I’ve written about performance management being broken, suggesting that no amount of process will make the right conversations happen and suggesting that managers need to be equipped with the appropriate skills to have high-quality conversations about performance.

I recently ran a seminar organised by Investigo at which I did a double-act with Jemma O’Reilly and Trevor Gibson of Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co where we looked at the both the legal requirements of performance management and how to equip managers to have great conversations.

To support the session, we created a role-play with a brief for the person playing the role of manager and one for the person playing the role of the employee. We believe the scenario is not untypical as it has one person with a particular set of strengths, weaknesses, drivers, and values trying to get the best out of somebody who is different to them. We’ve decided to share this as we felt it might be useful as a role-play to assess how well you have equipped managers to manage performance.

(If you have a slideshare account, you can download it from slideshare. Alternatively, you can download the PDF: Performance Management role plays)

So, have you equipped your managers to be able to be able to unlock the performance of somebody who is different to them, helping them to thrive? If not, then you have a lot of untapped potential in your organisation.