Key takeaways
- Objectively calculated performance data breeds trust
- Trust minimizes defensiveness, maximizing accountability and action
- Transparent access to the plan and performance data ensures fairness
- Real-time tracking flags problems sooner and motivates improvement
If you’re in a leadership role on your project, it falls to you to consistently evaluate performance and convey that feedback within your team. Feedback can be a fraught topic, especially when there’s room for improvement. No one likes to be told they’re falling behind, missing commitments, or otherwise negatively impacting the project’s progress. The tendency to become defensive is natural, and it’s all too common for situations like this to devolve into finger-pointing.
But feedback is more crucial than ever when things are veering off track, and the sooner you address an issue, the better. So how do you communicate your performance observations for maximum impact?
The key to your message being received—and translated into action—is mutual trust in the performance data. Your team needs to agree that they are being measured accurately and objectively, and that if there is negative feedback, it’s based on valid data rather than a subjective judgment.
One of the most effective ways to instill trust within your team is to use a digital tool like Hoylu that tracks your project’s progress and automatically calculates key performance metrics like percent plan complete (PPC), variance reasons, and planned versus actual crew size. Because the calculations are based on data that each project participant or trade entered themselves, there’s no doubt as to its objectivity. The real-time calculation of project metrics flags potential problems sooner, enabling you to take action before they worsen, and also indicates improvement early on, motivating your team to sustain effective practices. Everyone has access to the plan and can interpret it without specialized training, and this transparency breeds continued trust in the planning process and encourages a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach.