Archive for January, 2012
Painless Performance Appraisals
The time of year is quickly approaching when most organizations ask their managers to conduct annual reviews of performance. Frankly, this does not inspire much excitement for most team members or their managers alike. The current perception of performance reviews in Corporate America is not stellar. A recent study by Watson Wyatt found the following:
- Less than two-thirds of the sampled employees (60%) said that they understand the measures used to evaluate their performance
- Even fewer sampled employees (57%) thought that their performance was rated fairly
- Less than half (47%) said that their managers clearly expressed goals and assignments
- Only about two-fifths of the sample (42%) reported regular, timely performance reviews
- Even fewer (39%) reported that their performance review was helpful in improving their on-the-job performance
With less-than-helpful reviews, that seem arbitrary and not effective for improving performance (if they happen at all); it is no surprise that appraisals are not thought of as a value-added process at many organizations.
Performance reviews don't have to be a painful process. They are meant to faciliate growth.
What are some ways to make your reviews have more impact, going against the norm? If you are still reading this you are probably the type of leader who recognizes the value of useful feedback. Not just feedback for the sake of feedback, but feedback that is really beneficial in helping someone know where they stand and how to improve. Here are some tips and best practices to provide impactful feedback:
1. Useful: Ensure the feedback you provided is useful by following the Keep, Start, Stop format.
- Keep – consider what this person does that makes him or her effective. Use positive reinforcement and encourage them to find other ways to utilize this strength.
- Start – what does this person not do today that they could consider to become more effective?
- Stop – What behaviors do they engage in that get in their way of being successful? What could you encourage them to refrain from doing to be more valuable?
2. Get Specific: Both positive and developmental feedback that is too vague cannot be helpful in changing behavior. What exactly did you see, hear or experience? What about others? Avoid labels or generalities. The more recent the feedback, the better.
3. Show Impact: An easy formula to remember for providing feedback with impact is to refer to the performance standard and compare it with the actual performance. If the performance met or exceeded the standard, this is a great time to recognize it. If this is a situation where the performance fell below the standard, discuss that gap. Take time to explain the impact of the gap. Do this in terms of what is important to the team member. Perhaps a career goal they have articulated to you, a potential promotion, bonus, objective attainment, stronger team or working relationship.
4. Actionable: Engage the person to discuss what actions can be taken to improve. Work as a two-person team to discuss ideas and come up with a plan to address the issue. Ultimately, they own it, but you can be a useful resource. Partner with them for improved performance.
These characteristics of feedback will keep you on the right track to successful performance conversations. Knowing this, there are still many people who shy away from difficult conversations and feedback that is challenging or developmental. Keep in mind that you may have information that will truly make an impact in helping this person grow and achieve his or her goals. You are doing the person a disservice by not being straight with them. Certainly doing this in a kind manner while being candid is essential and can make an impact for improving performance.
The 5-Fold Resolution That Will Revolutionize Your Business
So we are into the second week of the new year … if you’re like most people, you’ve already abandoned at least one of the resolutions on your list. Don’t feel too badly – at least you made one at all! Research shows that only 40 to 45% of American adults even make resolutions each year.
Even though almost 50% of people who make new years resolutions do break them in the first 6 months, research shows that making resolutions is useful. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t. So why not improve your odds at making a change and explicitly define one goal that will affect you, your business, your customers, employees and your competition in 2012. What resolution has this 5-fold effect?
RESOLUTION:
Focus on CONNECTING with your customers & improving their
EXPERIENCE with your organization
THE RESULT BOOST:
1) Retention 2) Sales 3) Team morale 4) Gain competitive advantage
5) Your peace of mind because your business is founded on rock-solid customer relationships
You may not be able to influence the national economic forecast or consumer confidence index – but you can impact the confidence your customers have in your team’s capabilities, reliability, quality and commitment to their business.
Other options for improving profitability & gaining competitive advantage are: 1) lowering prices – not very profitable and 2) improving product quality, which can take substantial time and money. The fastest and most cost-effective way to impact the bottom line & differentiate your business is to focus on improving your relationships with your customers & boosting the number of positive experiences they have working with your organization.
FOCUS ON PEOPLE – NOT NUMBERS
The most important aspect of this resolution is helping your team learn how to move from concentrating on customer service or satisfaction, and focus on really connecting with customers & improving their experiences when working with your team. They are different goals. Let’s look at the definitions of each:
Service [sur-vis]
a. an act of helpful activity
b. to aid or be useful
Connect [kuh-nekt]
a. to join or unite
b. to relate to or be in harmony with another person, or one’s work
Given the choice would you rather simply provide a helpful activity, aid & be useful to your customers, or be joined or united and relate & be in harmony with them? If your customer feels like you “get it” and are tuned in to their business, understand their goals, pain points & find solutions to their needs – they will feel a connection with your organization, as opposed to simply serviced or satisfied.
Now no one is saying you shouldn’t measure the resulting improvements with customer relationships in some way, but if there is too high a focus on” ratings”, then it is easy for it to become more about achieving a minimum level in satisfaction, rather than becoming tuned in and focused on understanding your customer’s business, their needs & how to solve their problems. Let’s face it – people either feel like someone “gets it” or they don’t – there isn’t a sliding scale. Who can walk away feeling confident about the job someone will do if they feel like they were only kind of understood? From this customer perspective, on a scale from 1 to 10 – you are either a 10 or a 1, there’s no in between.
