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,…
In both goal setting and performance evaluations, there is an ongoing debate as to whether to stress exclusively results or some mix of results and competencies. Companies answer this question in different ways. Those that significantly stress competencies strongly believe that the right behaviors matter as much as pure results, whether financially or project focused.…
This question always seems to get more than its share of attention and emotion: “should we use a three-point scale, a four-point scale or a five-point scale?.” The answer depends on your company’s performance rating history by scale point and on what is intended to be accomplished by any change. Here are the possibilities and…
Lately, it’s become fashionable for leaders to talk about healthy turnover. I hear things like “we’re not losing our best people, just those who aren’t really engaged.” As I listen to these conversations, it sounds like healthy rationalization — a way to avoid feeling bad about the consequences of a disengaged workforce. These statements could…
In so many facets of life, we take things for granted once we get used to them. People are no exception. We get very excited about new relationships whether social, customer (see, for example, When a Company Is No Longer That into You) or recent hires. But, once they lose their honeymoon halo, we tend…
When it comes to Developing managers the stakes are high. Do it properly and your employees will become engaged and make your customers happy. Do it poorly and your highest potential employees will leave and your customers will suffer. Yet, despite the clear evidence of the benefits of strong, engaging managers, most companies do not…
Good communication is critical to all relationships, business and personal. Sometimes though there are people with whom we just can’t connect, and it drives us crazy. You know that feeling. You want to hang up the phone or run for the door. When this happens, is there much hope for fixing the problem? Often not.…
Great leaders are decisive. So why isn’t decisiveness a key criterion in leadership selection? Whenever we conduct focus groups of employees, a major frustration that emerges is leaders, including managers, who just don’t make timely decisions. How did these people get into leadership roles — especially since decision-making style is one of the easiest things…
As consultants who stake our reputations on really making a difference in employee engagement and business results, we are frequently asked “where should we start to drive engagement and performance?” Or, from executives of companies with very established talent practices: “why are we spending so much money on our talent programs and getting so little…
Don’t get too comfortable with a paradigm. It’s guaranteed to change. For years it looked like Human Resources was an exception. As consulting firms were reorganizing to go to market by industry, their HR practitioners were pushing back hard, claiming that they were in an area where industry did not matter. From their perspective, shared…