Performance Management in the Arts: Part 2

Effective performance management is vital for maintaining a healthy workplace.

Please note, this information is intended as a guide only. Any industrial advice or a course of action should be checked with your manager, or referred to WorkSafe Victoria the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Fair Work Australia , ArtsLaw, or if outside Australia, a relevant peak body.

Looking after yourself

Make sure you take the time to prepare yourself prior to undertaking performance management. What is it that you are afraid of? Even if you are not yet performance managing any of your team members, take the time to jot down some notes against the question, “When faced with managing performance, I am scared of…”

Often, we are scared of how people will respond.

Common responses include:

• Catastrophising and panic

Possible responses:

• Using emotion not reason in speech
• Crying, shouting, hysteria
• Jumping to conclusions

Possible approaches:

• Listen. Allow the team member to have their say and to feel heard. You don’t need to try and prove them wrong (even if they are!).
• Look out for ‘all or nothing thinking’, e.g. words such as “always”, “never”, and reassure that your conversation will focus on specific issues, not ‘every’ issue, or ‘all the time’.
• Reinforce the aim of a positive outcome and raise a range of outcomes (e.g. increased support, professional development, training, shift in workload).
• Encourage the person to make a distinction between a difficult or unpleasant conversation one day, and an extreme response (e.g. “the end of my career”).

Useful phrases:

• “I am sorry you are upset. Can I explain what I think has happened from my perspective? Then we can work this out together.”
• “If I understand correctly, you are upset because [you feel the team has turned against you / I don’t have confidence in your abilities / you feel like you work harder than everyone else / you feel unsupported]. Is that right?”
• “Would you like to take a break and continue this conversation in 5/10/15 minutes?”

Rejection and withdrawal

Possible responses:

• Flat out denial
• Saying a behaviour is ‘just the way I am’, or ‘not that big a deal’
• Silence

Possible approaches:

• Avoid accusing a team member of being ‘in denial’. Find ways to accept what has been raised in order to move forward.
• Listen. Be comfortable with silence – you don’t need to try persuading or convincing your team member that something is wrong to fill the silence.
• Focus on the behaviour and/or the issue at hand, not the person.
• Focus on the impact of the behaviour on the team to emphasise that it might not be a big deal to the person, but it is to their team.
• Consider sharing what the team appreciates/enjoys about working with that person.

Useful phrases:

• “I feel the organisation is working on improving [process, system, culture]. What other approaches would you like to see?”
• “What is important to you in the workplace?”
• “I would like your input into ways that we can improve this [project, report, scene, design].”
• “What did you want to achieve when you did that [project, scene, design, email, report, presentation]?”

Aggression and blame

Possible responses:

• Adding people to the drama by including other team members (e.g. “We all feel this way”)
• Finding fault or denying fault (e.g. “It’s not my fault that management aren’t supportive”)
• Blaming (e.g. “If Box Office/swings/management did this, then I wouldn’t have to…”)

Yelling, shouting or becoming violent

Possible approaches:

• Always consider your own safety first – if an employee becomes aggressive, ask them to leave using calm verbal and nonverbal communication, seek assistance from other team members, or call the police (for more information, see download below, A Guide for Employers- Preventing and responding to work-related violence by WorkSafe Victoria).
• Encourage responsibility as empowerment – reminding team members that they can’t change the behaviour of others, they can only change themselves.
• Ask for suggestions around process or system improvements that would have avoided a problem (e.g. a central calendar of events so each person knows what shows are when and can’t blame others for not sharing that information).
• Be accountable if there are genuine mistakes that you have made. Take responsibility and ownership and offer a solution/remedy – always focus on the learning from the mistake.

Useful phrases:

• “What behaviours do you expect from [colleagues, management, artists, performers]?”
• “Is there a way that you could have pre-empted that mistake?”
• “What could be done in the future to avoid that happening?”
• “Have you spoken to x about this yet?”
• “What would you like to see happen next?”

Personalising

Possible responses:

• Offended and insulted (e.g. “How dare you criticise me?”)
• Push back (“But this is who I am, I’m a creative person”)
• Expressing the notion that work is ‘who I am’

Possible approaches:

• Ensure ‘creativity’ is not simply an excuse for bad behaviour.
• Be specific. If you tell someone they’re doing a terrible job or that they’re a bad director, there’s little they can do and getting upset is probably a natural response! If you are specific about the behaviour and the impact of that behaviour, the feedback does not attack someone’s personality or creativity as a whole entity.
• If a team member expresses the notion that work is ‘who they are’, ask your team member about their values and how their work represents those intrinsic values. Remind them that they are more than this one project / moment / show. Consider discussing previous experiences and what they learnt, or what they would like to see happen in the future to reduce the impact of this moment being everything.
• Look for solutions together. You are both aiming to achieve something – look for a way of sharing a solution.
• Consider a strengths-based approach. Many strengths can have a ‘flip-side’ weakness (e.g. someone is highly persuasive, but as a result, they can sometimes be too dominating in discussions), so look for ways to affirm strengths.

Useful phrases

• “Yesterday I noticed that xyz. This means that [describe impact].” For example, “Yesterday I noticed that you were an hour late to rehearsals. We really missed you in that hour and I’m worried it’s put us behind schedule.”
• “You are really good at [strengths, e.g. deciding on a plan of action / coming up with innovative and creative ideas ]. Sometimes this means that [flip-side challenge, e.g. people can be left behind when decisions are made / some details are missed].”

Informal Performance Management: ACTION LIST

GIVE FEEDBACK OFTEN: Provide constructive feedback frequently. Immediate conversations on the job are more effective than yearly reviews. However, make sure that you are in a private area so the discussion is confidential. If you have ‘negative’ feedback, try open questioning to see if you can encourage the employee to identify what they could do differently next time. Your team member will be more likely to adopt an approach if they have come to it themselves.

IMPROVE: The objective of performance management is to improve not to ‘manage out’. This means that support and mentoring are important to enable a change in performance. This is your responsibility as manager. Think about informal and formal networks which will present good examples and challenge thinking; consider management and leadership books or websites; or try role-playing various organisational scenarios so that people have a safe opportunity to practice new skills and approaches.

SET EXPECTATIONS: Set concrete expectations around the level of performance you expect. Be as specific as possible and ensure that you keep a record of your conversations to provide clarity. Use positive feedback to promote and praise the behaviours and work outputs that you would like to see repeated. No one comes to work to do a bad job.

PROMOTE WELLBEING: Behaviour and attitude is a key influence on performance and productivity. This is why general wellbeing is such an important building block for team success. Help your team understand that how they deliver service is as significant as what they deliver.

Key Takeaways

1. Practice feedback regularly (both giving and receiving)
2. Be aware of your own fear of confrontation
3. Be hard on the issue, soft on the person
4. Get help and support from your manager, or a trusted mentor

Read Performance Management in the Arts: Part 1

Also by The Arts Wellbeing Collective:

Anxiety and Depression: Do You Know the Signs?

Preventing Inappropriate Behaviour in the Workplace

Published in Collaboration with The Arts Wellbeing Collective

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