Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

Annual Appraisals: What should I say?

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This was a reader email in response to my last posting about performance reviews. Please read that first for best context if you have not yet done so: Annual Appraisals & Performance Reviews: There’s a much better way.

“Rosa, assuming we’ve done our homework as you described, can you give us more suggestions on the conversation we can have within the appraisal meeting itself? I really stumble with that expectation that it’s a good time for goal setting, and handling it without feeling like I’m forcing the issue.”

Great question, for you bring up an excellent point: What’s the objective of the appraisal meeting, and are you accomplishing it?

The answer may vary in different companies (this goes to the point within that last post about understanding your mandates). While I was employed by the Hualalai Resort, annual reviews were tied to compensation, but with an added layer of complexity: Profit sharing via an incentive program structured via departmental bell curve (promoting ‘healthy’ competition), which was also tied to annual goal-setting. That alone was a big job to tackle!

Learning to deal with that expectation, and accomplish that objective well, was a big factor in my subsequently developing a different model for the MWA OIB (‘Ohana in Business ® model) where performance review coaching (which many managers assume is ‘officially done’ in an annual appraisal) isn’t actually done then, for it’s considered everyday management: Your People are Your Daily, and deserve way more than an “annual review.”

Objectives versus Goals

Let me share a bit of clarity in our vocabulary here, for it’s an important distinction:

  • We use the word ‘objective’ to refer to company-wide objectives,
    i.e. All annual appraisals in this company are done for this specific reason (whatever it may be for you), as a shared objective across company divisions: It aligns with our values, and is conducive to achieving our mission and vision.
  • In comparison, ‘goal’ varies individually, and is set personally,
    i.e. Warren’s goal is increase his skill level with matching typography to the graphic designs he works on — on our behalf, as the job he performs while working here.

All employees differ, and so in addition to understanding your company objective (and fulfilling it) you have to personalize annual appraisals for them: Never lose sight of the fact that an appraisal is documentation connected to their good name!

Company objectives largely seek strategic consistency in an organizational culture, whereas goal-setting should focus on individual talents, strengths, skills, and Ho‘ohana dreaming — and how their most fervent goals can be a shared win, in that they benefit the company employing them as well.

That, to me, is the overall objective of performance coaching: Managers mentor their people in the delivery of performance which grows them (i.e. helps them achieve their personal goals) while they simultaneously make an important, and meaningful contribution to the mission and vision of the company employing them. Besides earning compensation for their efforts, that contribution is what employees have agreed to deliver when they hired on. Hopefully, they chose their job well in the first place, having anticipated that it would be a Ho‘ohana connection for them: They make a valuable contribution and enjoy doing so.

So in my view, and returning to answer your question, that’s the conversation you are having when you help employees with goal-setting. This is what I’ve suggested in Managing with Aloha (page 49 in the hardcover):

Great managers make it their practice to schedule periodic reviews with employees to talk through these five sets of questions:

1. Now that a few months have gone by, how do you feel about the goals that you have set for yourself? Do we need to work on any revisions or shall we continue to work on course? Are your goals still a match for your mission? (Has Ho‘ohana and ‘Imi ola connected?)

2. Where do you feel you have made the most progress? Why do you suppose this has happened? How can we duplicate your success? (Look for the pleasure that Ho‘ohana, working with intent and purpose delivers.)

3. Were there any unexpected results? What kind of challenges have you encountered? How can I help you? (Time for more Aloha?)

4. Are you comfortable with the measurements we’ve set up to monitor your progress and quantify your achievements? (Have numbers count success, not failure.)

5. What is your next step? What kind of timeline are you setting for yourself? (Keep ‘Imi ola at the forefront, seek the best possible form, the best possible life.)

After each question, be quiet and listen: Give them enough time to respond to you. All of these questions are designed to get them talking, and you listening. The reason this is so important, besides the obvious things about good listening, will become clearer in the next section.

When are new Goals set?

I think this is an important question to answer, for as alluded to in this reader’s question, an annual appraisal meeting may or may not be the best time (remember point no. 4 about Acing Your Timing?) It could be a progress meeting, versus the celebration of having accomplished one goal, and now moving toward working on another one.

So let’s wrap up with this:

What is the manager’s role in goal-setting?

Here is where we run into another assumption, that managers are supposed to help others set goals. Yes, I buy that much, but how exactly, are you helping? My experience has been that managers stumble into two different kinds of sticky points:

1. What a goal should be
You can guide people through different choices, but motivation is an inside job, and an individual needs to set his or her own goals. If you try to set goals for them, and they let you, it’s highly likely you’ve sabotaged the whole deal, for their heart will never be in it completely. You want them to do it for themselves, and not to please you. So guide, but get them to decide. Call them on it if you sense they’re settling for less than they should be: Go for that burning “Yes!” where they sit up a bit straighter and their eyes light up, and not a “Okay, sounds good” as they glance at their watch.

As for your guiding them, my suggestion is that you focus smaller versus bigger: Forget the 1-year, 3-year, 5-year goal stuff, and talk about goals connected to specific talents, skills and knowledge. Be a manager who helps others learn in a focused way, and help them build on their strengths while correcting course on any weaknesses. That’s the way you support them in setting their own ‘bigger dream’ goals. Remember what we talked about earlier, and make the connection to the contribution they deliver — reaffirm how important it is.

2. Why bother?
Our goals can best be thought of as the tools which tweak us: They enable us to stretch and grow while we are making a contribution of some kind in earning our keep (whether we do so for a paycheck or for profit). Goals elevate performance and keep energies ramped up. They introduce creativity and new invention to work so we aren’t resting on our laurels, becoming complacent, and getting bored.

Sometimes managers lose sight of all these benefits, and they go through the motions with employees just because it’s expected of them — please don’t! Everything you give your attention to should be on-purpose and Ho‘ohana intentional.

Do yourself and your employees a favor, and get excited about goal-setting again by focusing on the benefits: Add more excitement and energy to the entire process, and get them to say:

“I feel strong when I talk to you.”

Performance Reviews: There’s a much better way

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Sat to talk story with a few managers who are currently facing their annual deadline with completing performance appraisals.

If you’re in corporate life you probably know the drill:
Performance reviews are conducted annually in one-on-one manager/employee appraisal meetings (and mandated), and managers are required to use a format designed by an HR office or some consultant, so consistent performance ratings can be used throughout the company for supposed equity in compensation levels — a poor reason for a bad process.

Employees hate it, and managers hate it, and yet scores of companies continue to uphold the practice. Pure yuck.

As you might guess from my tone so far, we don’t use that system in any of my Managing with Aloha-modeled businesses (we don’t have Job Position Descriptions either; we co-write individual Ho‘ohana Statements).

Do we review performance? Of course! The difference is that we do it constantly, coaching and mentoring on the job as the best possible context for having those conversations: Working on our Ho‘ohana is an everyday thing (and compensation is handled in another way as well). Thanks to opportunities furnished by The Daily 5 Minutes and our value-mapping practices, business partners (i.e. employees) are often the ones to initiate conversations on their performance with managers.

However I know that many managers have no choice but to comply with mandates, and like those I just coached, they have to work within the system they have until they are able to change it. Well, you CAN make improvements, making them work for you right now. Embrace your Systems Thinker: As we have learned, people can fix broken processes. Processes cannot fix broken-in-spirit people.

Here is what I advise.

Keep the good, get rid of the bad

In short: Turn your mandates into a positive and highly useful process.

  • Start with the basics of what you are required to do,
  • Improve the quality of those basics when done by your hand, and then
  • Build new improvements from there.

Here’s how.

1. Learn everything there is to know about your mandate. Good managers never wing it or fake it when it comes to putting anything in writing in regard to the performance of another human being. If you’re feeling somewhat powerless at this point in changing anything about the system as it now stands, imagine how your employees feel! They are counting on you: Hold yourself accountable for what is a profound responsibility.

Put your own manager or HR department to work for you, and get their coaching. Ask all your questions, and be crystal clear on the domino effect created by any appraisal form you complete: forms largely exist to expedite other processes.

2. Do your homework. If you’re working within a mandated system, you’re not alone. Chances are the employees in your charge have been reviewed before, and by others: Learn their history. I don’t necessarily recommend you use it (each situation is likely to have different variables requiring your judgment), but you should definitely be aware of it: you can’t build a new house (and culture of Aloha) without a solid foundation.

Second, put your feelers out for other managers who have a good reputation in your company (managing and leading with Aloha), and ask them to share any of their lessons learned with you: You may be pleasantly surprised in discovering great workarounds (legal ones) which already exist in your company culture.

3. Add some heart to add good energy. I cannot emphasize this enough: In “starting with the basics of what you are required to do” make the ‘official’ annual appraisal meeting a positive experience, helping without hurting. Do what you have to (more on this in the next section on timing) but be absolutely sure the annual appraisal itself ends on a high note: Positive and useful.

How can it be useful? Do have the appraisal focus on Ho‘ohana goal-setting, with action-specific goals that are achievable week to week (not year to year). Hō‘imi: Lay the groundwork for a near future flush with positive expectancy. Always remember that the energy of your people will fuel their capacity to perform magnificently going forward, and thus, it’s your greatest resource too: All other business assets flow from the performance energy of human beings. Your job as manager is to light those fires, not put them out.

4. Ace your timing. Until you can change the system itself, do whatever is required of you, by doing what you have to at the best possible time. If you have to deal with some negativity and have a conversation about poor performance, do so and do not avoid it. Be a good boss: Never shy from your opportunities to teach, facilitate, coach and mentor.

Corrective conversations do NOT have to occur during an annual appraisal: They should happen before then, and in their best context on the job. Alaka‘i managers will create a coaching m.o. where they deal with any messes first, and then use the annual appraisal as yet another time to celebrate a sweet victory with having done so. Give that victory to the employee whose performance you are coaching and mentoring as a win you can log during the ‘official’ review.

5. Keep conversation as the construct of each working relationship. Annual appraisals are a pain when you only do them annually. What I’m suggesting to you is that whatever is required becomes the culmination of better practices you’ve adopted day in, and day out. We talk about conversation so much here because it’s easy, enjoyable, and effective.

Work with Ho‘ohana initiatives to fuel performance energies in your workplace group huddles. Do the Daily 5 Minutes ® and you will have a wealth of one on one conversations:

I need to be crystal clear about something:
If you’re not giving your staff the gift of the Daily Five Minutes ®
you’re not Managing with Aloha „¢

Turn up the Volume, and Manage Loudly:
Don’t give up too soon. Enjoy the music of managing well.

This need not be overwhelming:
Don’t Just Add, Replace. Own the 100%
Scroll down to the footnote tags and see how much this relates to!

Bonus Idea: One of the practices we incorporate in the ‘Ohana in Business Model ® is the Annual Nānā i ke kumu Interview: We literally re-interview all our business partners (including our vendors and suppliers) to strengthen our relationships with the knowledge of any life shifts which have occurred over the past year. It’s a time we revisit innate talents, strength activities, and sense of place well-being as we purposely catch up with each other. Why do so many managers only do this when they first hire people?

Will this be enough for you?

Finally, please do question your own influence: Stretch and grow it, and do not underestimate what you are capable of. What can you do to effect change in the larger system? How can you be a change agent where you work so a bad system goes away forever?

I think of what I’ve just outlined for you in this post as managing well: As I love to say, managing and leading are verbs. Will you be satisfied with this, or will you now lead? One problem with leadership, is simply that we don’t have enough of it.

As I mentioned before, the obstacle faced is usually your company’s compensation structure if that’s what ratings are tied to: Break the ties which bind by offering to help them create a much better solution.

D5Mdiscover

Failure isn’t cool. Neither is weakness

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“Failure is not a great well of lessons. ”¨Don’t think it’s a prerequisite for success.”
—Jason Fried

I listened to a short riff by Jason Fried of 37signals recently (the podcast is available here) in which he says, “Failure is not cool. Don’t get into it.”

He asks why we will insist on thinking of failure as character-building, when what we really aim to build up are our successes, not our failures. If you make failure out to be “cool” and you concentrate on learning from your mistakes, you’re only learning what not to do next time. Isn’t it way better, he asks, to learn from your successes instead, and continue to parlay on what went right?

Makes sense to me. It’s not a good idea to keep catch-phrases like “fail early and often” in the language of your work culture when failure isn’t what you actually want. In Managing with Aloha we will say that “mistakes are cool” to recognize that mistakes are part of the learning process, but we do stop short of being okay with repeated mistakes, and with failure, because truth is, we’re not!

Fried later wrote, in a follow-up article on Signal vs. Noise:

“I don’t understand the cultural fascination with failure being the source of great lessons to be learned. What did you learn? You learned what didn’t work. Now you won’t make the same mistake twice, but you’re just as likely to make a different mistake next time. You might know what won’t work, but you still don’t know what will work. That’s not much of a lesson.”

“There’s a significant difference between ‘now I know what to do again’ and ‘don’t do that again’” It’s true: Everything is a learning experience. Good and bad, there’s something to be learned. But all learning isn’t equal.”

I think this reasoning applies to strengths and weaknesses as well.

When doing performance assessments, managers continue to operate within a misplaced focus on weaknesses, when strength-building is what will get them far better results.

Relevance, and setting expectations

I will never, ever forget something an employee once said to me in an annual performance review, as we both sat in that dreaded annual appraisal meeting mandated by our employer, with the company’s check-off-the-standard-box form on the table between us. Thankfully this happened pretty early in my management career, and I did catch my mistake before repeating it into a dismal failure.

We had been talking about something the employee had screwed up, and he reached out both his hands to lie them flat on the review form and cover it up as a way to make me look up at him, stop talking, and listen.

“Got it already Rosa, can we change the subject and get through this faster? Believe me, when I make a mistake, I know it, and I don’t need you to remind me about it. What I need you to help me with, is seeing when I do something right, and I haven’t yet figured out that you like it, and it’s something I need to keep doing.”

“My screw-up sucked. But you know what really sucks? I’m still not sure I know exactly what I should do next time. Tell me what you want, and let’s  move on.”

What a lightbulb moment! He was telling me that he dreaded another mistake happening way more than I did, my harping on the mistake was like rubbing salt into his wound, and I wasn’t doing a damn thing to help him make sure the mistake didn’t happen again as failure just waiting to happen.

That conversation became a lesson we’ve now woven into our Managing with Aloha coaching for managers as,

“People catch their own weaknesses.
Your job, is to catch and encourage their strengths,
and those strengths aren’t usually clear.”

See here’s the thing: RELEVANCE. Contextual relevance, with the context being your workplace. Similar to failure and success, weakness and strength is either relevant to what you need, or irrelevant. Just as Fried says, “all learning isn’t equal,” neither are strengths, for honestly? Nobody cares about a strength you have unless it is useful to them too.

This creates a perfect opportunity for managers to manage better. Managers help their staff best, when they clearly define the workplace relevance where strength-associated activities matter, and count in better performance results. What we normally refer to this as, is “setting expectations” but we stop short of making the expectations crystal clear.

For instance, an employee can feel they are good with numbers, and they will call it a strength in analytical thinking, but “numbers” and the mathematical application of numerology is a pretty huge arena of possibility: Are you looking for strength with measurement? With statistics? With numerical classification of asset inventory? With pattern and sequence? With rounding-off calculation out in the field? Or with macro wizardry in an Excel spreadsheet?

Here’s another common strength self-assessment you will usually hear in a job interview, one which really doesn’t tell you very much at all: “I’m good with people.” Which people? Customers and comfort with the welcoming process and art of the sale, or co-workers where you rely on an insider’s language and peer-to-peer coaching?

Let’s connect our Alaka‘i lessons-learned:

Here’s a self-coaching plan for you, the Alaka‘i manager, using the free resources this blog offers:

Step 1— M/L 70-30: Reduce your Leadership to a Part-time Gig in 2010. Use The 30-70 Rule in Leading and Managing, for reviewing it can help you think about this in both a practical and intentional way. Besides the productivity slant of it, the articles cover the intentions we bring to leading (and creating workplace energies) and managing (to channel those newly available energies).

Step 2— Leading in 30: Post before this one, we spoke of the difference between acceptable behavior and accomplished behavior in moving performance forward in a better, stronger way. Accomplished behavior is the way you can better identify the strengths you need in your own workplace: Feeling good isn’t the same as feeling strong. Define your contextual differences.

Step 3— Managing in 70: Is the 70% you must devote to your day-to-day efforts, and it is what today’s article is all about. Kick “failure is cool” out of your language of intention, for success is what’s cool. Then get this to be real in your managing: “People catch their own weaknesses. Your job, is to catch and encourage their strengths, and those strengths aren’t usually clear.” Help them get clear, and be successful.

Photo Credit: Pipe Cleaner Muscle Man by Bob.Fornal on Flickr

Adding Value to Performance Reviews

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Rick asked me a question a few days ago, and I promised him an answer. He asked,

Rosa – Question – It is annual performance review time again (our year ends March 31) so I thought I would ask you if you could share some quick wisdom on the matter?

Hmmm…

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One of the things I often say in my speeches and presentations to groups of managers, is that if I could wave a magic wand and instantly change something for them, I would eliminate two things from their work routine,

a) annual performance reviews and

b) job descriptions.

Every single time I say it, everyone in the room cheers.

Everyone looks at the CEO or COO with the same question in their expression, “Why can’t we?”

The CEO and COO look at the HR Director in turn, wondering, “Why can’t we?”

The HR Director looks at the CFO, wondering, “Why can’t we?”

Everyone in the room agrees they hate the process, and everyone wonders, “Why can’t we?”

And yet, I know they won’t do anything about it. When the next review period rolls around, they will obediently kowtow to the process once again.

So, why don’t they? Why don’t you?

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My basic complaint with both of these things is that they are the most prevalent signs of automatic pilot in the workplace, and they fuel mediocrity in work performance.

Job descriptions put a lid on capacity and inhibit possibility. They impose limits instead of opening doors. They box up a persons’ energy and initiative and squash their creativity. Squash it like a bug.

And then there are annual performance reviews. I am not a fan of them for a couple of reasons;

As blatantly demonstrated by those at my speeches, most of the people who own the process don’t even know why they have to continue to support them.

They are done for the wrong reasons (because we have to) and at the wrong times (because the “annual” time is here again) and in the wrong context (next; it’s your turn).

The vast majority of managers have been trained to do them wrong, beating people up for their weaknesses instead of building them up with their strengths.

Thus goal setting gets really screwed up, with people encouraged to “try harder” with their weaknesses, versus concentrating on KÅ«lia i ka nu‘u, and striving to higher levels of achievement and excellence based on innate talent capacity.

In the quest for consistency and objectivity, most of them are designed with rating systems that are completely subjective, or which put a lid on expectations (“Come on now, no one gets all 5’s on these things.”)

Managers cop out in the name of supposed open-mindedness (“Rate yourself, and I’ll tell you if I agree or not.”)

So here’s the deal. You may agree with me, but you still have to do them. You want me to stop whining about what you already know too, and give you some advice on how you make the best of it.

Okay. Go for added value. Just like Dave talks about.

  1. Make it as positive an experience as you can, by talking about and celebrating everything that’s going right.   Even if your rating is an honest 3 or 4, don’t talk about why it’s not a 5, talk about ideas to get it to 5 soon — and note I didn’t say by the time of the next annual review, I said “soon.”
  2. Every single person on the face of the earth has in-born, natural talents that are unique to them; make it your job to discover them in partnership with the person you are reviewing. Don’t make this more difficult than it is; ask them, “What do you feel are the things here at work you’re really great at?”
  3. Resist the urge to fix someone. Even if you feel you want to use the time to correct a problem, don’t. Yes, performance problems must be solved, but trust me, during the traditional annual ‘performance review’ is not the right time. You coach to correct performance at work as you work, not during an annual performance review staring at a form with ratings.
  4. About that form, and those ratings: Do your due diligence, be honest and be consistent with the process so it has integrity, but dispense with it as quickly and as expeditiously as possible. Zip through it; it should be easy to do so when you are following steps 1. through 3 and it’s all good and positive.
  5. Now here’s the added value part: Talk about KÅ«lia i ka nu‘u and Excellence, and how you want to enlist their help in banishing mediocrity forever. Sign them up for your warpath.
  6. Use the rest of the time that’s left to do a first draft of this form, one of my very favorite MWA tools: The Ho‘ohana Mission Worksheet. You’ve done it for yourself in the Jumpstart program, and now it’s time to do it with those who you manage. In doing so, you will help drive actions which create momentum because those actions are about the successful achievement of worthwhile, meaningful goals.

This doesn’t take that long. You can do Steps 1 through 4 in 30 to 45 minutes depending on the form you’re saddled with, and then Steps 5 and 6 will only take you about a half hour more because you are just coming up with a first draft.   Coach your staff to sleep on it, and then come back to you with a finished draft in another week.

I promise you, if management is your calling, you’ll know how to keep going with your coaching of your staff thereafter. Grab a subscription, and keep reading, for we talk about the ins and outs of coaching here all the time!

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For more since this article was originally posted, click this index: Annual Appraisals. Articles will be listed in order of my most recent offerings to the older ones tucked in the archives.