Who’s fault is organisational pain?

“My Distribution area is driving me insane!”  So declared Lisa, and I could see genuine anger in her eyes.  Lisa owned the company.

You pay them a lot of money, so….

“OK” Gemma said.  “So let my people know what I expect, set them up to deliver it, then expect it.  That’s all I have to do is it?”  Gemma and I were working through the true work of her Executive role.  And her tone of voice made it clear this wasn’t exactly a question.

From the Inbox: Advice on performance reviews

From the Inbox, a question from a small business owner:

Hi Adam,

I  think it is time to do a performance review for my staff. 

I know I have asked this once before but wanted to get your thoughts on options for methods on doing it. 

I am pretty keen to get the individual employees ideas on how they have gone against some KPI’s set up last year also. 

Anything you are able to help with appreciated as always.

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Performance reviews – the mindset to have is you are the coach sitting down with the player to go over the year with them – what they did well, what was not so good, what they were asked to get better at, how they did (this means you a keep a notebook during the year where you note each piece of feedback…start that now for next year)

The individual employee’s ideas on their performance, while important,  is not the most important thing.  Regardless of how well a player thinks they are performing, what they need to know to get better is the coach’s judgement on how they are doing, and examples as to why the coach came to that conclusion.

This does not mean, however, that it’s a one-way street.  Read more…

Don’t (automatically) blame the performance appraisal

“We’re thinking about ditching performance appraisals” said Bill.  He was the CEO, I was sitting down with him and Theo his GM of HR.  “Or at least revamping the whole thing.”

“Run me through it” I prompted.  “What are you seeing that makes you think they aren’t working?”

Theo answered; “Formal feedback and anecdotal evidence.  We put out some simple questions, namely, to each employee; ‘I find the performance appraisal process to be useful to me in my work’, and to each manager ‘I find the performance appraisal process helps me to make my people more valuable’.  Both with the usual 5-point system between ‘not at all’ and ‘absolutely’.”

“What did you get?”

Bill jumped in; “We struggled to get to 3….which meant ‘somewhat’.  Mostly got 1s and 2s which means ‘not at all’ or ‘barely’ some value.”

“So as you can see…” Theo continued…”the system that my area leads isn’t too flash!”

“Maybe not” I answered. “But there’s a fair chance you’re looking at a symptom here, not a cause.”

“How can perform appraisals not working be a symptom?” asked Theo.  “A symptom of what?”

“Ineffective organisational design.” Read more…

How to lift accountability without losing connection

Implementing a Requisite approach has the benefits of clarity of expectations and authority to get work done which in turn liberates people’s natural desire to be useful.  This is generated from the concept that it’s the managerial role that is accountable for the results and behaviour of their directs (regardless of who they may do a particular bit of work ‘for’).  This accountability naturally requires the managerial role to ensure clarity and authority are in place.

So far so good.

But…there is an unwanted side effect we need to avoid – the relationship disconnect.  It’s easy to accidentally adopt an approach of ‘that’s their job to do it, and if they can’t, that’s their problem’.  You might think that you would never take an approach like this, but I’ve seen it happen in well-meaning circumstances in a genuine attempt to provide freedom and autonomy.

The missing (and balancing) element is another Requisite fundamental – the managerial role exists to add value to the work of their directs. Read more…

Improve your life – sort the work system

If you’re a manager, you’re in charge of a work system.  I’m not talking about technology systems, I mean a system as in there’s an external world that puts things in, your area does things with them, and then something comes out to the external world.

A system.

You might even have done that thing where you draw the boxes and arrows, some ‘swimming lanes’ if you’re fancy and so can now declare “there’s my work system.”

Nice one.  So how come you still don’t have enough hours in the day?  Why is there still a line of people outside of your office?  And why does that diagram just fester on your G: drive and you didn’t know that your Visio licence expired two years ago?

The reason is because your work system isn’t so great.  You haven’t yet put in focussed effort to see your area as a work system, and then, every time something requires your intervention, see this as a work system failure.

That’s right – every time one of your people needs to come to you to ask a question that is not of the nature of ‘why do we do this?’, it is actually a failure of your work system. Read more…

The highest returning recognition program I know

Recognition programs.  We make them hard.  And we make excuses.  Meanwhile our people, who are actual human beings, would simply like to be recognised for what they are doing.

So while you’re waiting for the ‘reward and recognition program’ which you know is never going to emerge,  lets get on with it.  Here’s a simple recognition program that simply works; it has the highest rate of return I know:

1. Hand out a block of 50 post-it notes to each manager
2. The  use of them is for their people to unexpectedly find, whenever they have done something that was particularly effective, a post-it  on their screen saying  ‘great work on [INSERT CURRENT INITIATIVE], thank you’.
3. Inform each manager that the block needs to be used over the coming 12 months, and it has to be for actual effective performance.

That’s it!   Read more…

Four fundamental acts of leadership that will instantly help your people

Are you a manager?  Great!  You’ve got the chance to improve the lives of those that work for you by doing these four simple things.

1) Remind everyone of the context they’re working in.

What I’m talking about here is the environment you and your team are dealing with.  You might think this is obvious, but the reason you’re the manager is to make this stuff obvious.  Want an easy spot to start?  Ask your own manager what they’re dealing with.  This creates the wider context in which you and your people work.

Do it now:  Open your calendar and schedule a meeting with all of your direct reports.  Topic: Context.  Read more…

The simple way to good service area relationships

“I can’t win” sighed John.

“Tough day?” I asked.  John was the Senior Manager of Work Health & Safety in a large organisation.

“It’s my senior colleagues from other areas” he began.  “We need a better approach to work health and safety around here, but that’s not going to happen if they don’t listen.”

“Why don’t they?”

“Because if I was them, I’d be doing exactly the same!  They’ve got serious businesses to run, they’re all on the hook for more profit next year and delivering services better.  Then along comes one of my team and somehow they’re supposed to prioritise my stuff’?” Read more…

Five signs your planning is going well

Tigers have outstanding plans

Here are five signs that show if your organisation or division’s planning is going well:

1) The CEO picks up the whiteboard marker

The reason they were chosen for the job is because they were deemed to have the capability to create, communicate then deliver a future by focusing the efforts of hundreds or thousands of people.  While they need input from all the minds around the table, the final plan is theirs, and theirs alone, and this starts from articulating their initial thoughts.

2) The word ‘develop’ is not seen 

The purpose of a planning day isn’t to agree to develop a plan, it’s to actually come up with a plan. Read more…