The silence is deafening!!

I was leading a workshop the other day on Performance Management and there were a number of participants lamenting how their boss didn’t give them feedback on how they were doing.

“I’d like to know if I’m on track,” one person said.
“I do hear but only when there’s a problem,” piped up another. “ I know most of the time I do a good job, but the minute something goes wrong, that’s when I hear something.”

These people had come to the workshop as they were moving into a supervisory role. Soon they would be held accountable for their employee's performance. They would be involved in planning for the future, setting goals, coaching and giving feedback, as this was now expected of them in their new position.

Clearly some of them knew what NOT to do; they knew from first-hand experience.

Their experiences caused me to reflect on this common problem. Managers know it’s important to give feedback, yet in spite of knowing they should, they don’t do it for a variety of reasons. When I asked some managers about this common lack of action, these are some of the things they said.

• I just don’t have the time, and it akes a lot of time to do it properly.
• I don’t see them very often so I can’t give feedback on what I don’t know.
• They know I will speak up if I have a problem.
• No-one likes getting feedback, so I save them the pain.
• They know what’s working and where there is a problems, they’re adults they can figure out what to do.

The interesting thing is that all of these managers thought the Performance Management activity was about telling someone how they were doing.

I like to present it in a different light.

I ask managers to look on it as a conversation where they can get insight into the employee’s job, and the challenges they face and overcome. I suggest they ask the employee to think about the past year and to identify the highs and lows, the successes and difficulties and where adjustment or modifications could change things for the better. By using this approach, the pressure is taken off the manager, AND it allows the employee to share their perspective, which is often different from what the boss sees.

I also suggest sitting down over coffee to talk about their views. There’s no need to make this a BIG formal deal. This relaxed conversational approach helps to build a working relationship that goes far beyond performance management. Once the two people are talking and sharing perspectives, then they can move on to look at places where adjustments could be made to improve results. Once again this should come from the employee. It’s about asking for ideas NOT telling them how to fix things.

“What could be done to speed up…?”
“Where could we …”
“If you… how would that build better customer service?”

If you’ve been thinking, ‘I’m the manager I have to come up with a solution’, it puts unnecessary pressure on your shoulders. On top of that, most employees will resent being told how to fix their problem, they want to solve it themselves. We’ve found that imposed solutions are often sabotaged. Then employees can say, “See I told you it wouldn’t work.” On the other hand, if the employee gives you their ideas and if you encourage them to try it out, most employees will want to make their solution a success and will strive hard to make it work out.

So before you buy in to those avoidance excuses you play in your head, take a few minutes to chat with your employees informally about the job. Listen carefully; you’ll be surprised what you learn.

In the process of casually discussing the work, your employees will know you have noticed them and their contributions, and that you believe in their ability to make a difference. That alone will make a huge difference to that employee, because, feedback avoidance often leads to employees feeling invisible, and wondering if anyone sees the difference they make. So ensure they know their contributions are crucial and that you appreciate the things they do day in day out.

Your steady, reliable, consistent employees, who may never be your star performers, are the people who especially need to hear how much you count on them. Star performers are great, and they often get lots of acknowledgement. Conversely, your difficult employees must be talked with to get them to perform and meet expectations, but far too often the quiet, dependable, consistent employees are overlooked and that’s a shame - they are keeping things going by providing your core services.

So please, think hard about how much you have been taking your employees for granted and how they might be craving some feedback and acknowledgement of their work; then take a moment to ask a few simple questions to show you’re interested. You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

If you have managed to help employees become high performers, who are happily giving their best, please share you story with us. We can all benefit from new approaches.

It's a risky business!

I'm amazed at how complacent many of my clients are about their ability to hang in there for a few more months until the recent recession finally fades away. So complacent in fact that they have missed another risk about to land squarely and solidly into their laps - one that will come regardless of financial outcomes.

Their eyes have been so firmly fixed on the financial impact of their decisions, scanning what is happening with their suppliers, their competition and the bank rates, that they have failed to look internally to where they might be vulnerable going forward. The myopic view they have been consumed with has not afforded them a view of other lingering problems that are completely within their grasp to address, and address with little need for huge budgets.

The risk I am referring to is the one that will come when their long term employees, their “go to” people finally decide it’s time to retire. The amount of specialized knowledge these people carry in their heads, means that most companies will suffer an immediate, and dramatic impact on their ability to provide service levels that they currently take for granted.

The baby boomers are planning to leave soon and to leave on mass from your company AND your supplier companies all across the globe!

One of my clients thought about 40% of his workforce were on the brink of retiring – our risk assessment found he was a little low it was actually 60% because he had failed to consider his very mobile middle managers who had career aspirations outside his company. Can you imagine the impact it could have if all of that specialized knowledge walked out the door?

But capturing the knowledge is not an easy problem to solve; it’s far more than getting people to write down their procedures. The tacit knowledge that is told in stories and given as examples, is much tougher to collect, transfer and apply.

Why do you call this person instead of send an email?
What is it about you that makes customer X always turn to you for his needs?
Who is the person to talk to at XYJ company when you want an answer to a problem? Why do we do the job in this way?
Where did that idea come from?

Can you see how tough it is to capture those details and it’s the details that bring context to the decisions that emerge from meetings and board rooms in corporate North America.

We recommend a structured process as the way to determine your company’s vulnerability
1. Conduct a risk assessment just how many of your Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) will exit in the next three years?
2. Who else could fill the void now (at the same level of expertise) if they were to suddenly decide to leave?
3. What is your competitive advantage and how is that knowledge, approach, etc. imbedded into your employee’s jobs?
4. How are ‘lessons learned’ from day to day work captured, shared and stored for future access?

The knowledge that rests in the minds of your employees is the highest vale you have. It exceed s anything you will find on desks, in files, drawers and on the hard-drive! Protect it now for your, long term benefit.

Yes, the loss of corporate knowledge is a very risky business.

Perceptions

I was reading a blog post last week and pondering the content and how it might have value for me - or not, when a colleague called and arranged to meet me for lunch. It turned out she had read the same blog and wanted to see what I thought.

"Did you agree with what he said?" she asked, close on the heels of "Hello and how are you," as she slipped into her seat.

Those opening remarks launched our animated conversation - enjoyed with good food and wine, I might add.

"I felt some points were on the mark," I replied. Not so my colleague. "I thought it was rubbish" she said.

We then proceeded to pull the blog apart and lightly tossed our points of view across the table, both of us quoting examples from our background, research and projects to justify our points of view.

When I got home I forgot about it until I was sitting down to write an article for a client. I realised, as my fingers flew across the keyboard, that I was about to launch into a point of view based on a narrow window - mine. This pothole in the road of writing jarred me to a halt as I recalled the lunchtime banter with my colleague.

Was that author wrong as my friend attested? Were just a view points valid, as I had suggested? Probably not. Clearly he was writing from his point of view, from his experiences, from the books he'd read, web-sites scanned and the people he had met and worked with. He was writing and sharing with the reader his viewpoint and simultaneously giving us a glimpse into his bacground.

I know the challenge of being open minded; it takes some effort to be curious about why a certain perspective is presented as fact. We have to set aside our easy rebuttal to seek insight, so we don't just discount the different slant.

Blog posts have opportunities for people to comment, so I asked a few questions and received further insight into the the points of view we had questioned and discounted to readily. It was enlightening.

When faced with information that normally I would have been quick to challenge, I now stop myself and seek more information.
I ask questions like:
"Tell me more about that."
"Where did you learn about that approach?"
"What leads you to think that might work in this situation?"
"Help me understand why that will make a difference?"
"I'm confused, can you give me an example?"

When I'm willing to suspend my judgement and ask for more information, it frequently puts the information into context so I can see it's valid and possibly even helpful now that I have a bigger picture. It's humbling. I wish I could do it consistently, but I'm human and flawed like everyone else, so I will ask my questions when I remember and not beat up on myself when I forget.