Performance Management Interview Paper

Nearing the end of our interview we wanted to make sure we touched on about coach Ruhanen thoughts on performance appraisals and rewards. We asked if administered performance appraisals with his staff and the frequency of doing them. He stated with such a small staff of two and having his colleague right next to him in the office, he felt there was a need for an annual or quarterly performance appraisals. He further stated that his colleague and he always communicate on a daily basis and exchange ideas of new found techniques or research they have read that may help each other with their specific teams. That if there is ever a conflict between them that they openly talk about the situation as professionals and discuss how they may improve on …show more content…
Coach Ruhanen indicated that they would do group appraisal rather than individual ones. As in regards to awards he is a firm believer that a person in his position needs to reward effort, but noted that everyone is different. He gave the example that some people do well with a pat on the back of a job well done, while others perform better at advising them on their faults with “tough love”. Consider the different motivations between an athlete on defense, compared to an athlete while on offense. Both athletes want to reach the same goal to win but use different motivators. He states that he has read numerous behavior psychology literatures, which have taught him that most people have done better when they are rewarded for the effort they portray. This tends to motivate the staff member or student-athlete for that matter to perform better than their actual effort. He noted that everyone’s psychology works differently so motivation and rewards may be significantly be different among individuals, so it is important to understand the person as a whole and tailor that reward to the particular …show more content…
In essences he cannot delegate the legal responsibility that comes with being in charge such as the safety of the staff, student-athletes and department as a whole. He is unable to also delegate relationships in which by this he means that he cannot force individuals to create relationships, rather relationships are up to the individuals who seek them. An finally he cannot impose knowledge, as the Director of Athletic Performance for Olympic sports he is only able to share his knowledge and skill sets whether the individual chooses to follow or continue on their own practice. He wants his staff to know that there is always an opportunity for conflict, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Further explanation of this concept is that he and his staff may not always agree on certain thing, but they constructive and professional criticism is always welcomed. Throughout his career, he has personally encountered individuals who he has liked and learned from and taken things from their leadership to adapt to his own. An then there are individuals he’s come across, that he has not favored their leadership ways. At the end he describes leadership as a “trial and error” approach. You try things that you think may work and that is great on one hand. While there will be times in which you try something and it fails so as a leader you need to