Posts tagged performance appraisal

Setting Expectations – How Far?

Jan24
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The other day, I asked a group of “new” managers, “what is the basic thing or task that you need to do for your employees?” The overwhelming favorite was setting expectations. Why is that? It is almost always the first thing that is taught to managers. You have to provide direction to your employees and the best way to do that is setting goals and expectations. They seemed to listen to that lesson well… What if you were to take it a look at expectations a bit further? Would you see the minimum set needed to be successful? How high of expectations do you give? We all have employees that go much further than the stated expectations. Those could be your raising stars. Do you set higher expectations for them? Do you tell them those expectations? If so, do you tell the other employees as well?  Draws out that do you provide a sliding scale of expectations?

For me, those questions are tough to answer. Why? Couple of things come to mind right off the top. First, when you lay everything out in a nice neat package, you may lose the creativity of those high performing stars on your team. They will not have the freedom to stretch on their own. I have worked in two types of rewards systems. Merit systems would struggle with setting up the higher expectations and having everyone or almost everyone meet those expectations you have set out. You would be basically telling the team here are the expectations, but at the end of year we will not be able to reward all the same. The other was a flat time in grade system. This system sets you have to be in grade for a minimum timeframe before promotion. Depending on where you fall is more important than what you have done (for the most part). As an employee, I wanted to know how I could move up and be extremely successful. Almost all of the employees I have managed wanted the same.

From experience,  I have had managers that have communicated the exceeding expectations set and others that would not. For those that would not, I would simply ask, “Describe what that may look like?” The answers were all over the place. I did get what was felt an honest answer, “I’ll know it when I see it.” When you stop and really think about that you have two simple thoughts. The manager has not clue would probably be the first thing that pops in… Think some. I took it as if I truly want to be a high performer, I have the door open as to what that means. I can do whatever I think is right (of course, within some set of rules) and make it happen. Stand out and be seen! Raising my value (to myself, my team and organization).

What would you do? Those “new” managers really struggled with this question. From the experienced crowd – what would you really do

Photo from: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

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Show Your Stuff. How’s The Value?

Jan16
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

What a day Friday the 13th was. I was running around doing stuff! Lot’s of stuff. For most people it is that time of the year for performance appraisal’s. A few folks were discussing the validity of performance appraisals and how to really measure one’s worth. Throw a question out like that and the creative juices start to really flow.

How do you know that you are providing or increasing your worth to the organization? Here is some of that discussion and some additional thoughts from writing this blog post.

  •  Make sure that your work is part of the bottom line. Make money for the company and you will be valued. Think of it as a return on investment. Think of your work and make sure that you are providing an ROI on everything that you offer (time, skills and so on).
  • An oldie but goodie, time is money. Watch your organization and see is everyone valuing time is money? Spend your time wisely. Would you invest 8 hours doing something that you can deliver in less time with the same results? I think of presentations as an example, putting in way too much time putting pretty charts, pictures and words that add no value to your work. We all can spot fluff when we see it. Make sure you are not producing fluff.
  • Only you can sing your praises. This one is a hard one, sing too loudly and you cause harm. For me, I always made the comment that my work should speak for itself. Well, that is not the case. Make sure that your manager understands the effort you put into the job and the results that were produced. It is a delicate balancing act. If you don’t do it, you will lose out…
  • Learn to say “no!” I used to think that “no” was a bad thing. From my many years of experience, most managers love to heap on the work to those that deliver. Getting on that treadmill will have an overall effect on your work. Start missing deadlines or having quality issues – that will have a bigger effect on your value. Only takes a few mistakes to wipe out your hard work.
  • Listen and learn. If you don’t know what you don’t know, then seek out some knowledgeable advice. Do we all really know everything? We all know people that think they know and dance around it. How does that really look? Saying you don’t know now, but will get the knowledge soon, will be valued over dancing on that topic. Most people dance pretty bad.
  • Everyone needs to know sales. Not sales in the sense of selling a product, but you do need to sell yourself. This is not making yourself better than you are. If you are pitching an idea to your organization, you have to be convincing and sound. You have to know how to talk about the overall value, what is needed and defend your ideas with solid research and passion.
  • Have a life! A couple of items come to mind quickly. I have written about vacations that turn out to be working vacations. As a manager, you set an example that your organization will follow (or at least the expectation has been set). You need your time off.. The other one, sometimes is hard to pinpoint. I have learned a valuable lesson since retiring. I am not measured only by my job and my accomplishments. Life is short and there is so much out there. Getting that life will give you lessons that maybe will apply at work. At the very least, the rest will do you good.

There probably are more, we just ran out of time… Do you have any to add? Please share!

Photo Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

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Best Week of the Year, Productivity Wise

Dec26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

When I was working for a large enterprise, I used to love coming into work the week after Christmas. Why? Simply put, there were very few folks around. Seems like everyone loves to take that last week off to spend time with the family or just relax. Me, I went into the office for one thing… To get stuff done! Why? Far fewer distractions. With most of the office staff off, the cube farm was extremely quiet. With most of my team out, I had less to keep up on. Giving more time for me to get manager stuff done. No due dates were ever place on the last week of the year. Sounds silly, but review almost all of the stuff that you ever had to get done. Did it ever fall on the last week of the year? Again, more “free” time to get the other stuff done.

What I used to focus on that last week of the year!

  • Employee performance appraisals. If your company uses a review system, this is the week to really sit down and focus on the overall performance of your employees. Quiet time in the office – is a wonderful time to sit and think, jot down some notes on each employee (accomplishments, strengths and areas to work on).
  • Next years plan in more detail. I used to have to submit my yearly plan around Oct of the year before. Usually by the end of the year, you would receive your budget and such. Use this week to really lay out the upcoming years plans, expectations and goals in a rev. 0 fashion. Once everyone is back, go over the rev 0 plan and firm it up with your teams inputs.
  • Reflect back on the past year. Write done the accomplishments and successes that your team and you have done. Share it with the team with a nice thank-you note (it should be in their inbox when they come in).  I would send off this to my manager, to share what the team has done. Most managers, would copy all and add their thanks to the team as well!

What would you do with this week?

I truly enjoyed going into the office! The stuff that I got done was important to me and my team.

Posted in Leadership, New To Management - Tagged , , , , , ,

We Have Entered – The Thankful Season

Nov30
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I truly enjoy this time of the year. It is the holiday season for thinking about the year and what are you truly thankful for. For me, as a manager, I used this time to think back over the year and reflect on everything. I used to write down into three lists (Good, Bad and Just Ugly) how things went, how the team performed, how we learned, how we had grown and who had done an outstanding job. Sitting down reflecting is something that people talk about as a necessity, but rarely really do it (well). Writing it down, makes you really think about those situations. You have to ask questions like was this positive, did it have significant impact, what was learned and so on… For my teams, I usually ask them to do the same thing. It is nice to use, as a team building exercise for a pot luck or team dinner. Everyone gets an opportunity to share their observations.

Looking at the list can be a very eye opening experience. You can see trends for the year, that maybe while you were in the thick of things – just did not notice. I have seen growth within my teams in some areas that I would have guessed were not strengths. I also can notice if my team is slipping. I can notice the folks that really have stepped up and done some pretty incredible things.

“Seeing” is just part of what you should do… Next comes actions – you know the “doing” part. I like to send personal notes to the folks that have really stepped up. Let them know that I am thankful for those actions (spell them out in the note) that they had take. If you noticed, you should say something. From the team’s standpoint – I like to look at those trends and identify training or team building activities that can help our team grow next year. When the team does the same reflection, it is powerful stuff – when we pretty much notice the same areas. Now we have the complete team looking objectively, and we can put in place some solid plans for improvement.

Here is your assignment:

  • Sit in a quiet place. Just you, your paper, pencil (or pen) and your thoughts.
  • Reflect back on your year… What was the good? What was not so good or What could be better? Who really stepped up and did some incredible stuff?
  • Once you feel you have captured everything. Reread them each and look for trends and opportunities that must be taken.
  • Develop your plans for next year!

If you are a manager, if you feel comfortable, ask you team to do the same exercise (for themselves and the team as a whole). As the manager, you can have your team share their thoughts and reflections on the team. Then develop the team plans after all your data is received. I typically have the team use their personal reflection for their performance appraisal and development plans.

Let me know how it goes?

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Performance Reviews – Keep or Get Rid of?

May09
2011 3 Comments Written by Steve

Over the past 28 years, I have had to write many and receive a performance review. I have heard from many folks inside the company (and some experts outside) that performance reviews do more harm than good. I don’t have much experience of “no” performance review. When going up and going to school – we always got report cards! College was no different – report card. Some job applications still want to know what your GPA was from those days. When I went into the military – I got reviewed every year. As an officer, I had to write and deliver those reviews for my people. Go off to work in Corporate America, Intel, and performance appraisals were in place. I have never not had a review of one form or another… Maybe my opinion is bias, maybe it is just all that I know. I believe that the performance review is a necessary tool for any manager.

Why?

  • Provides a documented assessment of the overall performance that the individual has performed over the past 12 months.
  • Backs up the overall normal performance management that you as a manager should be doing throughout the year.
  • Gives feedback on overall performance relative to their peers (at least everyone that I have been associated with – have). That was the most meaningful piece of feedback to me. I had some understanding of how well (or not) I was doing within the team, but this feedback helped me with an outside set of eyes.
  • Helped build on my strengths.. Let me focus on the areas that need to improve on – that we important to my job.

Maybe it was me, maybe it is my competitive spirit or maybe I have to “see” how well I am doing! I ran across a this study – This paper examines the impact of performance reviews on productivity, and finds that feedback delivered on a regular basis, whether positive or negative, tends to result in improved performance. On a short-term basis, though, the impact varies, sometimes in ways that are counter-intuitive: Positive reviews, for example, do little to boost productivity, and negative reviews that are somewhat vague and indirect cause performance to fall off, but reviews that are directly negative cause productivity to leap. The research offers guidance to managers concerning the pitfalls and potential benefits in framing their messages in reviews, and suggests there is a need to provide feedback on a frequent basis.

For me, I still believe that performance reviews are necessary.. If done right are a powerful tool in your manager toolbox. What say you?

Posted in Leadership, New To Management, Observations - Tagged , ,

My Manager Musts

Apr06
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Over the years, I have learned some important things to do and not to do. Managing people has been a learning experience. When I was a new manager, almost every situation I encountered was new. I stumbled through them sometimes, but I can safely say, I learned something from each situation. Some of my managers were good sources of my experiences. Some of them offered the “don’t do this” variety, but those are key lessons to take with me. So, what are the major things I have learned in all these years of managing people? What have I shared with other managers? I have written on almost all of them (see hyperlinks). Here are the things that I have in my toolbox of managing people:

  • Your job is to remove roadblocks for your staff. This is one key that many managers forget. What do you really offer your staff that they can not get on their own? Roadblock remover! Sometimes the manager gets in the way. If that is true, get moving.
  • Set expectations. Giving your staff the opportunity to help set expectations is very powerful. Giving them the end point, gives them vision into what needs to be done. Don’t tell them how to do it. See the first one…
  • Empower them. I know this one is a lot of lip service. Truly empower them is giving them the authority, confidence and the space to get the job done. Sounds easy… Make it happen, you will be rewarded more from your staff with this one.
  • Never give someone a task, you wouldn’t do. Let’s face it sometimes there are crappy tasks that need to be done.. Don’t be afraid to say that, “I know this is a crappy task. I am sorry, but I really need you to get it done.” Helps..
  • Problems occur, address them ASAP. In a previous post, I wrote about conflict. Well, those problems don’t usually go away. Stand up and acknowledge there is a problem. Respectfully address it.
  • Praise in public. Critique in private. If you must critique, make sure that it is about the professional part of the job. Stay away from the personal. Everything must tie to what is happening back on the job. Your behavior in this situation caused this to be missed, that to slipped or whatever happened  in their job. Setting the stage is critical.
  • Let them speak (or vent). Give them the opportunity to let of some steam if necessary. Listen, you could hear something that is going on, that you were unaware of. Too many times, I have heard a managers voice and not my own. Those don’t work well.
  • Respect their time. I had a manager that was late to everything. His time management was terrible. For me, I felt that my time was not important. My time and their time is important!
  • Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.” I don’t know everything.. The worse thing you could do is make something up. A simple, “I don’t know, but let me find out” works best.
  • No surprises. Don’t blindside your staff members. A performance appraisal should not be the first time someone hears there is a problem. You should be communicating all the time. Here is more deeper thoughts in this area.
  • Never micromanage. Again, another past post of mine. For me, micromanaging is the worst behavior any manager can do. Give your people room to work!
  • Finding the “right” people to work in your team. Your team is key to your success. Finding the right people to work together is critical. Sometimes the person with the most experience is not the best fit for the job
  • Mistakes happen, just not the same mistake over and over. No one is perfect, so when a mistake happens, learn from it and don’t let it happen again. I always use the first one is on me… Have a positive outlook and control
  • Blame is useless. I have had managers that are looking for the “who” to blame. I would rather find out what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen again. See the above one.
  • You set the example of your staff to follow. Your staff is a mirror of yourself. You don’t like what you see, then you change.
  • You are nothing without them. It is a funny thing, when you go on vacation or are out sick, the work gets done… If you staff is all out on vacation or sick – nothing gets done.

There probably are more to add.. Everyday as a manager is a learning experience. Take this list, use what you want and add some of your own. Either way, your staff will appreciate it.

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New Managers – Where to Focus?

Apr04
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I read a survey the other day that just hit home with me! It was CareerBuilder’s survey that says 26% of managers feel untrained in their new position. Am I surprised? Maybe a little. Why? I wonder if the sample size really reflects the true percentage. I would think it maybe higher… I have to think back to my days as a new manager or supervisor (that is how long ago it was for me). We had no formal training program. See if this sounds familiar with anyone. I spent my time working during my shift - getting to know my people, helping to make sure that we were meeting expectations and learning the culture of the organization. I was spending my free time reading how to be a good manager from books and magazines. Today, I bet many new managers are using the Internet to get their additional information to get them up to speed. Look at all of the blogs and material that is out there…

So, what are the areas that new managers are struggling with? From the survey:

  • Dealing with issues between co-workers on my team – 25%. I have written about that one already, in fact the titel was New Managers -Learn this one Early! - see more here!
  • Motivating team members – 22%. Read more here!
  • Performance reviews – 15%. Read more here!
  • Finding the resources needed for the team – 15%. Read more here!
  • Creating career path for my team – 12%. Read more here!

I was lucky enough my last year of working at Intel, to spend it training new managers. I can definitely say that this list is pretty spot on with all of the topics that the new managers brought up during the training. What I was happy about, was that I got to share my experiences to over 200 new managers. I am no longer working at Intel, but I still get an email a week from students with questions. New managers are looking to do well, but just need to have the tools to help them.

Are you a new manager? Are these familiar? I hope that my information is valuable to you!

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Writing About Yourself

Mar09
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Over the past year, I have had plenty of opportunities to write about myself and I don’t like it. I find it extremely difficult to do. With the second of self assessment done, rewrote the about me section of this blog a number of times and writing up a bio for a speaking engagement; each and everyone of them necessary evils that needed to be done. Do you find these activities a struggle? I know I do. Each of them have a different purpose, but they all have one thing in common – me. I find them uncomfortable to write. The self assessment is something that I have had to do now for 26 years. You would think I should be good at it, well I am not.  Writing about me comes off as bragging and somewhat self serving. I know, I should just suck it up and do my best work. Still does not make it any easier to do.

So, what do I do to make it a bit less painful? Some of my tips/tricks.

  • Documentation- make sure that you have plenty. As a manager, I have to keep documentation on my direct reports. Why not myself? Treat yourself no different than one of your employee’s. Keep your records, keep your email thank-yous, awards and anything that will help define your work.
  • Make Lists – sit down with the documentation and start a list of accomplishments, feedback, awards and whatever else is in your folder. This will help to form what will be written. Sort of like a brainstorm list for writing.
  • Put yourself in a good state of mind – insure that you are feeling good, have plenty of time to focus and there are no distractions (people or work). Having a “good” day helps. If you wait till the last minute, you will feel rushed and the writing will show it.
  • Give Examples – here is where the documentation is very handy. Make sure to call out the specific examples, involvement you played and the impact. 
  • Be Objective- when reviewing the documentation and reviewing the rough draft, be objective on everything. In my case, I am overly critical, sometimes too much. Look at the impact – answer the “so what” question. Be real. While spending time reviewing, pay close attention to the tune of the messages.

Writing about yourself may come easy to some, but not me. I have to work at it more-so for myself than my direct reports. I have little to no difficulty writing about them. Do you have any tips/tricks to help you with writing about you?

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Now, Is The Time!

Dec23
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The end of the year normally very busy, but not when it comes to work. Well, as soon as I publish this – my inbox will explode with busy work. Normally, folks love to take the weeks of Christmas and New Years off. For the past couple of years, I have found that this is a wonderful time to get work done. Real work! Get ahead of the game, work!

I went into the office on Monday, because I had a couple of meetings that I had to have. One was with a person that wanted to get active in the companies internal social computing capabilities. I am always into having discussion with folks to demonstrate the social capabilities, discuss potential opportunities, help out or just plain teach. The passion is real, I looked forward to coming into the office, when very few folks were going to be there. I always am on a high after these meetings. So, I scheduled another meeting, one that I am not a fan of – going over the changes needed to roadmap presentations. Boring and necessary topic. Start the day – in outstanding fashion, tackle the not so much fun subject next… Seemed to work for me.

What I really use the week for is – getting ahead on some of the work that is going to hit and hit hard:

  • Yearly performance appraisal’s are going to be a big time sync over the January timeframe (getting ahead of that is all goodness)
  • Budget 2010 should be finalized – and everyone and their brothers are going to want to know what is coming and when (hence the roadmap discussion). The amount of cycles that will be consumed will be large.
  • Writing my rev 0 self-assessment for my boss. Since I manage a team, I need my folks to complete theirs to insure that I have not missed anything important.
  • Preparing for the welcome to the new year fire drill. You know that topic that just keeps on giving that makes your head spin. This year is no different – centers on social computing again. 2009 for us, was a year of really starting to take shape. Now that some of the leaders have a better understanding (enough to be dangerous, but not enough to fully understand) – they want to see how we can save some bucks and maybe look to consolidate and integrate. Nobel efforts, but a bit too early, in my opinion.
  • Setting up the overall groups expectations for 2010. Once everyone is back from their holidays, they will be recharged and ready to go. Time to have what expectations fully lined out. Budget is set, work on the roadmaps has started and we should start to have some vision of 2010.
  • Lastly, celebrating 2009! Lots of good stuff happened in 2009, don’t forget that. Have fun and celebrate the wins. Celebrate the near wins… 2009 was rough in many ways, but I know that I had some wins to celebrate. I told my team to do the same thing!

It is nice to have some time to slow down and spend the cycles during the periods when the work force is limited (out enjoying the holidays). For me, it helps to kick of the new year with some work already in the can, or at the very least shaped up to complete on time.

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Performance Appraisal: Documenting the Year in Review

May28
2009 2 Comments Written by Steve

 

Performance appraisals, performance reviews, appraisal forms, whatever you want to call them, I’ll use appraisal. I’m not sure if it has been the 27 years of writing these for my team or having one done about me, but I think the appraisal is a necessary part of the whole process.  Yearly also seems to be the right timeframe. I have done this with every six months to 18 months – 12 months (January to December). Built in reminders that when the holiday season is coming upon us – it is time to close the documented part of the year.

From my experiences and tweaking of my past 26 years, here is the checklist for how to close the annual performance appraisal – start to end!

Preparation for annual performance appraisal:

  • Kick-off the end of the year, with a nice reminder to your team that our performance appraisal time is now just around the corner. I usually send this message out with expectations, timelines and expected closure.
  • Within the initial message, my employee’s are given a blank document for them to write a self assessment on their key accomplishments, their strengths and some areas that they may want to improve on in the coming year. This provides them some input on their overall assessment.
  • Provide the opportunity for broader feedback. I use a 360 degree performance feedback request.  That incorporates feedback from the employee’s peers, customers, and people who may report to him.  Each employee can provide me names of the above that they feel will be a good source of providing feedback (I also reserve the right to add additional names). We really want a well rounded loop of feedback.
  • The self assessment and 360 feedback requests have deadlines that all will be due to me.

Assessing employee and the team performance:

  • Start the Rev 1 appraisal. This is where I sit down and review the self assessment, 360 comments, during the year coaching session notes, employee 1:1 file (all feedback good or bad, awards and such for the complete year) and write my document that I would say is very close to the performance appraisal (Rev 1). Focus on the expectations for the coming year – keeping the cycle alive.
  • Sit down and discuss the Rev 1 document with the employee. One more attempt to review the document and for each to provide feedback. Usually there are minor tweaks or maybe some missing information that may come to the surface, but rarely.
  • Take my individual employee’s performance reviews and assess each to the overall team. This is where folks are being ranked and rated to each other. Depending on the team, you may have senior folks and junior folks on the same team – and assessing them could get a bit difficult. I usually have to remind myself to look at their job expectations, their grade level and level set my expectations to match. Finish up the process by giving each a rating.

Delivering the performance appraisal:

  • Insure to schedule the meetings! Coming up to an employee that happens to sit in the same site as you, is not really a welcome sight. If the employee’s are at different sites, insure to schedule conference rooms. Privacy is something that is important.
  • The night before the scheduled appraisal review session, I send out the Rev 2 document. (I do this for both the folks on and off site). This is the complete review form – that has been reviewed many times by each of us, discussed and finished up. The main item that the employee really has not seen is the overall performance message and ranking/ratings.
  • Minutes before the meeting – I send out to the employee’s that are off site – the overall pay letter. Each employee knows to come to the meeting with their laptop to open the emailed pay letter. For those on site, I have a copy for them.
  • We discuss both documents in detail! Questions and comments – whatever is needed.

 

Tips:

  • Never schedule these review sessions back to back! You may want to get it over with, but time to discuss is critical and needed. Running a marathon of performance appraisal meetings, is very taxing.
  • Never schedule on a Friday! From past experience, this gives too much time between delivery and potential additional discussion. If this message is not going to be perceived well, the receiver really does not need to have their weekend wasted. Schedule those messages, early in the week…
  • For off-site folks, try to be there, physically if possible. If travel is restricted, definitely try to use a video feed. Gauging reaction to messages is very difficult over the phone.
  • After completed, I usually give the employee some time to think about the appraisal some more, and if they have any questions and/or comments – to just get back to me by 3 days. This is when I usually close our companies policy by uploading the document to the employee’s record.
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