This is the fourth in a five part series on Strategy Execution. The series is comprised of: 1. Strategy Execution 2. Using Metrics to Define Success 3. Job Design and Delegation 4. Performance Management and Communication 5. Coaching and Motivation

1. Performance Management and
Communication
January 2016
material minds

2. What is expected of them How they’re doing How they can improve
In order to execute strategy effectively, you need to connect that strategy with the daily action of
all employees. In order to connect strategy to action employees need to know three key things:
This slide deck addresses the second objective, helping employees understand how they are
doing. This is Performance Management.
Connecting Strategy With Action

3. What Performance Management Isn’t
67% of research respondents
thought that performance
management’s objective was
the distribution of rewards.
Many employees think that performance management is annual system for appraisals but it is much
more than this. When research was done to ask people what they thought performance management
was, here is what they said.
54% of respondents thought that
the objective was to improve
accountability.
46% thought talent development
was the objective

4. What Performance Management Really Is
Performance management is a feedback loop that evaluates progress and helps employees work on
meeting goals.
These goals should be expressed in metrics to ensure that there is no ambiguity in determining
whether or not the goal is met.
Performance management is the mechanism by which employees can come to understand how they
are doing, the second of three things critical for employee success.

5. Preparation
Getting ready for performance management is accomplished by the two previous steps in this slide deck
series; Metrics and Delegation
Metrics
To do a good job with performance management, each
employee should have a set of metrics that accurately
measures their results and the activities that drive
those results.
Delegation
Secondly, the employee’s manager should
have delegated responsibility for those metrics
and authority over decisions concerning them
so that an employee ‘owns’ their metrics.

6. Step 2 - What does Success look Like?
Use Metrics to Communicate Results
• Their role in the organization
• How their role connects with the strategy of the firm as a whole
• What they have to do to make the firm successful.
If employees need to know what is expected of them, how they are doing and how they can improve,
the most effective and unambiguous way to communicate those three things is by using metrics. With
metrics they have a clearer understanding of:

7. Having developed a set of metrics, a regular report
should be developed to quantify results.
• The report should be prepared by the
employee, not the manager
• This report should be reviewed weekly if
possible or at least monthly.
• It should be produced once metrics are
available.
Reporting

8. Reporting Format

9. Once the metrics report is ready, the
manager should meet with the
employee to review and discuss
results.
The meeting can be formal or
informal but should be led by the
employee who, after all, owns the
results.
Through this process, the employee
knows how they are doing and
knows that their manager is aware of
this as well.
Meeting

10. A Chance for further Communication
A regular performance
management meeting is
a chance for the
manager to
communicate other
things so the employee
knows what is going on.
The manager can use
the meeting to
communicate corporate
results, decisions,
rational for decisions and
other strategic matters.

11. Fundamentals of Leadership
Leadership is all about
communication.
Metrics add clarity to
communication and are
unambiguous.
Communication is a two
way street and when you
communicate metrics, you
are communicating about
strategy.

12. Putting it All Together

13. material minds
Helping companies execute
strategy better by connecting
strategy with the daily action
of all employees.
Charles Plant
416 458 4850
cplant (at)
materialminds.com
Consulting
Coaching
Workshops
Speaking
Teaching
This is a five part series on Strategy Execution and is comprised of:
1. Strategy Execution
2. Using Metrics to Define Success
3. Job Design and Delegation
4. Performance Management and Communication
5. Coaching and Motivation