Delivering the Performance Review - Part 1
January 2nd, 2006Happy New Year! Please accept our thanks for helping make 2005 a great year for us. We had a wonderful year and a lot of it is a direct result of meeting a number of great folks through Manager Tools. We’re both looking forward to any even better 2006 and hope each of you will stick around and share the upcoming year with us.
Over the next two weeks we’ll be concluding our discussions on Performance Reviews, focusing on actually DELIVERING the review.
The sample of the memo we suggest sending to your employees before their performance review meeting is located here.
In addition, as we discussed on a previous show, we suggest you send to each ratee SEVERAL weeks in advance of the review, an email or memo soliciting input from the ratee. As promised, a sample email/memo is available here.
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January 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Once again, dead on topic! The Rating/Results/Ramifications approach is in line with other common Performance Assessment programs, but simplifies the process to it’s core elements. Great job once again, gentlemen!
Here’s an alternative “R” to replace Ramifications if you don’t like the term (it doesn’t strike me as being positive enough):
Realization - basically, after you have provided the rating and discussed where they are, you will be talking about how you plan to help them get to the next level (whatever that is). In essence, you are helping them realize the growth opportunity.
Keep up the awesome work!
Kevin Williams
Host
Middle Management Lobotomy Podcast
mmlpodcast.libsyn.com
January 3rd, 2006 at 6:04 pm
One other thing. It would be great if key bulleted points (such as steps to perform a process, agenda for performance review meetings, etc.) could be listed in the show notes. I usually listen while driving, exercising, doing work around the house, etc. and don’t have a pen handy to jot down the information. It would be MUCH easier if I could simply go to the show notes and print off the key reminders…
Thanks,
Kevin
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Kevin,
Good points … thanks! I agree, there is certainly a need for more comprehensive show notes to augment the audio. Mark and I have been thinking lately that getting transcriptions completed of each show would serve a real need. Unfortunately (as you know), there’s a cost involved that we haven’t yet figured out. Perhaps I need to poll folks and find out if the cost of transcripts is something that folks would be willing to contribute towards. In the mean time, I agree that more robust show notes would help. I’ll work on that.
regards,
Michael
February 7th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Hi,
So, thanks again and I really appreciate what you do!
I have gone through alot of your podcasts now and this is one that I really like alot. I have been a sales manager in Sweden for four years, really no training in the discipline but have been trying to do my best regarding yearly reviews. The thing is I used a template developed by the Swedish division of HP and it actually took 2-3 hrs to complete. Now I have 22 direct reports (way to many in my opinion) and needed a new approach and I am using your advise and really hope for success, for my team and for me.
I really want to thank you for putting all this together, it is truly inspiring, I listen to it alot and it really is a great coach for me, something my manager will never be, because he is to busy trying to control everything himself, including half of my job!
Regards
Jonas
February 7th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Jonas-
Thank you for your kind remarks! It’s for people like you that we started Manager Tools, e.g., “really no training in the discipline.” We’ve developed these tools over the years to make our management lives easier, and now we’re glad to be sharing them with you.
It’s a privilege to serve you!
Mark
January 13th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I know this has been out in the ether for some time but have been boning up as I’m preparing to deliver performance reviews with my team in the next two weeks.
One of them in particular will be a difficult one (bad rating) and gave much thought about providing him with my write-up a day in advance per the discussion here in the podcast.
I’ve not seen that tactic used at my company and it’s a very big one with a well defined form and process for documenting business results. On the flip side they don’t do alot to lay out _how_ it should be delivered. When I approached my HR partner, peer mangers, and upline nobody had personally delivered a review in writing ahead of the actual meeting and one peer who had a prior manager that did such a thing didn’t appreciate it.
Even though I polled a number of people with many years of combined experience, it’s a relatively small sample size I was wondering if anyone in the larger community has switched from an approach where the manager write-up is presented at the time of the appraisal meeting versus delivering it a day early? Specifically I was wondering if someone had stories good, bad, or otherwise about the switchover. I’m still debating whether or not to buck the trend at my company.
Thanks!
Mike
January 13th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Mike-
I’ve done this at maybe 20 companies over 15 years. I would guess that 2,000 managers personally changed based on my recommendation, and have never heard a single bad comment. This is one of the most singularly well received ideas I’ve ever recommended.
Mark
January 14th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Mark,
I appreciate the feedback. I didn’t mention this before but this is my first management assignment so am learning lots of new things over the last year.
So far I’ve very much enjoyed the podcasts and look forward to future installments. I’ve also been impressed with your attentiveness to the discussion threads - especially the older ones
Thanks!
Mike
January 14th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Mike,
Maybe this is a thing you can grow into, getting more confident.
First couple of times –being young- you don’t give them out in advance. Getting more confident, knowing that giving them out in advance will get you on a higher level of being a MT-manager, you will try it, and your conversations will be at a higher level.
Kaspar
January 14th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Thanks Kaspar,
One thing I was thinking of doing was benchmarking this with two other (and easier) reviews this week. For example, give one out in advance and do one “on-the-fly” and compare results. A little self assessment after that would give me a better feel for things to look out for in coming discussions.
-Mike
March 12th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I would absolutely contribute to the cost of podcast transcripts. As a commute-listener, these would be invaluable.
Another thought, the podcast notes might have the time listed next to the items on the outline.
Thanks for all the work you guys put into this. I’m looking forward to the conference.
- Tim
January 27th, 2008 at 4:03 am
This podcast does not down load completely. It stops after 430KB. Please check or re-install in your system.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Raj-
It is not us. Please clear your cache and try again.
Mark