Managing For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10. Monitoring Performance and Execution

In This Chapter

• Quantifying your goals

• Developing a performance-feedback system

• Putting your system into practice

• Charting your results graphically

• Making the most of your data

In Chapter 6, we discuss the whys and wherefores of setting goals. Setting goals — for individuals, for teams, and for the overall organization — is extremely important. Goals help provide the internal motivation that makes things happen. However, ensuring that the organization is making progress toward the successful completion of goals (in the manner and time frames agreed to) is equally important. You can't have one without the other. The organization's performance depends on each individual who works within it. Achieving goals is what this chapter is all about.

Measuring and monitoring the performance of individuals in your organization is like walking a tightrope: You don't want to overmeasure or overmonitor your employees. Doing so only leads to needless bureaucracy, lack of trust, and demotivation, all of which can negatively affect your employees' ability to perform their tasks. Nor do you want to undermeasure or undermonitor your employees. This lack of watchfulness can lead to nasty surprises when a task is completed late, over budget, or not at all. For managers, this means a real balancing act as they try to ensure that goals are completed yet seek to avoid the kind of micromanagement that most employees dislike.

Keep in mind that, as a manager, your primary ...