Top tips for encouraging your line managers to improve performance

Under your leadership, your line managers play a vital role in creating a productive and high performing company culture.  

Here, we share our five top tips for encouraging them to take an active role in improving performance - and to help your company to thrive.

1    Continually improve processes 

A recent study has shown that inefficient processes are the biggest contributor to dwindling levels of business performance.  And no matter how well work is being carried out, it can always be improved.

Encourage a mindset among your line managers to continually review processes and identify where tasks can be done more effectively, where costs and time can be shaved, whether customers can be handled better, where quality can be improved, where bureaucracy can be eliminated.

2   Emphasise follow up and progress chasing 

To make sure day-to-day work is carried out to the standards you set, be clear with your managers that you expect them to monitor their team's workflow, to have effective follow up processes in place and to progress chase.

They need to spot the highlights so they can thank the right people.  And if things go wrong, they need to carry out a post-mortem to make sure it doesn't happen again!  Be very clear about the level of their responsibility and authority to sort things out.

3   Communicate expectations clearly

In a recent study, over a quarter of staff say that confusion at work - unclear goals and expectations - repeatedly mean they waste time and miss targets at work.    

This doesn't happen in a productive, high performing business.  

Give your line managers the clarity they need about the company's goals and expectations to communicate them to their teams at every opportunity.  When people can understand what's expected of them in their day-to-day tasks, and why, they're much more likely to be motivated and perform to a high standard.

4   Encourage your managers to develop their people

If your employees aren’t being given the opportunity to work at their best and to develop their potential, they’re likely to switch off or start looking elsewhere.  Either way, your business will waste valuable energy that could be used to drive up a high performing culture.

Instead, encourage your managers to develop their people by providing opportunities to learn, coaching to pass on skills and knowledge, and planning experience in more challenging work when their people are ready for it.

5   Tackle issues with individual performance 

To create a high performing culture, your line managers need to be having regular quality conversations with everyone in the team about their individual performance and addressing areas of concern.

If line management capability is something that you want to improve, we can help. We believe that successful businesses are created when leadership teams are given the tools they need to excel.

For an initial discussion about how we could bring our practical approach to your business, give us a call on 07884 475303 today.