In support of (the people that have to complete) performance appraisals
This is the time of year when it is popular in the business press to criticize performance appraisals and everything about the performance appraisal process. Consultants and critics roll out their long lists of everything that is wrong with sitting down once or twice a year and telling someone what’s wrong with them and what they need to change.
Of course, the consultants and pundits are fundamentally right, there are many problems in the way organizations structure and managers deliver performance appraisals. However, the small victory of being right in this case doesn’t help the thousands of well-intentioned managers sitting at their desks staring at the stack of performance reviews that they need to complete.
Today, instead of doing my best to describe everything that I think should be fixed in the performance evaluation world, I am offering my empathetic and hopefully, helpful suggestions for the managers about to embark on the lonely and painful journey of figuring out what the real measurable difference is between "meets expectations" and "exceeds expectations."
A Manager’s Survival Guide to Completing the Annual Review Process and Doing a Good Job
- Every person on your team deserves your undivided attention while completing the review paperwork. Block out time, turn off your cell phone, close your door or find another location other than the office to work on reviews. The local library is my favorite choice.
- Hopefully, you’ve been meeting with your team members regularly, providing constructive and positive feedback and even discussion professional development. If you’ve been doing your job in this regard, an important preparation step is to take the time to run through your physical and mental notes of those discussions and the outcomes.
- Make certain that you understand the rating system used for your performance reviews. If the instructions are not clear and you missed the training session, check with the responsible HR specialist to clarify the rating system definitions. Also, remember that you don’t look better if everyone on your team has a high rating! That’s an old game and everyone above you sees through it.
- Effective feedback is specific (fact-based), focused on behaviors (the what not the who) and supported by a business rationale. Every comment that you write must incorporate these components!
- When offering constructive feedback (the tough stuff), avoid sugar-coating the message. Excessive sugar-coating is commonly used to soften a difficult message, but what usually happens is that the real message gets lost. Remember, specific, behavioral and fact based. Oh, don’t forget brief. As my partner says, "Use the one sentence-one behavior rule."
- Don’t write all of your reviews in one sitting. In fact, don’t write more than one review without taking a break to clear your mind.
- Never write performance reviews when you are in a bad mood–for obvious reasons.
- If your associate has not heard your constructive or developmental comments in earlier discussions, you’ve got a problem. Reviews are never time for surprises.
- Review your reviews with your direct manager. S/He will be slightly more objective about the performance of your associates. Your manager may be able to offer suggestions to tighten up feedback, and better align development opportunities with firm or department goals.
- Carefully plan the performance review discussion. Now is not the time to wing it. Think through your core message points, plan your opening statement, and plan how you will cover your key constructive points with your fact-based, behaviorally focused, business oriented, brief comments.
- Pre-schedule your review meetings and block out an appropriate amount of time for a quality, constructive discussion.
- Pay attention to body language (yours and the recipient’s). Your posture, demeanor, eye-contact, and facial expressions communicate volumes to your associate. Alternatively, your associate’s body language will provide you clues on how your message is being received.
- Encourage questions and healthy dialog. Your associate should have an active role in helping create plans for development or behavior change as well as for goal setting. Additionally, you should encourage your associate to ask clarifying questions on the ratings or your comments. Be prepared to provide honest answers as well as to admit if you need to follow-up.
- Schedule your follow-up discussion and summarize the agenda at the close of the meeting. IF you’ve not done a good job conducting regular discussions, now is the time to start.
- Consider adding an Individual Development Plan (IDP) component to your work with your associate. The IDP process can be formal or informal, and provides you and your associate with the opportunity to think about next step (and beyond) career objectives and to identify developmental assignments and needed training. The IDP alone is a great reason to sit down regularly, talk about progress and performance and identify new learning opportunities.
The list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully, you will find some helpful suggestions to improve your process and your results. As a leader, your role in helping evaluate and supporting the development of your associates is core to your existence. In our firm’s research, the majority of managers surveyed over a multi-year period indicated that they wished that their managers were better at providing feedback. The performance review process is one of what should be many points in time over the year for you to meet expectations!
Great suggested readings: Everybody knows the performance appraisal system is broken, by Wally Bock, and The Six Dimensions of Effective Feedback, by Rich Petro.
Trust and Team Performance
Earlier in my career, I remember rankling at a comment from an outside adviser that suggested that our management team did not trust each other enough to deal with the tough issues. I disagreed. We were all motivated, experienced professionals, committed to doing what was right for the business. Surely we could hunt down and eliminate any elephants that were lurking in corners or that wandered into the room. It turns out, the adviser was right and the elephants thrived and multiplied!
In fact, the adviser was right about "trust between team members" being an issue for every team and something at the center of most teams that never quite hit their stride. I can think of many career experiences and consulting assignments, where a lack of trust was at the epicenter of a dysfunctional team. A few examples:
- The management group that built a market leader in electronics and then let some gigantic egos get in the way of working together, only to see the business disappear from the markets that it formerly led. These "leaders" came to dislike each other so much, that they never would meet as a group. There was anything but trust between these so-called team members.
- An otherwise capable, cross-functional team was forced for political reasons to add a functional executive’s henchmen to the group. It was clear that this "toxic" individual was not on the team to do anything other than protect his manager’s turf, and the team performance degraded considerably.
- A cross-cultural development team (American and Japanese) never overcame their differences in context or style and instead of an integrated approach to developing new products, they divided their efforts and ultimately failed. This former market leader flat-lined on revenue while during the same four year period, their more nimble competitor grew 7-fold. Capabilities, capital and expertise were not issues–team performance was.
- The new CEO of a major technology player described his management team as "collegial" after his first few months on the job. What he meant to say was that they would not take on the tough issues. After the first year, all but two members were replaced.
The many and varied approaches to facilitating the development of trust between team members are too lengthy for a single (or even a dozen) blog postings. Over time, I will return to this topic and offer ideas, suggested resources and perspectives on what I am seeing working with other teams. For today, think about the team(s) that you lead or that you are involved with, and ask yourself the following six key questions about the level of trust between team members.
What’s the trust-level on this team?
- Are we comfortable with each other?
- Do we truly understand the professional and personal motivations of each team member? Are the agendas clear?
- Do we talk openly and constructively about individual and team performance?
- Are we good at problem-solving as a group?
- Are new ideas and new approaches welcomed, discussed and sometimes adopted?
- Are our results good?
While by no means an exhaustive list, if you ask and answer these questions honestly, you might just get to the heart of why things are working or why they are not. And when your adviser looks at you and says that your team has a "trust issue," your first inclination won’t be to disagree.
Keeping it In Perspective
No thoughts on compelling business issues today, other than the reminder to everyone about the importance of keeping the activities of your life in proper perspective. Family, food and football have become the staples of the American Thanksgiving, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that we are all on a similar journey of unknown duration. Here are a few "prompters" for putting things in proper life perspective:
- Family is what counts, everything else is just politics and money-Paul Byrne. Can’t say it any better than that!
- Man plans and God laughs-Eric Lieberman from Archie and others. Remember that when things don’t work out the way you expect.
- Most people go to their graves with their music still inside them-source undetermined. Get the music out! Don’t leave anything on the field!
- The 2 columns in the WSJ that appear every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving–The Desolate Wilderness and, And the Fair Land. If these two columns don’t make you set aside your perspective on all that ails this country and realize how fortunate we truly are, you’re hopeless.
- Attending an event to celebrate the life and passing of a 95 year old lady who saw and lived everything the 20th century had to offer…from flight to depression, wars, moon landings and the remarkable ebb and flow of civilization during an incredible period in time.
- Helping your kids get up when they fall.
- Letting your kids fall to help them learn.
- Engaging with great people to create, whether it is at work or otherwise.
- Remembering that it is your job to make a positive difference in someone’s life.
- The Green Bay Packers–sorry, couldn’t pass that one up.
Have a great and enjoyable Thanksgiving, and if possible, carry the wonderful perspective that this day offers into your workplace on Monday.
-Art
Management by Consensus-The Tyranny of Mediocrity
Filed under: Leadership, Organizational Transformation, Strategy
Developing an Effective Decision-Making Style is One of the Many Challenges of New Leaders
Many managers and most early-career leaders struggle with their responsibility for decision-making. Some leaders are fearful of exposing themselves by making a bad decision and therefore, avoid this responsibility. Others feel empowered by their station and make frequent, unfounded and ill-advised decisions, mostly driven by ego. And perhaps the majority of early-career leaders that I train and coach, place a lot of stock in the consensus opinion of their employees. This latter technique, management by consensus, is a dangerous style to employ as a leader.
Consensus Clouds Clarity
A leader that attempts to reduce decision-making to the average of the individual opinions of his associates is a leader that has delegated one of his core responsibilities. Usually, the inexperienced manager will seek the consensus of his team in the hope that this compromise to alternative opinions will provide common ground for those with conflicting opinions. Almost everyone leaves the process feeling cheated. Here’s what happens when consensus rules the day:
- Potentially creative solutions to problems are diluted and blended to the point where the probability that they will be ineffective in solving the problem in question is high.
- Instead of feeling good about the compromise, individuals leave the discussion frustrated, upset or even angry about what just happened. Consensus management does not create motivated employees.
- The leader’s credibility is weakened or destroyed. The leader’s role is reduced to one of arbitrator. Everyone has viewed the leader’s unwillingness to sort through the issues, listen to ideas and choose a course. People want and expect their leaders to be appropriately decisive.
- The more politically astute employees quickly recognize this weakness in their leader and are effective in identifying ways to exploit her inability to make a decision for their own ends.
- After a period of time, management by consensus damages the working environment, grinds productivity to a halt, puts any hope of innovation out of mind and demoralizes the employees. In the negative, management by consensus is remarkably powerful!
What’s a New Leader to Do?
- Ensure that you are always well-grounded in understanding your team’s objectives and how they impact the pursuit of the firm’s strategic priorities.
- Cultivate your skills in developing and asking questions as a means to sift through the ideas, issues and thoughts of your associates.
- You pay people to manage and decide–provide the opportunity for them to do so and to take risks and fail. Politely answer their "What should I do?" questions with: "What do you think you should do?"
- You need to assert yourself when an incorrect decision might take an individual or team off-course from the organization’s objectives. You will be unpopular to some but respected by all for making a decision. You are in charge..don’t delegate responsibility for the key issues.
- Treat dissenting issues and dissenters with respect. Often the difference in opinion is small but the semantics make it appear big. It is appropriate to seek clarity for people’s perspectives. You should look for the nugget of gold in every perspective…but you don’t have to combine the nuggets at the same time.
- Depersonalize the issues and decision-criteria. Make certain that you are focusing on the business impact of an issue.
- Resist the political ploy of "decision making avoidance" as a strategy for survival. While your name will not be attached to bad decisions if you use this common tactic, your name will not be attached to any successes either. It’s a flawed strategy.
Decision-making in Play:
When Dwight Eisenhower served as the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II, he faced the dilemma of sending many to their deaths with the invasion of Normandy. Balancing many variables, the window to go or wait came down to a poor set of choices. On the day planned for the invasion, the weather was uncooperative and the fog and cloud cover would keep Allied bombers from supporting the invasion force. Eisenhower’s team was split over the decision to invade or postpone. As was observed and reported, Eisenhower stared out the window into the fog for a long moment, turned around and said, "We’ll go." The fates of many and the world political order were sealed in that decision. The rest is history.
Recently, the Illinois football team was on the brink of beating number one ranked Ohio State. It was 4th and 1 in Illinois territory with over 8 minutes to go and the Illinois coach decided to punt. For some reason, Ohio State called a timeout and during this interval, the Illinois QB convinced the coach that they had not worked hard, practiced early and long for months (and for much of their lives) to give the ball back to Ohio State and lose with a potential drive. The coach reversed his decision, Illinois went on to make the first down and ultimately eat up the clock en-route to the major upset of the year.
There is no right way for all situations. Decision-making is an art form–as a leader, you need to cultivate yours. Just don’t let the tyranny of consensus rule your style.
Leadership Development and Technical Professionals
My partner and I recently launched a research initiative into the challenges that technical professionals face when jumping on the leadership path. We are actively interviewing and surveying professionals in development, engineering, IT and consulting, and drawing upon the considerable experience of many of our long-term associates including-Joe Zurawski, Jerry Deville at Construx, Jack Kalander at Business Objects etc. (By the way, we want your input too…share your perspectives by clicking here and taking our survey!)
While both of us have invested a combined 45 years in and around technology organizations, it has only been in the last few years while researching and publishing Practical Lessons in Leadership and developing the related training programs, that the challenges and pitfalls of becoming a leader in a technical arena have become so crystal clear. As top leaders, we are setting up some of our most valued contributors to fail miserably, and that’s definitely not good.
The all-too-common scenario has the brilliant engineer/developer/IT professional recognizing that they are bumping up against an organization’s ceiling for individual contributor compensation. They’ve likely watched as their friends have moved into management roles, and it is no secret that along with promotion to management comes improved compensation opportunities. The natural response is to walk into their manager’s office, stare him or her in the eye and boldly pronounce that it is time for them to lead a team! Fast forward a few months and a few repeated discussions about leading a team, and the manager, motivated by a fear of losing this valued contributor, acquiesces and the firm has a new manager. From this point on, it’s all downhill.
Our early research and anecdotal discussion feedback shows that:
- Many first-time technical leaders receive little or no developmental support (coaching/mentoring/training) for their transition into leadership.
- Frequently, these competent individual contributors are moving from a peer role to a leadership role–again without the needed training/support to help deal with the additional complexity of a new relationship with long-time associates.
- Many first-time leaders admit that they don’t have clear context for their new role, and tend to spend a lot of time focusing on technical issues instead of leading the team. One early-career IT Manager said it best. "I’m a techie at heart. If faced with a people-problem or a technical problem, I know which way I’m heading." (Hint: he was not heading for the people problem!)
Clearly, these otherwise talented technical professionals don’t immediately realize that the skills that made them successful as an individual contributor are not the skills that they need for success as a leader.
The fallout from misplacing or under-supporting new technical leaders can be significant. The new manager quickly gets frustrated or becomes disillusioned, his or her poor management practices impact the performance and morale of other team-members, productivity and quality can slip and the entire organization suffers as a result. This domino effect is very real and very dangerous to organizational health.
While the research efforts are just beginning, there are 3 obvious opportunities for senior technical leadership to make an immediate improvement in this situation:
- The rationale for pursuing a leadership role is driven by a limited/limiting individual contributor career track. Technical professionals should not be forced to pursue a management role as the primary or only means of advancing in their careers and growing their incomes. Fix this!
- Not everyone should lead! Start applying more rigorous up-front filtering of aspiring leaders. Existing managers/leaders should be trained in how to provide informal leadership opportunities to interested candidates and to ultimately help a candidate determine whether a leadership role is appropriate for them. Of course, existing managers need to learn to filter and say "no" when it makes sense. The existence of a viable individual contributor path will minimize the potential damage from a "no" answer.
- New managers need care and feeding. They should be trained and coached, and they should be on the receiving end of ample effective feedback (positive and constructive). Existing managers need to understand and be accountable for their role in developing new leaders. Anything less is asking for trouble.
Organizations cannot afford to sub-optimize in their technical functions. In a world where IT is increasingly involved as a key enabler of strategy, where development is challenged to pull off heroics on a regular basis and where competitors are waiting to pounce on your every misstep, you cannot allow something as curable as poor leadership development practices to derail your business.
More later as the body of research grows.
My Book
The desktop reference to leadership success whether you are starting out or starting over.
Art Petty
Welcome to Management Excellence where the focus is on building better leaders and creating high performance organizations.
Building Better Leaders
NEW: Art Petty's Building Better Leaders offers distance education PLUS personalized mentoring for motivated professionals. Executive-developed and delivered programs to fit your schedule and budget and boost your career.
- Considering the Move to Leadership - What to Expect & How to Prepare
- Succeeding as a First-Time Leader
Marketing Coaching
Art Petty helps small business and professional service owners implement lead generation systems.
Learn more about Art's Marketing Coaching.
Management Excellence Tools
Download the Management Excellence Guide to Trade Show Marketing in a Recession.
What's Your Strategy & Execution (STREX) Quotient? Download and use the survey to help you gauge your organization's Strategy & Execution effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
New e-book! Leadership and the Project Manager - Developing the Skills that Fuel High Performance Download the pdf or go to the e-book pages on this site and contribute to the conversation
Blog Subscriptions
Connect With Me On
E-Newsletter Mailing List
Join my e-newsletter mailing list and receive the latest in best-practices content for leadership, sales & marketing and strategy.