No Whammies! No Whammies! Stop!
February 24, 2008
There are two words that can strike fear in the heart of the most seasoned of managers: PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS. But why is that? Companies spend countless dollars each year training their managers on how to do evaluations and refining their performance evaluation systems, but has any of it really made it easier?
When it comes down to it, we as human beings, no matter how many courses we’ve taken, or books we’ve read, we are just not “wired” to give very direct, honest feedback. Think about it. How many times as child did you say something brutally honest only to be told by your mother “that’s not a nice thing to say”?
How many people go home at night to their spouses and initiate a conversation something like this: “honey, I need to give you some feedback on how you’re performing as my significant other”? Sounds crazy, right? (Can you predict how that feedback would be received?)
And yet, that’s what good managers are supposed to do for their employees on a regular basis. It’s only fair to let people how they measure up to the company’s expectations- not to mention that it’s typically the basis for performance increases.
The consulting environment adds another quirk that most corporate managers do not face with the same regularity- and that’s the challenge of managing people that we may never work with directly. In the consulting environment, most of our managers are billable consultants first then managers second. They typically maintain their own client engagements which may never cross paths on a daily basis with their direct reports. So how do you provide feedback on people you don’t work with everyday- or whose work you don’t supervise?
Forget annual evaluations! In my opinion, performance feedback- both positive and constructive- should be given monthly. Yes, I said monthly. And, yes, I know how much work evaluations are to do annually. And yes, I know how busy everyone is with their “day jobs.” But, even in an informal fashion, monthly feedback will help to make the annual evaluation a review of the year versus the annual WHAMMY that most evaluations turn out to be. An employee who has received nine to twelve pieces of feedback on their work has headlights as to what is working and what needs to be adjusted in order to meet the company’s expectations.
When it comes to evaluations, a good manager knows what they don’t know, and seeks input from others in order to provide the most accurate feedback to their employees. They seek out client opinions, colleague opinions, perhaps even peer opinions- even if it means bucking the internal HR systems a bit to do so (apologies to my HR brothers and sisters out there!).
At the end of the day, giving direct feedback will never feel especially comfortable to most of us. But most people don’t like surprises- especially when it comes to their performance evaluations. No matter how you give the feedback- formal process, casual conversation- it doesn’t matter as long as you are giving your feedback frequently. So leave the WHAMMIES to the game shows, and don’t even think about giving your spouse their performance evaluation!
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4 Responses to “No Whammies! No Whammies! Stop!”
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Right on!
I think that Performance Evaluations not only strike fear in the hearts of those delivering the message but also to those receiving the information. We also need to teach those around us how to receive the review and more importantly, how to correct the behavior and/or internalize the material so that the next review is even better!
What surprises me even more is that we ask (or are asked) to provide our goals for the coming eval period, but there is never any follow up. Imagine if we were tracking our progress against our goals regularly so that we could share how much progress we have made. (Notice the implication here is that I as the employee am tracking MY progress, not expecting my manager to do it for me.)
Reaching a rhythm is important for this to work and you can’t have a rhythm with only one performance-focused touch point per year. Once a real rhythm is established, the employee (and we should all think of ourselves as consultants – driven to provide value to our customers) should view this as an opportunity to show the value they provide. Too many times, really good people go unnoticed for long periods – they need to have a forum to show off, brag, sell their value. This unfolds two opportunities; first, the company is in place for reward or correction. But the correction is well received because this is where they are negotiating the ‘rules’ of value and they have the right amount of time to do something to improve (not having to wait an entire year). Second, this bubbles up the action of looking for value opportunities that the consultant can execute on. Having this aggressive pursuit of delivering value is vital to ensuring that your customers are happy. And like that old saying goes; ain’t no one happy if the customer ain’t happy!
Nice post Melissa.
I’ve recently been put in a position to give feedback to the two members on my team… yet they don’t report to me for their evaluations, so it can be awkward.
But their success is critical to my success as an Account Manager.
It’s been tough. I’m friends with these guys… but I’m starting to learn how to give honest feedback in a casual way, that lets them see the big picture, and how they’ll benefit from improving their support skills.
I may start holding once a month evaluations to give feedback, just as you’ve recommended. We’ll see how it goes.
Nick Wright hits on a great point. We spend so much time with our colleagues- even colleagues who are actually our subordinates on an org chart- and we develop friendships.
How do you give honest feedback which may or may not always be positive to a friend? The frequency and consistency here are key.
The few times you have to give “improvement needed” feedback may change the dymanics of the friend/boss relationship, but it may also put it into perspective as well. Compassion and embrasing the spirit of comraderie you’ve developed with your team will help you sell your message of improvement- and hopefully in the meantime, stregthen both your friend relationship as well as your employment relationship.