Effective feedback is the cornerstone for understanding current employee performance. Too often, managers simply expect employees to understand how they are doing without discussing it with them. The right tools for performance management unlock the potential for greater productivity.

When asked, most businesses would like more sales… more business. When asked how they will achieve that, most respond with something like “we will just get out and sell more.” Wouldn’t it be great though, to know why a company doesn’t have more sales now and what characteristics to focus on with employees in order to get those additional sales that are needed and wanted?

In order to retain the right people and get rid of the wrong ones, we have to understand who they are and give them the right skills. We have to right size our organization based on our desired outcomes, re-deploy people into their ideal roles, and recover lost revenues and lost opportunities. We can only build the right ship if we have the right tools.

Without a steady flow of the “right” people into our workforce, our efforts to create the right culture are hampered. Most of us know people in our organization that we want more of and at least one wish we had never met. Using the right tools allows us to create a success pattern with our existing people and replicate that success. If we hire on “fit,” we can train any skill. Skills can be taught, but “fit” is either there or it isn’t.

When we focus on our teams and what they bring us, we can see that with discord on the team, they bring us headaches, but with cooperation, they bring us success. The better people work together, the more productive they are. Understanding how to structure and develop teams through the phases of team change enables an organization to achieve at measurably higher levels.

Employees are either actively disengaged, disengaged, engaged, or actively engaged. Performance on the job as well as focus on the success of the organization depend on which level of engagement exists. Leadership development, workplace metrics, talent management, and career tracks all play into the levels of engagement that employees will exhibit. It is critical to measure their levels of engagement and take action to ensure that they function at the highest levels of performance. Your profits depend on it.

A productive workplace has the right plan in place, for individual development, group dynamics, employee growth, and organizational performance. You will not get 100% of what you do not ask for from your teams. Having the right understanding of their capabilities, developing their skills, and measuring their progress are all integral parts of creating a high performance team.