Tag Archives: Performance Management

It is what it is? Not on my watch

It is what it is.

I’ve come to hate that phrase with a passion. One of our managers, whenever faced with a particularly significant challenge, will respond with that saying. I’ve decided that the next time this manager says, “It is what it is,” I’m  going to respond with, “Because we let it be.”

It’s time to stop letting things get by because they require a modicum of effort to solve. It’s time to start thinking in terms of what you can do about the problem.

One of the interview questions I’ve taken to asking is “How lucky do you think you are on a scale of one to ten?” There has been research done on this topic, and when people believe they are lucky, they end up finding more opportunities and generally seeming to be more lucky because of their openness to challenges. People that believe they are unlucky are like this manager, and they feel like things happen to them without any control over it.

Do you know someone who uses one of those “catch all” phrases as an excuse?  Will you challenge them in a similar way to look within for an answer instead of throwing up their hands in defeat? 

7 Steps to a Successful Performance Appraisal

The old adage tends to be true: you get out of things what you put into them. This advice applies well to employee performance appraisals. Managers and employees tend to complain about them and their value, but sometimes, putting in a little bit of effort means you’ll get better results.

You may think you\’re a “superhero” employee and as such, can coast through your next performance appraisal. After all, you\’ve met all your goals, perhaps even exceeded them, so what do you need to prepare? A lot in fact.

Think you're awesome? Prove it.

It\’s not just the responsibility of your manager to prepare for your performance appraisal meeting. You play a role in ensuring the meeting is productive and that you and your manager have a detailed discussion of your accomplishment and future career goals.

With that point in mind, here’s a list of suggestions we put together to help employees prepare for their next performance appraisal, so they get more out of it.

1. Gather Information on Your Performance and Development

Start by getting out your job description if you have one, and your last performance appraisal. Review your job responsibilities and the goals, competencies and development plans set out for you. Then gather any regular reports or notes on your performance that you’ve been keeping (e.g. weekly status reports, monthly summaries, project status reports). Next, get any letters, emails, certificates of recognition, awards, etc. that you’ve received praising your work. Finally, pull out any certificates of completion from any courses you’ve taken.
Review all these items in preparation for step 2.

2. Prepare a List of Your Accomplishments

Using your job description, goals and competencies for guidance, prepare a list of your accomplishments over the last period. Make sure you cover the whole period, not just the most recent weeks or months. Relate your accomplishments to your goals and to higher level organizational goals – how did you achieve your goals and help the company achieve its goals. Make sure you capture “how” and not just “what” you accomplished.

Also include any challenges that limited your abilities to succeed, as well as any support you received from others.

Your goal is to give your manager a summary of your accomplishments and any background information they need to understand and evaluate your performance.

3. Complete a Self-Evaluation

Even if your company doesn’t formally do them, it’s good idea to complete a self-evaluation. Use the official performance appraisal form if you can, and rate your performance on competencies and goals. Be honest in your ratings, and provide specific examples of your work to backup your ratings.

The goal is to reflect on your performance, so you can share your perceptions with your manager.

4. Prepare a Development Plan

Using the work you did in steps 1 through 3, identify any areas for development. Identify areas where you struggled or where others noted your performance lacked and make note of these. Reflect on areas where you would like to expand your skills/experience/expertise as part of your career growth and progression. And think about your learning style and how you best learn.

Then, do a bit of research into the training/development offered through your organization, professional associations, industry associations, etc, and make a list of potential learning activities that would help you improve your performance and advance your career. Don\’t forget to include things like reading lists, volunteer activities, work assignments, etc. Learning isn’t always done in a classroom.

5. Draft Goals for the Coming Period

Take a proactive approach and draft some possible goals based on your job description, your department or the organization’s higher level goals, your skills/experience/abilities, etc. Look for opportunities to expand your duties, broaden your knowledge, or take on more responsibility.

6. Share Your Preparations With Your Manager

Now, share your list of accomplishments, your awards/thank yous/certificates, your self-evaluation, your ideas for development and your draft goals with your manager. This will help them prepare for your meeting more effectively and will encourage a better dialogue between you.

7. Prepare an Open Mind

Finally, it’s important for you to prepare an open mind. Often we come to our performance appraisal meeting feeling a bit defensive. We’re bracing ourselves to hear criticism, or we’re jockeying for ratings/positioning that impact our compensation and advancement in the company.

Unfortunately, when we’re defensive, we don’t listen very well. Prepare yourself by trying to relax and let go of any defensiveness you’re aware of. Your goal should be to listen deeply to the feedback your manager provides you, as well as to their perspective on the goals and development plans they assign you.

Conclusion

It’s your performance appraisal, and your career! By putting some time and effort into preparing for your performance appraisal, you set yourself up for a successful review, and open up a meaningful two-way dialogue with your manager about your performance.

About the author: Sean Conrad is a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software, one of the leading providers of performance management software. For more of his insights on talent management, read his posts on the Halogen Software blog.

How to manage a team (four key concepts)

Many new leaders wonder how to manage a team. It requires a unique set of skills, patience, and charisma, and it’s not for everyone. In my short career I’ve led teams in multiple ways; however, while I haven’t led a formal team in the workplace, I have seen firsthand how my own manager leads the team I participate in, and I’ve learned more from that experience than I could have in a dozen books on the topic. I’ve seen four solid pillars for a good team management structure-autonomy, communication, equal footing, and capable leadership.

  • Give autonomy-When managing a team, it is important to remember that you are not the one who should be completing all of the work. That’s why you have a team. Set expectations for the team members (and let them set expectations for what they need from you), and then get out of the way. When people are given the autonomy to complete their work, they generally have more satisfaction in the completed product. Remember, you lead/manage, they do the work.
  • Communicate up and down-Providing short, factual feedback is one of the best ways to keep the team motivated and performing. I’ve seen so many teams fail not because they were not made up of capable workers, but because the team leader failed to provide feedback for course corrections, confirmation of satisfactory work, or any other purpose. It’s also important for the individuals on the team to provide feedback to the manager on what they need to be successful, whether it be resources, manpower, or even downtime to rest and recuperate. A note for both managers and team members: don’t assume the other party knows what you need!
  • Equal footing-This is one my manager does well. The departmental team is made up of different functions, but none of us think of ourselves as superior to one another. The administrative assistant has the same vote as the HR guy or the accounting staff. While the work we do is different, we each provide a valuable service to the organization, and there’s no way (or reason, really) to determine which is the most important function. A good example of this is a recent team interview. One of the candidates looked good on paper, but one of our team members did not feel comfortable with bringing the guy on board, so he was crossed off the list. Each of us has the veto power if we feel like the decision is not going to be good for the team.
  • Lead whenever possible-This is a tricky one to describe, but it’s also the piece of this that I’ve come to realize is most important. Many managers feel the need to use their position’s power to tell others what to do. A great manager not only offers to help, but they actually will step in and do the work if need be. That is the best definition and example of leadership that I know of.Not only are they stepping down from the “management pedestal” to do the work of the team, they are also demonstrating the concept above that each person is on equal footing. Sure, a manager can tell you to go do something and they have the authority to make you do it, but a good one will work with you to minimize the discomfort of an unpleasant task or help you to be excited about completing it, even if you were dreading the activity previously.

Is this list complete? Most certainly not. However, it’s a great start, and I’m learning new ideas every day for how to manage a team well.

Have an idea of your own to share? Feel free to leave a comment!

Managing performance at work

When it comes to managing performance at work, a lot of people cringe. Managers think employee appraisals are a waste of time. Employees rarely get the proper feedback and guidance from their supervisors. And HR, well, we are the ones who are supposed to make those two unwilling parties play nice so we can “get through” yet another review cycle.

If that sounds anything like what you deal with, let me hear an “amen.” :-)

Seriously, though, it is a problem. If you asked anyone, they would say that they want their employees performing at the top of their game. But when it comes to giving critical feedback about performance, most people shy away.

Recently I wrote a series over at my other blog about this phenomenon and how to make it more manageable. I highly encourage you to check it out!

Table of contents

If you have a specific problem or issue with your own performance management system, feel free to leave a comment! I would love to write something that might give you some ideas on how to solve it.

Performance Review Process Horror Stories

I know I can’t be the only one who has seen a performance review process go horribly wrong. Sometimes it’s laughable, yet other times it is frustrating to be caught in the midst of a broken system. Check out the video below to hear about the time I had a “secret” review as a wrestling referee.

(Subscribers may need to click through to view.)

Video Notes

A few years ago I spent my winter months as a part time referee for high school wrestling. One day I got an email from our district manager, so I pulled it up expecting to see a schedule. Instead I found a performance review that one of the officials had done without my knowledge! “Secret” reviews are a bad plan for several reasons.

  • No accountability of reviewer
  • No opportunity for reviewed to comment/clarify
  • No opportunity to grow from critical feedback

All in all, it’s a bad plan! Do you have any stories of a performance review process gone wrong? I’d love to hear about it!

performance appraisal procedureAt Sonar6, we love performance reviews (obviously) and we love any sort of discussion on the topic. So we’re proud to help bring you this series of posts from upstartHR. They’re very nearly as cool as our award winning color paper series.

Performance Review Comments

What sort of information should make up performance review comments? First time managers (and some long time veterans) have a tough time figuring out just what to say when it comes time to talk about someone’s work. There are four main criteria I look at when reviewing comments on a performance appraisal.

Tips for performance review comments

  • Is it legal? Just like other areas of employment actions (hiring, discipline, termination, etc.), performance has to be measured on criteria that is not discriminatory. Don’t talk about a woman missing deadlines because she is pregnant. Don’t say anything about the guy who misses work for religious reasons. And for goodness sake, please don’t mention that an employee is too old to understand the new computer software. Bottom line: keep the protected classes out of the picture.
  • Is it specific? I mentioned this before as one of the benefits of performance appraisals. Giving specifics on performance, whether good or bad, helps to assure that the good is repeated and the bad is corrected. I’ve seen supervisors comment, “doesn’t do a good job” on an appraisal. When pressed, they provided valuable specifics, but without that additional attention it would have never been revealed. If you’re wondering if it is specific enough, imagine that you are an outside party viewing the process. Does it give you adequate information to formulate an objective opinion of the person?
  • Is it actionable? The point of this is to provide critical feedback. However, that doesn’t mean you should exclusively use this time for browbeating or berating the employee (even if they deserve it!). If you do not provide an avenue for improvement, the employee will become frustrated and join the ranks of the disengaged employees. If they are messing up a process, show or tell them how to fix the mistake. If they are not providing friendly service that is up to the high standards of the organization, give them some ideas on how to hit the mark on the next review. Making an observation, such as “doesn’t interact well with coworkers,” is only half of your job. The other half is to provide them with the tools to be successful next time.
  • Is it job-related? This one can be comical at times, but it needs to be addressed. I worked with an engineer once whose job required virtually zero interaction with anyone face-to-face. His manager commented on his review that he was not friendly enough to his peers. The problem with that statement? The engineer was the only one in his role in the entire department. In his mind, he had no peers, and nobody was clamoring to take on that role. Make sure the comments truly reflect the reality of the workplace and job responsibilities.

And one more thing.

For a long time, the top books sold by the Society for Human Resources Management bookstore were related to performance review phrases and comments. Managers don’t need a book to tell them how to feel. They need to get a clue. They need to realize that their feedback is critical to the employee’s success (or failure). And with that knowledge, they need to have an open, honest conversation about how the person is performing. “But I don’t wanna do it” won’t cut it. And the employee will see straight through the facade and will develop the same type of attitude.

A true story about performance review comments

In this case my story doesn’t have to do with inappropriate or improper comments as much as it has to do with a lack of performance review comments. At one of my previous employers the supervisors would turn in the annual performance reviews with no comments and “meets expectations” checked off for each area. And then a month later when they wanted the employee to be terminated, they would play dumb when the review was put in front of their face. Sigh. It never failed. 99% of the people had a neutral or positive review just prior to being terminated, and most of them didn’t have a single clarifying comment present.

That’s the general behavior for most managers. Provide no feedback or clarification and still expect your employees to read your mind. Hint: it doesn’t work that way!

performance review commentsAt Sonar6, we love performance reviews (obviously) and we love any sort of discussion on the topic. So we’re proud to help bring you this series of posts from upstartHR. They’re very nearly as cool as our award winning color paper series.

Want more? Check out the free employee performance management guide!

Benefits of Performance Appraisals

The benefits of performance appraisals are tough to argue with. Conducting performance appraisals helps to decrease uncertainty about job requirements and manager expectations, opens the door for training and development opportunities, and offers a chance to reinforce positive behavior. Yet even with all those benefits, annual performance reviews are still despised by many. Let’s see how they can help your organization.

Other posts in the Performance Review Series

Let’s get on the same page. Sometimes I get managers and employees coming to me, saying they just can’t understand why their employee/manager doesn’t communicate with them. My first question is always, “Have you talked with them?” And (surprisingly or not) the response is “no” 99% of the time! Now I’m not saying a performance review is going to fix that poor communication. However, if you can work with managers and employees to use the opportunity presented by a formal appraisal meeting, then it can help to break through those barriers that exist. Employees really want to know what criteria they are being rated on. And managers really want employees to do well in their work. I have yet to meet a manager who hopes his/her people will fail miserably.

How do I get from here to there? One of the best ways to engage your employees to offer professional development opportunities. Not everyone wants to work to make themselves better at their job, but many people do. During the review process, find out where employees want to be in two years and work with them to get there. Maybe they want to take some classes in project management to contribute more on a team level. Maybe they are interested in developing some managerial skills and can supervise an intern. Maybe they want to be in a radically different position and you have some expertise to lend in the transition. Whatever the case, when the employee knows that you have their own long-term goals in mind, it gives them a deeper sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in their work.

Good job. Can you do it again? An often overlooked aspect of performance reviews is spending time on what went right. Sure, managers might say, “Way to go on Project X.” However, they do not always say exactly what they liked and what they would like to see again. If the person handled a touchy customer with finesse, tell them you appreciate their tact and cool head. When they know the specific behaviors that get noticed and/or rewarded, they can repeat them. Just hearing a generic “good job” is nice in the short run, but you need to provide more detail to help it become a repeated activity.

The icky one. Nobody likes having to document poor performance, but it has to be done. In the next post in the series I’ll be looking at comments for performance reviews to help managers check the blocks while staying inside the legal boundaries. Documenting poor performance (whether in an annual review process or outside of it) is key for protecting the organization if the situation ends up resulting in a disciplinary action or termination. Managers prefer not to put things like this in writing, but that needs to be there as protection in case the employee (or former employee, if they are terminated) decides to pursue legal action.

Next time you are conducting performance appraisals, don’t lose sight of the benefits they provide throughout your organization. They can help foster communication, engage employees, and develop strong performers while still protecting from costly litigation.

sonar6 cakeAt Sonar6, we love performance reviews (obviously) and we love any sort of discussion on the topic. So we’re proud to help bring you this series of posts from upstartHR. They’re very nearly as cool as our award winning color paper series.

Want more? Check out the free employee performance management guide!