Creating a Process For Evaluation

By Bob Nelson

One of the most important things you can do as a manager is conduct accurate and timely performance evaluations of your employees. As the old saying goes, feedback is the breakfast of champions—make it a regular part of your management diet! (read more...)

Information: Share It
Having The Scoop or Out of The Loop

By Bev Kaye

Information is power. But you’ve known that for a long time. As kids we knew that having the inside scoop is cool and we felt important if we were given information that others did not have. If information is power, then being “out of the loop”—lacking information—might leave one powerless. Your employees want you to be “in the loop” and they want and need you to bring them in too. (read more...)

On a Consumer Watershed

By Marshall Goldsmith

Over the past few years a major shift in customer behavior has reshaped the nature of many markets and is leading to profound changes in how companies attempt to serve those markets. More and more business customers have quit buying stand-alone products and have started buying integrated solutions. (read more...)

Creating a Process For Evaluation (^ top)

By Bob Nelson

Step 1: Set goals, expectations, and standards. Before your employees can perform to your expectations, you have to set goals with them and develop standards to measure their performance. And after you’ve done all this, you have to communicate these goals—before you evaluate your employees—not after. In fact, the performance review really starts on the first day of work! Tell your employees right then how you evaluate them, show them the forms to be used, and explain the process. Make sure that job descriptions are clear and unambiguous, and that you and your employees understand and agree to the standards you’ve set for them.

Step 2: Give continuous and specific feedback. Catch your employees doing things right and tell them about it then and there. And if you catch them doing wrong (nobody’s perfect!), then let them know about that, too. Feedback is much more effective when you give it regularly and often than when you save it up for a special occasion. The best formal performance evaluations contain the fewest surprises.

Step 3: Prepare a formal, written performance evaluation with your employee. Every organization has different requirements for the formal performance evaluation. Regardless of the requirements of your particular organization, the formal performance evaluation should be a summary of the goals and expectations for the evaluation period—events that you have discussed previously (and frequently!) with your employees. Both the employee and manager should prepare individually for the performance review, to be as collaborative as possible. Compare your comments with those of your employees; the differences you find being topics of discussion and mutual goal setting.

Step 4: Meet personally with your employees to discuss the performance evaluation. Most employees appreciate the personal touch when you give the evaluation. Set aside some quality time to meet with them to discuss their performance evaluation. This doesn’t mean five or ten minutes, but at least an hour or maybe more! When you plan performance appraisal meetings, less is definitely not more. Make the meeting positive and upbeat. Even when you have to discuss performance problems, center your discussions on ways that you and your employees can work together to solve them.

Step 5: Set new goals, expectations, and standards. The performance evaluation meeting gives you and your employees the opportunity to step back and take a look at the big picture. You both have an opportunity to review and discuss the things that worked well and the things that, perhaps, didn’t work so well. Based on this assessment, you can then set new goals, expectations, and standards for the next review period.

Step 6: Link to areas of personal development. The best performance evaluations place the job in a larger context of the employee's career and journey toward increased responsibilities in the organization. Look for opportunities for personal growth and development and discuss strategies for helping the employee achieve those goals.

At its best, the performance review process encourages employees to put forth their best effort and take initiative at work to achieve both organizational and personal goals. At its worst the exact opposite happens and employees are made to feel unimportant, abused, and unappreciated for the job they’ve done. Following these six steps will help you get the best out of your performance review process.

Information: Share It (^ top)
Having The Scoop or Out of The Loop

By Bev Kaye

Information is power. But you’ve known that for a long time. As kids we knew that having the inside scoop is cool and we felt important if we were given information that others did not have. If information is power, then being “out of the loop”—lacking information—might leave one powerless. Your employees want you to be “in the loop” and they want and need you to bring them in too.

In the Absence of Information They Will Make It Up

Sharing information during times of dramatic change is even more critical than during stable times. We have seen dozens of examples of high-level managers withholding information -- we acknowledge that at times you simply cannot share -- and middle managers hoarding information out of fear of losing their power or importance.
Check out what might happen when a senior manager withholds information about change:

Senior Manager Thinks: Employees Think:
It’s too early to tell them. Silence must mean it’s pretty bad.
This news is too frightening—we’d better wait. They’re moving the company to Panama.
I’m afraid if we tell them, productivity will drop. The company’s going belly-up. Where else can I get a job?

The manager is trying to protect the employees and prevent the water cooler talk that puts a huge dent in productivity. Ironically, it backfires. What do you suppose happens to productivity as employees worry about their jobs and, worse yet, update their resumes?

In contrast, when top leaders give information as early and honestly as possible and hold managers accountable for sharing the news, employees feel important and valued, and the productivity dip has been minimized.

How to Share
Volumes have been written about how to communicate with employees, both in “normal” times and during times of dramatic change. Face-to-face exchanges, videos & newsletters, e-mails, voice mails, open forums and bulletin boards all have a place in the process. Which approach works best given your organization’s culture and your message?
Here are a few guidelines to consider.

To Do
1. Share information face to face, especially if it is difficult to deliver or will impact your employees significant ways. Tell your direct reports the news yourself, rather than having them learn it from a memo or some other source. Then, let your supervisors give the news to their direct reports. Research shows us that people are more apt to believe the news and react more favorably when it’s delivered in this manner.

2. If critical information must flow down through many layers, make certain the message is getting through. We all know what happens to a story when it has been repeated several times—it barely resembles the original!

3. Get creative. If a message is sent creatively it will have chance of being noticed. Consider doing the unexpected. If people are used to hearing news via memos, try a face-to-face exchange or video next time.

The Bottom Line
Stay in the loop. Keep your employees in the loop. It will help you keep your talent!

On a Consumer Watershed (^ top)

By Marshall Goldsmith

(Modified from an article originally published in Leader to Leader)

Over the past few years a major shift in customer behavior has reshaped the nature of many markets and is leading to profound changes in how companies attempt to serve those markets. More and more business customers have quit buying stand-alone products and have started buying integrated solutions. This trend means that leaders of successful organizations will need to develop different organizational structures, systems, and skills in order to meet these new customer requirements.

Several factors have helped accelerate the move to integrated solutions. Many technologies, such as computers, copiers, fax machines, and other office equipment are rapidly converging. Companies in these industries are responding in surprising ways. A growing percentage of IBM's business, for example, now involves customized solutions incorporating non-IBM products and services. Who would have imagined, even in 1990, that IBM would be largely in the service business!

While the idea of IBM selling non-IBM products was almost unheard of in the recent past, it is now becoming commonplace-to the benefit of customers and, in the long run, IBM itself. Likewise, leading telecommunications and other equipment providers now have to compete by offering "network solutions" involving many products formerly sold separately.

Pitney Bowes is moving toward “Pitney One”. An organization that is designed to meet many of the customer’s needs without having the customer to deal with multiple (and often confusing) interface points. This initiative is so critical that it has become “top priority” for the executives of the corporation!

And, in a very different industry, Royal Bank Financial Group's Dominion Securities is developing financial service super stores that combine investment, savings, and insurance solutions for the group's clients.

As the world becomes more complex, customers' need to "keep it simple" increases. However, making things simple for customers may not be simple for providers. Integrating processes from autonomous units (or even separate companies) poses political and organizational challenges often greater than the technical challenges.

Leading an organization that provides integrated multi-product solutions is very different from leading an organization that sells a single line of products. The new challenges faced by leaders create a need for different priorities and skills. These new challenges include:

Moving from a more hierarchical organization toward a more "networked" organization. In a hierarchical organization, leaders can more easily give orders and expect people to respond. In a network organization, leaders need to effectively influence people without line authority. Johnson & Johnson's worldwide franchise managers, for instance, may have to get country managers, whom they do not directly supervise, to commit to a strategic marketing or purchasing plan. People throughout the organization will be expected to routinely make decisions once reserved for managers. Skills in developing partnerships that cross boundaries are critical. The leader's ability to develop long- term "win-win" relationships is becoming a key differentiator in the organization’s competitive success.

Recognizing the shifting roles of customers, competitors, and partners. AT&T and BellSouth, AOL and Microsoft, Glaxo SmithKline and Merck are all examples of companies that deal with one another at various times as customers, competitors, and partners. In a world where today's competitors become tomorrow's customers, simply "beating the other guy" is not always the answer. Leaders will need to ensure that even competitors view the organization as tough but fair and as a good potential partner. Leaders must not underestimate the value of diplomacy, reputation, and goodwill in today's interconnected world.

Truly understanding the customer's business. Tomorrow's organization is more likely to be structured around customer segment, such as Accenture Consulting's Telecommunications Practice, than product or geography. Leaders will have to ensure that organizational members spend sufficient time on the continuous learning needed to keep up with rapidly changing customer environments. Rather than learn just the basic skills required to sell and support a product, employees will need to develop the ability to solve complex problems and maintain diverse relationships.

Making complex, multi-business deals. Effective leaders will have to be much more skilled in making complex deals involving multiple businesses-and in a shorter period of time. The old bureaucratic model involving huge written contracts and countless sign-offs will not work in a more competitive, rapidly changing environment.

As the "information age" kicks in, many more businesses will come to resemble consulting organizations. However, the consulting organization is generally quite different from the sales or manufacturing organization. Top consultants generally have a low need to manage others but a high need not to be managed by others. Increasingly, providing opportunities to work on meaningful projects will be more important than providing promotion opportunities, and hiring on an ''as needed" basis will often make more sense for employers and enterprising employees than traditional salaried arrangements.

The demand by customers in widely diverse industries for integrated solutions rather than stand-alone products is not a fluke or a fad. It is a powerful response to a more complex, more global, more competitive landscape. It is, in short, a watershed event. Leaders who can master the skills called for in this new environment stand to reap tremendous advantages for their organizations; those who cling instead to what has worked in the past do so at their own peril.

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