Grow-Leaders.com Blog

There was a resent article in the Wall Steet Journal that I have some experience with a wanted to comment on.  The article is at

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB127093422486175363.html?KEYWORDS=Yes+Everyone+Really+Does+Hate+Performance+Reviews 

My thoughts on the article and performance reviews:

I have heard this many times over the years.  I don’t agree with the premise – get rid of performance reviews.
 

I agree with -
“If you’re a boss, and your subordinate isn’t succeeding, something is broken here. Doing more of the same isn’t going to cut it. It’s now time for you to ask, “What do you need from me to deliver what we are both on the firing line to produce?” And just as important, it’s time for you to listen to the answer.

Asking and listening. Imagine that. It’s called a conversation, and it’s a rarity in workplaces today. Only by hearing what the other person thinks, and putting that person’s actions in the appropriate context, can you actually see what the person is saying and doing — and how together you can get where the company needs you to go.”

I agree that what should be happening are frequent conversations during the year that are focused on the numbers. There should never be a conversation once a year that surprises the employee that they are failing your expectations. 

In my thinking the sole reason for performance reviews is because there are annual increases. So there must be a quantifiable and defensible measure to: 1. Reward and motivate your best employees (most of the time you have to pay talent to keep it).  2. Thank the less talented but productive ones and 3. Let the poor achievers know that they need to be looking elsewhere or figure out how to leverage what they have. (These are employees that you have hope for. They have the basic skills but need development. If not, you should have let them go or demoted them).

As to the model that says not everyone can be excellent and forces a bell curve distribution (relative performance by comparisons), I hate it the same way I hated teachers doing that with grades (grading on a curve). I have worked for companies that “graded on a curve.”  In a small talented department it is deadly and is detrimental to the team to follow the business philosophy of “get rid of the bottom 10% each year to raise your standard of excellence.”  Each year a scapegoat is found to sacrifice to the corporate gods.

I have trained many managers on how to do performance reviews and have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. They are not going away. We in management owe it to ourselves, our employees and company to understand the tool – its strengths and weakness, its limitations and its abuses.

As a side note – the analogy of not using rotten milk doesn’t work.  Yes I do use rotten milk to bake with.  Never pour out milk that has gone well. Put it in your pancake batter or any baking. Works well.

“Delegation has taken hold when there is the weight of ownership and thrill of vision”  Mark Gedeon

“Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn” - Frank Herbert author of Dune

I find a number of quotes from Dune facinating http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune

The first time I ate yogurt I hated it.  How could anybody eat that stuff?  It was horrible.  It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that the yogurt I tried was bad.  It doesn’t normally taste like that. 

I recently talked with a fellow training manager about the relationship the training department has with the people on the floor.  She indicated that there were some strains.  The previous trainer did not connect well.  I understood it perfectly.  I had had the experience of coming in behind someone that was a poor trainer.  They pulled together a PowerPoint presentation and “delivered it.”  They had no relationships with employees on the floor and no operations knowledge.  The employees thought training was a waste of time.  Stepping into that situation is like trying to convince me that yogurt really is good.  For a lot of adults, school was a bad experience and training smells a whole lot like school.

Steven Covey says that trust is made up of two things – Character and Competency.  I would like somehow to add relationship in that formula.  I discovered that if I was going to be heard when I did training I would have to develop a relationship and at the same time gain trust.  Not easy when the smell still lingers.

I’m doing some training around the subject of self-esteem. Management needs to recognize and complement work well done. I want them to be careful of the extremes; either by being fluffy or being manipulative in their remarks. Is it easier to stay on target by saying: “The objective is not for them to feel good about themselves but good about good work”? I’m looking for a way to put it so that compliments are directed to specific behavior that they want to reinforce and not a general “good job.”  Feeling good about your good work should be the basis of self-esteem.

I’m open for thoughts on this.

Side note: Any theologians out there want to weigh in on Luke 17:9 and its relevancy to the subject?

Try this. Think of a Christmas carol or some popular tune. Now, without telling the person what it is, tap out the tune. Don’t hum it. See if they get it? Research has shown that there is only a 2% chance that the other person will figure it out¹. You will find it very frustrating. Try your best to bang out the tune but the other person won’t get it.

Communication is like that sometimes. We have it in our heads. We can hear it clearly but the other person does not hear the melody or words. Most of the time, we must give more than tapping (the vague basics). To complete the music message we have to give the melody, phrasing, spacing, tone, and notes. In communication we have to give the basic instruction and the intention, method, and purpose. Employees are more likely to “get it” when they know the reason for what you are asking.

During a leadership challenge course a few years back, I was standing on a wire about 25 feet in the air. I was facing a guy on another wire who was literally twice my size. Our task was to face each other, lock hands over our heads, and walk. The only problem was that wires went out in a “V.” As we went further out, we got further apart. I figured out that if we pushed at each other we could stay on the wire. I kept thinking that the process of staying up was obvious. It didn’t matter what our size was. The tension of pushing would let us keep walking further and further out until we were horizontal with the ground and fully extended. We didn’t make it very far because the big guy didn’t want to push against me (gentle giant syndrome). In the end my not saying anything was a liability. It didn’t take long before we were dangling in our harnesses high off the ground. I fault myself for not saying what I was thinking. I figured he would figure it out; it was so obvious. How could he not know?

We think this way quite frequently. The other guy should know; it’s obvious. Even hints are like tapping out the tune. It’s not enough. Communication is hard work. We said it a few weeks back – Check for understanding – Ask them what they just heard so that I can make sure I didn’t leave anything out.

Now name that tune.

For those doing any kind of presentations or involved in persuading people, there is a great short document to read. Presenting to Small Audiences: Turn Off the Projector! by Dr. Adrew Abela at http://www.changethis.com/50.06.PresentingSmall  down load the pdf file.

For more details see http://www.extremepresentation.com/design/

I do contract technical writing and this is what I bring to the table.

 Editing

v  Grammar, spelling, missing words, and punctuation

v  Usage infractions:

o   passive voice

o   future tense

o   conditional tense

o   unclear antecedent

v  Leaps of logic and ambiguities

v  Wrong word usage

v  Redundancies

v  Parallel structure in lists

Style and Formatting

v  Presentation – A layout that is both business professional and attractive.

v  Consistency – Each document that your client receives, no matter who wrote it, will have the same professional look and feel (fonts, bullets, alignment, hierarchy, tables, order and structure etc.)

v  Add cross-referencing and captions

v  Table of Content with correct alignment, tab positions, and hierarchy

v  Proper page breaks

v  Meaningful headings and sub-headings

Readability and Understanding:

v  Assistance with writing tighter paragraphs 

v  Strengthen examples and analogies

v  Writing for a general readership that is easy to understand – i.e. translate engineering terminology into plain, clear language

What Technical Writers Need from You

v  Who are your recipients? – Audience analysis

o   Is it for a company VP or an end user? 

o   How knowledgeable are they about the system/service? 

o   How will they be using the information (purpose)?

v  What is your deadline?

o   The time needed varies with each document.

v  What is your contact information and best time to reach you?

v  What project is this document assigned to?

Bottom Line

Working with styles, templates, and layouts can be a time consuming and frustrating task.  Few people can find their own grammar and reasoning mistakes.  Let someone that works with these things take that burden.  The technical writer helps bridge the gap between the user or purchaser of the service and the designer or engineer. 

There are several types of power.  In order to do your job you need power.  You have positional power – power that comes from the title and authority that your company has entrusted to you.  At times you must use that power to manage employees (direct, lead, influence, train, discipline etc.) to get a given task done.

Although your position as a Manager, Supervisor, Lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader…it simply makes you the boss.  Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.

I could spend a significant amount of time talking about power and influence (I have a two hour training module on the subject).  But today I want to take a few moments to address a type of power that gets some bad press.  It is the power from who you know – relational power. 

Relation power is the power you get because you have a relationship with someone in power or influence.  You gain additional power/influence because you are on good terms with them and have their trust.  I have been responsible for projects that required me to get the cooperation of those “above” me.  In an ideal world it should have been no problem.  But we all have had the experience of not having a title and basically getting blown off.  It’s not their project and just because your boss told you to do something means little to them.  Having a relationship with them would have helped.  Having a relationship with their boss would also help.  Don’t get me wrong.  This should not be seen as a power struggle or a one-up on someone.  You may win the battle but loose the war.  I’m not telling you to go over your boss’s or anyone’s head.  But it is about getting a fair hearing.  You can’t use just relational power over and over.  You will have to develop your own credibility, but until that time comes, it can open doors to be effective with what you are tasked to do.

Who you know increases what you know (the inner working of the organization).  I’m not a smoker but I’d go outside and hang out in the smoking area at one job because all the managers smoked.  That is where a lot of business was conducted.  I’m not telling you to be a “suck up” and “brown noser.”  They don’t last over the long haul.  What I am telling you is to invest in relationships with people that are in positions of power or influence.  Get to know them.  You will learn things through the informal relationship.  You will have a better opportunity to get a hearing for your ideas. 

I have known some Supervisors that avoid Managers and those at the top of the organization.  Don’t be afraid to “mix it up” with people at the top.  Develop relationships.  Read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (See http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/win-friends.html ).  Whether you like it or not you are always selling yourself.  In order to be successful you will need to understand the various types of power, when to use them, and their strengths and weakness.

You have three main sources of power from which to tap use them all:

v      Positional power from the role you occupy.  Just being the Leader gives you authority which you must use gently and wisely.

o       Coercive Power – make things difficult for people

o       Reward Power – ability to distribute rewards

v      Knowledge power because of what you know about the department/organization you lead.

o       Earned power – what you can contribute

v      Personality power – You persuade or motivate others through your positive attitude, integrity, friendly manner, patience and other personal characteristics.

o       Relational or connection power – the influence you have because you know and have influence with someone in power.  It is also a type of positional power because it is using the position of power of someone else.

o       Personality power can be quickly lost if you lose trust or credibility

“Everyone has the power of greatness. Not for fame but greatness. Because greatness is determined by service.” Dr. Martin Luther King

“…if you really want to test a man’s character, give him power.”  Abraham Lincoln

I have spent most of the day reading Ray Blunt’s leadership articles on the site http://www.govleaders.org/

I have found them to be excellent. He has a articulated well leadership values that I’d like to live.  

I’d like all my guys to read The Toughest Choices a Leader Must Make   http://www.govleaders.org/choices.htm