Performance management is important to help understand how the individual is performing against expectations and builds organisational capability.

1. ABC Performance Management
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2. Intent of Session
• ABC of Behaviour
– A tool to help manage individual performance
• For the individual, performance management is essential
– for helping understand ‘how they are doing’ against expectations
– enables recognition for the contribution they are making
• For the organisation, performance management is
critical
– for helping build organisational capability
– to deliver long-term results and growth

3. ABC of Work Behaviour
• A - Antecedent (or Activator)
– What happens before the behavior occurs
– A stimulus that provokes the behavior
• something that someone else says or does
• standards or objectives
• notices on the employee bulletin board/machinery/equipment
 cues for employees suggesting they behave in a certain manner
• B - Behavior
– Something that the employee says or does on the job
– Usually an overt action in which an employee engages in getting a job done
• C - Consequence
– What happens after the employee behaves in a certain manner on the job
– Consequences of behavior
• Bonuses or reprimands
• Derision or compliments

4. ABC Model
A
Antecedent
Trigger
B
Behaviour
Action
C
Consequence
Response

5. Applying ABC
A – Antecedent/Activator
• An Activator is something that stimulates the behavior or
performance that you are wanting to achieve
– As leaders the most common Activator is a set of GOALS
• Ask yourself what are your goals for your business or for the people
you manage?
– Now find out what the goals of your group or the people you manage are
– If your goals and theirs match then you have successfully communicated your
Activator
• Once you learn the skill of communicating the activator which
triggers the desired performance you will start to see a change in
how people respond to you.

6. Applying ABC
Goals as Antecedents
• Use objectives/goals as antecedents to desired behaviour
• If the "targets" are not being met, the behaviors associated with the
targets are probably not being performed!
• The supervisor of the nonperforming employee must begin the
"coaching" process, clarifying goals and showing what behavior
is required

7. Applying ABC
B - Behavior
• After you have set clear goals for yourself and your team you will
need to observe the behavior that follows
– This part is most often the most overlooked by leaders and managers.
• Once the goals are set and the necessary training is over, the goals
often fade into the background. By observing the behavior part of
the equation keeps the goals and communications open in between
leader and group
• If the behavior part is lost you will not take advantage of the last
ingredient of the ABC's

8. Applying ABC
C - Consequence
• The most important part of all in the ABC's of Performance
Management
– Focus is needed on all three parts in order to be a successful leader
• Consequence is the response and how you praise the behavior of
your group
– What response do your team normally get for doing something well?
• Always compliment your group for sticking with the goals that were
set
– This is the CONSEQUENCE of the desired behaviour
– By implication, the consequence for not displaying the desired behaviour is very
different

9. ABC – A Worked Example
Consider the case of a new employee.
• The supervisor welcomes him to the job, gives him a hard hat, and says that
hard hats are very important
"We all wear hard hats around here for a couple of reasons. First, it is required
by OSHA and second, the hard hat will keep a rivet from seriously injuring
you if it fell on your head"
 The statement is the antecedent to the behavior of wearing a hard hat
• We come by a couple of hours later and find him walking around with his
hard hat firmly in place
 Antecendent and resulting Behaviour

10. ABC – A Worked Example
• One week later we find the new employee no longer wearing his hard hat
• We remind them why wearing a hard hat is so important, help them adjust
and fit it correctly and, hard hat in place, they march off to perform their
duties (antecedent -> behavior)
• By mid-morning the next day he is no longer wearing his hard hat

11. ABC – A Worked Example
• Examining the behavior and what happens just before it is not so useful in
predicting whether that behavior will occur again
• Then we begin to observe the consequences of that behavior, and note the
following:
(1) It is August and very hot. The hard hat does not give much ventilation
and can be extremely uncomfortable during the summer months
(2) Our new employee has discovered that no-one has been injured while
not wearing a hard hat in more than 3 years
(3) We overhear two of his colleagues teasing him for wearing his hard hat

12. ABC – A Worked Example
• It begins to be clearer why the hard hat was removed
• BEHAVIOR and the CONSEQUENCES that relate to it enable us to better
predict whether the behavior will occur again
• The employee is able to relate certain consequences to certain cues, or
antecedents, of behavior, and he or she behaves accordingly

13. ABC of Behaviour - Overview
• ANTECEDENTS --- Does the employee know what is expected of
them?
– Are the standards clear?
– Have they been communicated?
– Are they realistic?
• WORK BEHAVIOR --- Can the work behavior be performed?
– Could the employee do it if his or her life depended upon it?
– Does something prevent its occurrence?
• CONSEQUENCES --- Are the consequences positive for performing
correctly?
– Are the consequences weighted in favor of "good" performance?
– Is there feedback about the consequences in relation to job performance? If yes, is
the feedback immediate, specific, positive?
– Are improvements being noticed and reinforced? Do we note improvements even
though the improvement may still leave the employee below company standards?

14. Another Feedback Model
EEC Model
• E – Example
– Tell the person what they did
– Give the facts, be specific
• E – Effect
– Tell them the effect their action had on you / others
– Share your feelings
– Use ‘I’ statements (when you did ‘x’, I felt ‘y’)
• C – Change
– State the change you suggest/expect
– Ask the person to come up with ideas on how they could change their behaviour
- OR -
• C – Continue
– Reinforce the positive behaviour
(or OIM: Observation, Implication, Modification)