Author: Marcia Zidle

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Performance Appraisals: Are You Playing Games?

A-business-woman-addressing-her-colleagues

“I find myself trying to avoid those annual appraisals with my people. Much as I try to keep the meeting focused, we always seem to get side tracked and involved in personal stuff.” – Health Care Manager

During a recent training on performance reviews, I asked managers when they experienced problems. Many said it was during the discussion phase. Either the person who received performance feedback became defensive, or the manager when asked to explain her comments, became flustered. Here are some communication errors or games that affect performance appraisals. See if you’ve played them.

As the Manager:

  • Acting the nice guy: Wants to avoid conflict so rates everyone high to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings, regardless of performance.
  • Changing in mid-stream: Backs off from giving feedback if the person gets upset or emotional.
  • Disguising: Uses “sandwich” technique of good news – bad news – good news or slips bad news in during unrelated discussion.
  • Going one way: Gives either all negative or all positive feedback, leading the person to believe he can do nothing wrong or nothing right.
  • Going through the motions: Sends a clear message that this review is done out of duty and discussion is discouraged.

As the Employee:

  • Stonewalling: Flatly rejects feedback as wrong or unusable or biased.
  • Excuse making: Always blames someone or something else. Favorite phrase is, “Yes, but…”
  • Clamming up: Will not respond to questions or discuss performance problems.
  • Counterattacking: Collects or creates and presents “evidence” to prove manager is wrong.
  • Bargaining: Focuses on the ratings rather than the feedback, negotiating to improve the score.

Here are three tips to improve your communication whether an employee or manager.

  1. Don’t assume anything. Don’t let an employee or your manager think that you know what is going to be said. You may be wrong and therefore get off to a bad start.
  2. Don’t interrupt. Let the person have her full say. The person who is stopped may feel that her opinions are not important.
  3. Don’t react too quickly. We all tend to jump to conclusions. The person may use a word that makes us see red, or may express a situation badly. Try to understand, not necessarily agree, with the other’s viewpoint.

Management Success Tip:

Think back to a recent discussion you’ve had giving feedback to an employee or receiving feedback from your manager. Were any of the above games played? If so, what could you have done differently? Also see Performance Appraisals: A Quick Guide for Managers.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Make the Right Career Move: Part 2

A-man-thinking-of-a-career-move-to-make

Imagine that you’ve been offered two different positions and you have to decide which one you want.

Or perhaps you’re already in a good job, but something that seems to be a better opportunity comes up in another company.

To make a wise decision you must operate on two levels: The rational with our head (see part 1). Now we’re going to focus on the emotional with our gut.

Emotional Analysis: Personal Satisfaction

Armed with the facts about the job, you next think about what you are looking for in a great job. Since the whole point is to find the best option for you, you need to do a self-analysis as well. On a scale from 1 (poor – lots of red flags) to 10 (great – lots of winning flags) how would you rate each position on the following satisfaction criteria?

1. The work itself
What you will be doing on a daily basis should be the primary focus of your satisfaction criteria. Unless the work is satisfying, it may not really matter whether you make vast sums of money. The things to consider are Job responsibilities, Authority to make decisions, Leadership/supervision, Variety, Autonomy, Challenge, Self-expression/creativity, Physical environment. How flexible is the job – can you mold it to provide greater satisfaction?

2. Financial considerations
What you are paid is important when making any career decision. Your salary and bonus potential determine whether you can buy a new home, purchase a car, go on vacations, or start a family. It’s important that you have a good idea of what you need to achieve a reasonable standard of living. Does the salary, benefits, incentives and growth potential give you a safety net to put most of your energy into working not worrying about finances ?

3. Culture and relationships
You will spend a large portion of your day at work. It is important that you get along with your co-workers and feel like you fit in. Sure, there will minor disagreements along the way. However, you should be comfortable with the cultural elements such as dress codes, expectations about socializing, work / life balance, etc. Are you comfortable or hesitant about the culture?

4. The company’s reputation
People tend to want to work for organizations that make them feel good about what they are doing on a daily basis. Look at the company’s size, values, leadership, products or services, industry, reputation and contributions to society. Does it make you feel good to work for this company?

Now What?

Once you’ve worked through the job analysis and the satisfaction analysis, which option or options scored highest? Does it make sense to you? Are you ready to make a decision? If not, then run it by a friend or mentor or coach to get validation.

But what if you still uncertain? That’s OK. First revisit your analyses and see if your thinking or scoring might change. Also get feedback from others who know you – family, friend, mentor, colleague, etc. If you are still uncertain, then there may be other things tht are getting in the way. perhaps it’s time to seek out a coach.

Career Success Tip:

Stop thinking money is everything. Don’t let others define success for you. Only you can define what is most impotent in your life and only you can set the right priorities for your life and career. Remember you’ll be living and working for many years. Make the most of them.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Managing Problem Employees

A manager angrily asking an employee out of a meeting

“I’ve taken over a project team and there are several problem employees. One spends more time socializing than doing her job. Another is making too many mistakes that slow down the team. How should I handle these problems as the new leader?”

One of a leader’s toughest jobs is dealing with problem employees. The best course of action is to quickly take action – to identify the trouble and get to the root cause. Allowing the problem behavior to continue or escalate is counterproductive for the employee, for you and for the rest of your team.

Here are three common problems and suggestions for dealing with them.

1. Poor performance.
This may be due to a lack of skills or to faulty work habits such as being careless or disorganized. When you notice that an employee has made some errors, point out the mistakes immediately and monitor their work more closely. If performance difficulties continue, consider coaching or additional training.

2. Job incompatibility.
In some cases an employee becomes a problem because their skills are not compatible with their assigned tasks or regular duties. In this case, offering the employee additional training or assigning them a different set of tasks.

3. Disruptive behavior.
Take the employee out for lunch or a cup of coffee in a casual setting. State examples of the disruptive behavior and ask what’s troubling him. It may be a personal problem or a simple case of feeling unappreciated. If the problem is more serious, conduct a closed-door meeting and show documented examples of the problem behavior. Discuss the possible consequences he faces – change in responsibilities, demotion or termination – if their behavior does not change.

Management Success Tip:

It’s critical to document the problems and record all discussions and actions you’ve taken. Employees often consider written warnings more seriously than verbal reprimands. Creating a paper trail is important, especially if you decide to terminate the employee. Also see Performance Problems: Nip Them in the Bud and Employee Coaching.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Make the Right Career Move: Part 1

A-man-thinking-and-pondering-a-new-career-move.

Imagine that you’ve been offered two different positions and you have to decide which one you want.

Or perhaps you’re already in a good job, but something that seems to be a better opportunity comes up in another company.

This was the situation with a financial services professional client. She could stay in her present position, relocate to another business unit or take an overseas assignment with an international business.

Having options is great: What a wonderful confidence booster! However, there’s also a lot of pressure trying to decide which option is best.

To make the right choice, you have to decide what factors are most important to you and then you have to choose the option that best addresses these factors. Decision making operates on two levels: the rational with our head and the emotional with our gut. Both are important in making the right career move.

Rational Analysis: The Job:
A good decision is an informed decision. Therefore you start out by gathering good information about the qualities of your options.. On a scale from 1 (poor – lots of red flags) to 10 (great – lots of winning flags) how would you rate each position on the following:

1. The job description
What are the key objectives? What competencies are required? How is success determined and rewarded? Does this agree with your expectations?

2. The culture
Does the department/organization have a distinct ‘way of doing things”? What kinds of behavior does it admire and reward (dog-eat-dog or we’re all one big team)? How well do you think you’ll fit in?

3. The incumbent’s success
Who has been/is successful in the role? What characteristics do they possess? What skills beyond the job description do they use? ? Do you have what it takes?

4. The available resources
Does the role/department appear to have adequate resources? Do you have a budget and will it grow? How much training and development will be available to you? Do you need additional resources?

5. The career path
Where have people in this role typically moved? What is the average tenure in the position? How does this fit job, using the same scale. Finally, multiply these values together to give the score for that row of the table.

So far, you’ve looked at each job’s qualities in an objective manner. However, it’s also important to consider how your decision feels. You need to get in touch with your inner self and think about how well the career options fit with your overall sense of self and personal fulfillment. Part 2 focuses on the analysis of satisfaction criteria.

Career Success Tip:

This type of analysis is not just for career options outside your current company. Some internal moves may take you to business units that operate quite differently from the rest of the organization. It’s important to understand your criteria in these areas regardless of whether your move is inside or outside the company.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Motivate Your People With Your Drawerful of $100 Bills

An-office-team-celebrating-on-a-win.

The office holiday party was a huge success. Was it just a way to thank your workers for a job well done this past year? Or do you expect it to have the lasting power to motivate your workers for the next twelve months?

I’m not trying to be a scrooge or put a damper on the holiday spirit. Rather I’m inquiring how do you obtain consistent, high performance from the people you manage, coach, lead, or supervise? So I asked the experts—not the management or academic gurus—but the people who lead, supervise, or coach on a daily basis. Here’s what was said:

“It’s the small things on a day by day basis that bring down performance–and-it’s the small things every day that can raise performance. One or two large events a year probably won’t do it. They may be fun….but if morale is down, I bet you’ll find a bunch of people griping about the other stuff that goes on in the workplace.”

Drawerful of $100 bills

A supervisor’s sincere recognition of a job well done will usually do more for getting people to do their best work than a holiday party or picnic. Respect, acknowledgment and genuine praise cost you nothing. But they can pay off substantially in terms of employee commitment and discretionary effort—the difference between what employees must do to keep their jobs and what they are fully capable of contributing.

As a consultant working, for the past twenty five years in many kinds of industries and in companies that had 10 people to companies that had 10,000+, here’s what I’ve observed of “good” managers—-those who consistently get top performance from their team, staff, or project group. Here is a sampling of their $100 bills:

1. Providing more appreciative feedback.
The good stuff should come a lot more often than the bad stuff! Giving direct, honest feedback about their contributions on a regular basis and emphasizing the consequences of what they have done.
Example: “I noticed you put in a lot of extra work to finish your part of this project. As a result, we were able to finish ahead of schedule and the main office was really impressed. Thank you for going the extra mile.”

2. Letting others know of staff or team’s contributions.
This is known as third party acknowledgment or praise. In the example below, praise directly from the director would be even more motivating.
Example: “I told the director what a great job you did on the PC installation project. She asked me to let you know how much that helped us out.”

3. Taking a sincere interest in what people do well.
Wanting to understand someone’s success is one of the highest forms of recognition and praise.
Example: Sit down with an achiever and asking how she accomplished the praise-worthy task. Examine the nuts and bolts together.

Even when it’s difficult to find something to praise, it’s worth searching. When you start noticing what people do right, they tend to do more of it. When you focus on the negative you may gain compliance (when you’re around, at least) but you breed hostility and undermine morale.

Therefore, a staff or team that has received appropriate praise will tend to be more involved, more creative and more willing to achieve the team’s or department’s goals. In the end, isn’t that what you want as manager or leader?

Management Success Tip:

People need to feel respected and appreciated on a day-to-day basis for what they contribute to the group or organization. Employee recognition and appreciation do not have to be in the form of awards or even bonuses. A manager doing simple things can gain a lot – a more motivated worker and team. Also see Employee Motivation: One Size Doesn’t Fit All.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Tips For Starting a New Job

A-young-woman-holding-documents-with-calculator-and-smiling.

new jobStarting a new role can be both exciting and stressful.

It’s moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar; from knowing the main players to determining who they are; from feeling very positive about your abilities to feeling somewhat insecure. But that’s true of every new situation.

So what do you do to regain your confidence and competence?

1. Clarify expectations immediately.
Make sure you understand from your first day why you were hired and what re your goals are for the first 6–12 months. This can help with your direction in the weeks to come. Also spend plenty of time getting to know your new boss, your new teammates and your new culture. This is the time to make friends not enemies.

2. Don’t be the Lone Ranger.
It’s not weak to ask for help. If you don’t know how or where to find the information you need, you’ll waste your time if you search for it yourself. Ask your boss or colleagues for help when you need it.

3. Realize you will be stressed at times – don’t let it bring you down.
Many people feel overwhelmed when they start with a new company. Everything is dramatically different, which can leave you feeling at times not in control and not your usual competent self. That’s normal in the beginning. However it’s important you manage the stress before it manages you.

4. Avoid making comparisons between your new and old company.
Your new team doesn’t want to hear “At my old job, we used to…” Focus on what is important now and what you need to do now, not what or how you did something in the past.

5. Have a smile on your face and goodness in your heart.
If someone on your new team does not respond well to you, don’t take it personally – at least in the beginning. Remember, you might be in a role that someone else used to have, and that person might have been a friend of this team member. It will take time to establish trust and confidence in you so put your energy in being effective and productive in your role.

Career Success Tip:

Although your boss may not expect you to create full value for the company during your first few months, be sure to have a few successes. That will help you establish credibility with her and her boss. You want them to feel they made the right decision. Also see Five Career Challenges You May Face.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Smart Hiring: 7 Best Practices for Selecting Top Talent

business-leader-interviewing-job-candidate.

“Many managers make poor staffing decisions. By all accounts their batting average is no better than .333. At most, one-third of such decisions turn out right; one-third minimally effective; and one-third outright failures. In no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.” – Peter Drucker, management icon.

I recently gave a presentation to a group of business and community leaders on how to select talent to grow their organization. Given the expense associated with recruiting top performers and the high cost of making poor choices, you would think that those responsible for hiring would follow a systematic process that results in high quality hiring.

Yet, I am continually amazed, when reviewing staffing practices, how frequently I find in companies the lack of workforce planning, inconsistent procedures, ineffective interviewing, indecision or a quick decision based on gut feel rather than good data, etc.

Here are seven best practices for selecting top talent.

  1. Don’t shoot from the hip.
    Have a well-thought-out recruitment and selection process in place. Prepare in advance for interviews. Take hiring seriously.
  2. Identify the interview team.
    Make sure you have the right people to evaluate applicants’ qualifications and also they’ve been trained on interviewing techniques. Not all supervisors are great interviewers.
  3. Develop a role expectation or job description.
    It’s important to have everyone on the same page about what is required. If one person thinks a certain personality type is needed while another thinks differently, then there will be problems deciding whom is the best applicant.
  4. Ask open-ended questions based on the position requirements.
    It’s usually not very helpful to ask candidates “Can you do x?” Most likely they’ll say yes because they think they can. Remember, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Instead, ask something like, “Tell me how you handled dealing with x?” See Behavioral Interviewing: Hire the Right Person for the Job.
  5. Decide who will ask the candidate what questions.
    It’s usually best to divide the questions based on interviewer’s area of expertise. For example, let finance people ask the finance questions.
  6. Take notes and be consistent.
    I guarantee that you will either forget what the first interviewee said or mix his/her responses with subsequent interviewees if you don’t take notes. Ask each applicant the same questions so that you can compare answers and more accurately compare them. This may save you discrimination headaches.
  7. Prepare a scorecard.
    Develop a rating system to analyze and compare each applicant. Decide on the criteria you will use to rate each applicant. Also decide on how you will decide – majority vote, consensus or the manager will have final say.

Management Success Tip:

The purpose of any hiring process is to discriminate (albeit fairly) among applicants. You must be able to differentiate those who will perform well from those who will not. Your goal is to select the right people, with the right skills, for the right jobs and at the right time. You can probably teach a turkey to climb a tree—but it is easier to hire a squirrel. Also see The Top Five Hiring Mistakes.

Readers, have you ever hired turkeys rather than squirrels? If so, let me know about it. What were your lessons learned?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Career Transition: From Technical Expert to Effective People Manager

male-and-female-entrepeurs-smiling-to-a-camera

career transition from technical expert to effective people managerRecently I spoke to a talented young software engineer who had been fast tracked into a management position.

In a very short period of time, he went from a self-fulfilled, highly competent individual producer to a stressed out leader. He found that he did not enjoy confronting under performers; didn’t know how to motivate or hold them accountable; and disliked navigating the inevitable office politics.

His training had equipped him to develop programs not people He was concerned that he had made a mistake in accepting the promotion.

What’s the Challenge?

Technical experts are often promoted because they have recognized knowledge and skills in their field. Whether it’s IT, finance, sales, or marketing, they know their job very well. After all, that’s what got them noticed! The problem is that organizations often promote people based on these technical skills, not on their management skills. And many organizations offer very little support to new managers.

Another issue is that your identity in the organization changes. You may have been a superstar in your previous role, but now you’re starting at the beginning again. It can be difficult for new managers to cope with this “identity crisis.” Am I a competent technologist or an incompetent manager?

Strategies for Making the Transition to Manager

1. Make a list of what you must improve to be a better manager.
Many managers let others assess their skills, and then wait until their performance review to discover what skills they lack. Don’t make this mistake – spend time now identifying your weaknesses, so that you can start improving on them immediately. Some of the skills that are essential for managers are delegation, motivating others, communication, performance management and coaching, etc.

2. Stay away from technical work.
Resist the temptation to get involved with technical projects that aren’t your responsibility. Spending too much time doing technical work will only hold you back as a manager. Sure, it’s good to pitch in when you can, but make sure that you do the managing part of your role first.

3. Meet with every team member.
Make it a priority to meet with everyone on your team personally. Find out what interests and motivates them, and check that they have everything they need to be happy and successful in their role. This shows that you’re taking an interest in them.

4. Find a mentor or coach.
Look for someone who has made a transition similar to yours. An internal mentor can help you avoid some of the mistakes that he or she has made as well as give you insight on the political challenges. An external coach, who has worked with technical people transitioning into management, can offer you advice on how to make the transition and excel in your new role.

Career Success Tip:

Making the transition from technical expert to manager can be challenging, especially if you have little or no management experience. Look at the key skills you need to be an effective manager and focus developing them as quick as possible. Also, focus on gaining some early wins – small victories that you and the team can achieve quickly. This will give you a sense of competency and accomplishment. See also Moving Into Management

Readers, what have been your challenges in moving from a technical expert to an effective people manager? and how ca I be of assistance?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Employee Coaching: Get the Results You Want

Two-employees-using-their-laptop-to-search-for-work-tasks

“Managers who coach their people become known as good managers to work for, developers of talent, and achievers of business results. They also become better leaders in the process.” Jack Welch, Former CEO General Electric

Why Is Coaching Important?
Good managers regularly keep their people and team informed about work performance so that they can nip problems in the bud. if you think it’ll get better or you don’t have the time now, then I can assure you down the road you’ll be spending more of your time fixing even big problems.

Here are three strategies and 25 tips on how to give corrective feedback that will be heard and most important acted on.

1. Prepare – Don’t “Wing It”

  • View coaching as tool for improvement not criticism
  • Don’t garbage dump. Decide on the key areas to cover.
  • Be sure you have documented facts not just impressions.
  • Assume positive intentions that your employees want to improve.
  • Know the target and how that person would best receive your feedback.
  • Avoid the let alone, then zap. Don’t let marginal performance build into a crisis.

2. See Coaching As a Discussion Not a Lecture

  • Coaching needs to be regular, useful, timely and two way.
  • Always look at the problems from the employee’s perspective.
  • Start with the specific situation: timeliness, error rate, lateness.
  • Explain why this situation concerns you or its impact on the team.
  • Invite the person’s response, listen attentively, and be supportive.
  • Discuss the possible reasons for the poor or marginal performance.
  • Move into problem solving emphasizing the person’s responsibility
  • Decide on specific actions and get commitment to the new actions.
  • Focus on performance, avoid getting tangled up in personality issues.
  • Summarize what was agreed upon and set-up specific follow-up date.
  • Keep it private. Public criticism will generally demotivate rather than motivate the person.
  • Go for “quick wins”. Don’t try to solve all the problems at once but ones that can be solved quickly.

3. Don’t Stop Now, Follow Up

  • Don’t let out of sight out of mind happen.
  • Praise the employee when performance improves.
  • Be specific. Tell exactly what was done right so he can do more of it.
  • Keep the message ‘clean’. Don’t mix negatives feedbakcwith positives.
  • Express your personal appreciation. Encourage them to keep up good work
  • Resume corrective coaching, or possible discipline, if improvement begins to slip.
  • Remember, feedback needs to be regular, useful, timely, two-way, focused on behavior.

Management Success Tip:

Regular employee feedback is a communication tool that keeps employees informed about their performance and their progress. Feedback should compare a person’s actual performance with an objective standard so the worker will know whether he or she is below, at or above standard. Also see Employee Coaching: Guidelines to Make it Work.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Career Change Without Leaving Your Organization

A-businesswoman-unpacking-her-belongings-after-being-called-back-to-work

You love the company, the culture and the people. The problem is that you’re bored in your current job. Things are too predictable and you’re no longer challenged. But you’re not ready to chuck it all. You have too much invested.

Many of us will change our career a number of times in our working lives. But that doesn’t mean we have to move to a different company. Rather, we first should look to change careers within our current organization. For example, an IT manager, with great people skills, might decide that her future lies in business development; or a health care professional with her new MBA might want to make a move into the finance department.

Here are seven guidelines to help you get ready for a career change to get greater career satisfaction:

1. Assess your career goals.
Before you rush into any decision, spend time thinking about your personal interests, values and skills. This helps ensure that you’ll make a move that’s aligned with those goals. See Career Anchors and Career Personalities.
2. Carefully consider the risks of this decision.
You might think that the new career will be a perfect fit for you, but what if it’s not? Do information interviewing, do a cost-benefit analysis, investigate alternatives. It’s better to know now the risks than later.
3. Create a transition plan.
Write down the new responsibilities you’ll have in your new career. Identify the qualifications or skills that you’ll need, and create a plan to start acquiring them, Look for assignments or projects that will expand your skills and help you make the move.
4. Talk to human resources.
It’s a good idea to sit down with someone in HR to find out what opportunities are available. They can also advise on training and other development opportunities as well as possible openings.
5. Keep your boss in the loop.
Explain to him diplomatically and honestly, why you want to change careers or move to another department. Offer to be a mentor for your replacement. If you can get your manager’s support, your transition will be easier.
6. Expand your network company wide.
You never know what opportunities will open up in the future. The larger your network, the more chances you’ll have to hear about interesting opportunities.
7. Rewrite your resume that markets you for the new career.
Include past successes that relate to the new career you want. For instance, if you currently work in human resources and want to move to marketing, then talk about your successful pitch to the executive team to change the hiring process to get more qualified staff.

Career Success Tip:

There are many benefits to changing career within your organization, rather than looking for opportunities elsewhere. You already know the company and you don’t have to leave a workplace that you already like. The company benefits as well. You have a proven track record and you know the people to hit the ground running. But realize, changing careers may take time and it helps to prepare beforehand. Also see Make Career Change Work for You and Changing Jobs: Don’t Have Buyer’s Remorse.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?