COMMUNICATION Providing clear and concise communication about performance progress. When ever you are providing feedback to an employee then you must make sure they understand your message, and be positive. Highlight areas of success and areas of opportunities but more importantly when you are shedding light on opportunities you must provide steps of improvement. Simply telling someone where the can improve is only half the battle and if you think about it, if they were already under performing in the first place, it is apparent that they are unsure of what the goal is and how to reach it. When you communicate to your team about their performance you must also talk about the big picture performance and how they all play a part in achieving the ultimate goal. The way you can further influence this in to follow up with each individual to ensure that they understand their part and what the standard of performance is. Following up with your associates shows that to them that their performance is important to you. Provide on the fly coaching or set up one on one coaching. This allows you one on one time with your direct reports that you can spend giving and receiving feedback. The most beneficial forms of coaching are monthly coaching. Think of annual reviews as the culmination of an entire years work. An annual review is the big picture of the associate and gives a general view of a rates in performance metrics. So if that is the concept behind annual reviews then monthly views are your ability to make small and timely changes that can make a big impact on the end result. When giving monthly reviews it is important to stay positive and starts the conversation with an open dialog pick something to talk about that makes everyone feel comfortable. You have to remember that some people don't like being in their bosses office getting reviewed so the more comfortable you can get them to be the more open and honest of a review you will have. Be sure to provide each associate with honest feedback. Avoid sugar coating the behaviors you do not like but offer solutions or examples on how to change them. You have to remember that you want your employees to grow with each monthly coaching, so honest feedback is a must. When coaching be open and vulnerable so that you can get that employee to open up and get whatever if there is