual assault that stands alone, making performance appraisal being avoided and disliked universally. It is because most people in organizations dread the idea of that they were less perfect the previous year. Managers are also not willing to face such arguments, which would essentially lead to diminished morale because of the process of performance appraisal. Supervisors perceive that their time is not utilized well professionally in documenting and providing proof that supports year long feedback (Cunneen, 2006). Additionally, most vital outputs for performance appraisal from each individual’s job may not be measurable or defined in the current system of work. The appraisal system is often harder to manage if taken a step higher by tying the salary increase of employees to their rating numerically.