The Workplace Coach

How does your organisation manage performance? 

“…there is no evidence anywhere in the world, in any institution of management science, that existing employee evaluation and rating processes are effective.” (Clifton & Harter, 2019)

If your organisation is like most then there is a good chance that you have a system of annual or bi-annual reviews.  There will be a once-a-year performance agreement establishment process where the manager and the employee sit down, and jointly agree the key performance measures for the year ahead, hopefully with some identified development activities thrown in for good measure.  The resulting document will be filed (in an electronic format) to be pulled out again at the mid-year and end of year review periods.

At review time, the employee might record a self-assessment against the agreed measures and submit this to the manager.  The manager will then add their own assessment, agreeing or disagreeing with the employee’s self-assessment, and adding a performance rating.  This rating is probably against a 1-3 or 1-5 scale and likely has some relationship to performance bonuses. 

This whole system is fundamentally flawed, outdated and inefficient. It wastes a lot of time, causes stress to everyone involved, and usually is highly subjective based on the relationship the employee has with their manager.  Research over the past decade has conclusively shown that this type of performance management system actually decreases organisational performance and productivity.

One Washington Post business writer called it a “rite of corporate kabuki” that restricts creativity, generates mountains of paperwork, and serves no real purpose. Others have described annual reviews as a last-century practice and blamed them for a lack of collaboration and innovation.

So what’s the answer? How do I manage my people’s performance?

Relax, start from the premise that most people actually want to come to work and do a great job.  Your job then is to make sure that your people are crystal clear on what is expected of them, and as their manager, do what you can to remove any obstacles or barriers that might prevent them from doing their best work.  Simple right?

There is huge value in the initial discussion and development of an ‘agreement’ to establish clarity on what ‘good performance’ is going to look like in this role.  This is not a static document though, it should be updated as regularly as required. The end of year wrap up is also useful but shouldn’t have any surprises for the employee and is really just an opportunity to start looking forward to the year ahead.   

The practice of ‘managing performance’ needs to be just a part of the way you manage your team.  I recommend weekly work-in-progress (WIP) meetings with each of your direct reports.  The purpose of these relatively informal meetings is to be sure that you both know what they are working on, any challenges that have come up since last week, any concerns about delivery and any changes to priorities that might be needed.  These WIPs are also a great time to give feedback, both positive feedback about what they are doing well as well as corrective feedback around what needs improvement.  Each meeting is also an opportunity to build the relationship and trust between you.

Performance management today needs a fundamental shift from a carrot and stick mindset, towards a growth and development mindset.  Part of this is also about managers shifting their thinking from ‘being the boss’ towards ‘being the leader’.  There is a huge difference, maybe we talk about that another time?  

The Workplace Coach