Each week on my Lykken on Lending podcast, we are blessed to have Motivity Solutions share a key performance indicator for the industry. On the Jan. 18 episode, the KPI discussed was important in identifying training opportunities. And, that got me thinking about the importance of monitoring employee performance.
We often think measuring the activities of employees as a way to monitor how well they are doing their jobs. If they aren't doing well, we'll punish them … if they are doing well, we'll reward them. But, what if we viewed measuring employee performance not as a way to see how our employees are doing but, instead, as a way to see how we as leaders are doing?
As leaders, our employees' failures are our failures. When metrics reveal that employees aren't doing their jobs, we have to take responsibility. It all comes back on us. Maybe we didn't provide enough training. Maybe we didn't provide the right incentives. Maybe we didn't hire the right people. But, whatever the case may be, the greater benefit of employee performance is to help evaluate ourselves as leaders.
I definitely recommend using metrics to monitor employee activity, but I think it's important that we always look in the mirror first. When confronting an employee about poor performance, we shouldn't condemn them. Rather, we should ask them, "What am I doing wrong?" and "How can I help you do your job better?"
Can you imagine what a difference it would make if we took responsibility for our employees? Maybe then, if we as leaders showed the audacity to take responsibility for our employees, they might just start taking responsibility for themselves.
David Lykken, a 43-year veteran of the mortgage industry, is president of Transformational Mortgage Solutions (TMS), a management consulting firm that provides transformative business strategies to owners and “C-Level” executives via consulting, executive coaching and various communications strategies. He is a frequent guest on FOX Business News and hosts his own weekly podcast called “Lykken On Lending” heard Monday’s at 1:00 p.m. ET at LykkenOnLending.com. David’s phone number is (512) 759-0999 and his e-mail is [email protected].
