We all talk about how important it is to give employees continuous feedback, both positive and corrective. Managers struggle to give any feedback, especially corrective feedback. Paradoxically, a recent HBR blog piece, Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate to Give, presents data showing that employees want feedback, especially corrective feedback. Why is it…
Sometimes reading blogs can be fun. A recent HBR blog piece, Employees Who Feel Love Perform Better, is a great example of this. It talks about how much better employees perform if they feel loved or cared for. And, I must admit, all other things being equal, a loving workplace will make employees happier than…
A recent HBR blog piece,The Case for Hiring “Outlier” Employees, points to a wonderful practice which SAP and other forward-thinking companies have adopted. These companies have started hiring substantial numbers of employees on the autism spectrum for certain jobs where these individuals can be expected to outperform other employees. These companies, and others who may…
A recent Wall Street Journal Article, Amazon’s Current Employees Raise the Bar for New Hires, describes Amazon’s highly attentive interviewing process for new senior hires. All candidates must interview with a slate of “bar raisers,” tough interviewers who probe deeply for weaknesses and for compatibility with Amazon’s needs in the open position. It is clear…
Existing practices for managing, evaluating and rewarding employees are coming under attack, and for good reason. For the most part, they do not work. Just yesterday, I wrote a blog piece, Team-Based Performance Management, urging that team performance replace individual performance as the leading barometer of achievement and discussed how such an approach could work.…
Recently, I’ve written several blogs about teams, focusing on the steps to creating high performing teams that innovate and drive business results. These blogs have acknowledged the unfortunate disconnect between performance management, as practiced today, and team-based performance. Put simply, most companies measures and incentives drive individual performance and results, thus undermining strong team behaviors…
Companies pay a lot of attention to behaviors. Desired behaviors, often referred to as competencies, are often published as critical for advancement within the organization. Demonstration of these behaviors can directly affect performance ratings. What does not always get attention, however, is the timing of behaviors, particularly behaviors that are not desired – often called…
Increasingly, important work is being done in virtual teams which do not have the opportunity to meet in person. There are several factors driving this trend: 1. More companies are operating in multiple countries, making it harder for people to meet in person, particularly in today’s cost-conscious environment 2. More companies are allowing employees to…
We all know that big business breakthroughs usually happen in teams. Unfortunately, precious few teams are high performing, building on team members’ energy and ideas to deliver game-changing innovation and exceptional results. Equally surprising is how little companies invest in team development versus individual performance management which further erodes the right team behaviors. Companies are…
Regular feedback to employees outside of the annual review cycle is a rare event in performance management. We hear leadership – both HR and the line – paying strong lip service to managers: “good feedback should be a continuous thing. It’s what we expect of you.” They are right, it should be a continuous thing,…