Kolar Associates

Maximizing individual and team performance

The idea

Why is it that about 80% of the time, when people aren't performing well, the knee-jerk assumption is that they need training? Yet, usually people have the knowledge and skills to do the job but there other things getting in the way. Individuals and teams perform at their best when they have ability, information, and motivation. (AIM) If any one of those is missing performance will suffer. This may sound simple. However, in practice, many leaders fail to address all three.

I've conducted hundreds of needs assessments in my career. Many performance problems are driven by motivation. Your people know what to do; they are just choosing not to do it (either consciously or subconsciously). Motivation is driven by engagement, corporate culture, rewards and recognition, and a person’s individual level of engagement.

However, motivated employees don’t always succeed. Sometimes people don’t have the information they need. Information includes operational data about a department’s functioning, goals and priorities, latest news, policies and procedures, lessons learned, or details about your products and services.

Finally, sometimes people don’t have the ability to do the job. Ability comes in two parts: internal and external. Internal ability includes knowledge, skills, and experience. External ability includes processes, tools and equipment, software, and other organizational resources.

Leaders are under increasing pressure to deliver more with less. In many cases the people you have could rise to the challenge. You just have to ensure that they have what they need, know what to do, and most importantly, want to do it.

The story

A major social services organization was challenged by decreasing client satisfaction. Clients said that agents no longer seemed to care about their problems. Instead, it appeared that counselors were just rushing through a checklist and moving on. Management was concerned. They implemented training programs on listening and customer satisfaction. Senior counselors listened-in on conversations to help coach the front-line counselors. Yet, the problem got worse. The counselors were also distraught. Most of them went into counseling to help people. They wanted to make a difference. No one could figure out what was going wrong.

The counselors' and supervisors' day-to-day metrics were based on throughput. They had aggressive quotas for the number of cases they were to handle each day. When they fell short, management was less than forgiving. Counselors were forced to focus on quantity over quality. They knew that they could end conversations faster by avoiding follow-up questions or deeply exploring client issues. As a result, the client experience suffered.

Here was a case where people had the ability to do a good job, the information they needed to do that job, and even some motivation to do it. However, there were greater extrinsic motivators causing them to do something else. Individuals need ability, information, and motivation. All three must be aligned. Otherwise, performance will suffer.

Training offerings

Brad customizes and tailors all of his training courses to incorporate content, issues, and examples that are unique to your organization. In addition to his standard courses (listed below), he can create custom training experiences adapted to your unique needs.

Standard courses (click for more detail):

Consulting services

Brad has a broad set of offerings to help you ensure that your employees have the ability, information, and motivation they need to perform.

  • AIM for performance: quick scan – A simple 20 question survey that quickly identifies core issues in ability, information, and motivation
  • Performance assessment and diagnosis – An in-depth study of your people's performance and the barriers preventing them from succeeding
  • Performance management coaching for leaders – individual coaching with the leader to help him or her improve on expectation setting, providing feedback, maintaining accountability, and developing people