How Do You Gauge Performance?

One of the most important roles for leaders is gauging performance of their team members. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life in a tractor seat, looking at gauges. These are simple gauges that give me insight into how the tractor is operating and what I might need to do in response. But people, aren’t machines, and the gauges for their performance aren’t always so clear, accessible, and easy to read. Here are some ways to help you gauge performance for your team and team members.

It Starts with Expectations

Any gauge, whether for a piece of machinery, a team, or an individual, is only useful if it is reporting on something important. If the gauge isn’t measuring something valuable, or those reading it don’t know what that value is, the gauge isn’t very helpful.

In the workplace, we can’t create the gauges until we know what to measure – and that starts with clear expectations. As a leader, is it our role and responsibility to create clear expectations and goals with our teams and team members. Without those, gauging performance is difficult and somewhat meaningless.

How to Gauge

Once expectations are set and clarified, gauging performance is possible, but can still be difficult. Here are some things you can do to make it easier for everyone to measure and assess progress and performance. These suggestions use an individual team member in the examples, but the same approaches and principles apply for a team as well.

• Set the metrics together. Once you and your team member are clear on the goals, expectations, and standards, work together to determine the metrics and how you will collect that data. Why do it together? Because they may have ideas and insights you don’t have. By including them, you help build their trust in you and ownership in the measures.
• Determine a monitoring tool and timing. Once you know what you will measure, determine (together) how you will monitor or measure. Determine too how frequently that information will be updated (if it can’t be done in real time). Also agree on the frequency with which both of you will check on those measures. Having a gauge isn’t of much value if no one looks at it (or it is only checked before the performance review).
• Use 1:1s differently. As a leader, you need to use these important performance gauges in your ongoing 1:1 conversations with team members. Ask how things are going. Look at your gauges together. Talk about what they tell you and what to change/adjust as well as what to keep doing.
• Use other inputs. Some expectations may be harder to gauge or measure in quantitative ways. Decide whose input and perspective may help. Collect insights and feedback from different places to further gauge performance, behaviors, and overall effectiveness.
• Gauge performance and progress. Raw performance is important, but don’t overlook progress. It is important for you and your team member to see the trend. Are we meeting the goals, but trending down? That might lead to a conversation or adjustments. Are performance standards not being met? If the trend is improvement toward the target, the conversation and adjustments might be different than if the trend is flat or declining.
• Don’t rely solely on the performance review. If your organization uses performance reviews, that is fine. But if you do, they should be a summary of all your ongoing conversations, not contain surprises or new information. Create your processes to gauge performance and use those gauges continually to help people grow and succeed.

In short, create your performance gauges based on clear goals and expectations. Then use them regularly to help people reach or exceed their performance targets.

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Once you have a clear gauge on performance metrics for your team members, would you like to be able to give more effective feedback? You can learn the keys with our Giving Feedback Successfully Master Class.