3 Perspectives on Reviews

Ok, I know I’m a broken record on reviews, just like I was a broken record on goal setting a couple of months ago.  Well, right now it’s annual review time at the F50C and a couple of months ago it was goal time.

So here’s the deal: I’ve given three reviews now in the 2007 and 2008 cycles where each employee got a very similar score and very similar mix of you-did-some-stuff-well-and-other-stuff-not-well feedback. I should add that all three got an average score, denoting straightforward, solid work that was not insufficient nor was it out-performance. All three reacted very differently to their very similar reviews and now I share with you my perspective on them:

Person A: Lower pay-grade, newer in career. Very resilient.  Took the review score and feedback for what they were: honest reflections of performance, and tools to use to help them improve in the coming year.  Bummed that the score was not higher but generally understood that their performance was not remarkably different from your average analyst.  Since the review has repeatedly stated commitment to improving, has tried out different tactics and is keeping the feedback front-of-mind.  Performance now is not an overnight switch to perfect but I trust completely that this person is committed to learning from mistakes and to moving from a task-checklist way of working to a more sophisticated leadership style. So far, I’m very impressed.

Person B: middle pay-grade, a bit further on in career. The review gave this person pause, although they held it together and remained very professional during the review meeting.  Their style is one to take input and digest it, consider it, analyze it for a while, so this person took the review information and thought it over. They also sought out a mentor they trusted to get a second point of view.  This was smart, because this person helped reinforce that an average score is not a NEGATIVE score, just average, and that the feedback is useful if the person was willing to use it and take action. The employee then spent the year trying out a variety of tactics and techniques to neutralize weaknesses and push out of their comfort zone, and partnered actively with me to figure out how to leverage their natural strengths to deliver more and to build trust and credibility.  This person in the 2008 cycle got a stellar review score and was also promoted.

Person C: highest pay grade, furthest along in their career, least time at the F50C. FLIPPED OUT.  None of the feedback in the review was new, but the person had a very strong negative reaction, tears, defensiveness, and was all over the place in terms of response — could not stop talking, did not finish points, jumped from point to point to point. Most concerning to me was a serious lack of resilience around the score and message. The person used almost exclusively “always/never” language: They will always get a poor score, they will never improve or be promoted, there is nothing they can do to affect their own situation.  They also used a lot of victim language: they did out perform, just none of their partners, clients or management saw it because it was subtle. External circumstances (the project, the economy, their switch from IT to business) caused the problem.  Lots of absolutist and low locus of control language. Lots of exaggeration around how bad things really are — the sky is falling (e.g. average score = worst score ever, mix of positive and negative feedback = everyone hates them).

What about you? Who are you? I mean really, honestly: are you an A, B or C?

Secrets of My Success

Hi Team,

I’ve written another guest post over at Blog@Work. Cheers to Anastasia for thinking of me!

This time, I’m revealing all my special secrets — the amazing formula for success that I followed that got me where I am today.  Amazing secret formula! Or is it??

Here’s an exerpt:

Do you have to script a 10-year and a 5-year plan, follow them to the T, and ensure every action of every day furthers you to those goals? Hells no. But some healthy post-mortem self reflection will show you the hidden patterns underlying what at the time seemed like you were just doing what seemed interesting, or were lucky – position X opened up and you got to have experience Y. Look for them. Can you repeat the patterns again? Can you use those patterns to help you take it to the next level?

Patterns and formulas can help you be deliberate when you feel the need for a structured push. But don’t forget to just go do what seems interesting.

Go check it out!

GREAT NEWS!

Remember my car dealer?

PROMOTED last weekend.

We took our car in for service and met him for breakfast and as we were leaving a guy in a dress shirt pulled him aside and when he came back he was PROMOTED.

He’s now the Sales Manager for the  dealership, leading the entire sales force. He has been working hard to get this position for a while now, driving mad results selling financial instruments, focusing on developmental opportunities / priorities, and enlisting his boss and leadership as allies towards his goal.  Worked really hard.

And BAM, PROMOTION.

In the AUTO INDUSTRY.  In this CRAPPY ECONOMY.

It is possible, folks.

What are you working on???

10 Free Training Ideas for a Down Economy

Like so many companies, the F50C has been aggressively managing expenses.  One of the practical outcomes is that everyone’s training budgets have been cut back to zero, at least through the first 6 months of 2009.  However, as a management team we are still committed to being career development partners for our employees, and training & continuous learning is an important component of development.  So we’re seeking free and creative ways to connect our team to learning. Here are some that we’re using, and some that I’m just brainstorming – -but if they make sense or I get other ideas in the comments, I’ll use them!

1. Webinars. So many of our vendors and consulting partners routinely offer free webinars via their websites on topics that are actually useful — and a surprising number of them are NOT all about selling us more of the vendor’s product or service.
2. eNewsletters. There are free eNewsletters out there on every topic, from IT to trend forecasting, to market research to career development.  Even Harvard Business Review (boucoup bucks to subscribe to the print version, BTW) offers an eNewsletter with links to the latest HBS research.
3. bNet. While a litte buzwordy, there is genuinely good content on sites like bNet if you care to look for it.  A good place to go for research.  Consider also WSJ’s career site, Change This, 43Folders, blogs on topics in your industry, etc for free content.
4. White papers. Like webinars, many of our vendor & consulting partners offer free white papers for download. Currently I’ve got one in my queue to read tomorrow on developing meaningful performance metrics.
5. Memberships in local chapters. Company is a member in your local chapter of an IT, marketing, sales or etc organization? Go to their local meetings or organize to host the meeting on your campus. You usually get free or cheap great content AND good networking.
6. Read the Book. My company is a member of the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) which puts on really good full-day offsite trainings on a vareity of topics in cities all over the USA.  I routinely scan their site for classes that look good and see if the trainer has a book.  The class is usually about what the book is about — that’s how good x-marketing works.  I always read the book first (from library!) to determine if the class seems worthwhile since the classes are NOT cheap.  In a down economy with no training budget, just the book will have to do.  Besides IMS, there are other training content delivery companies out there – use Google.
7. Cold-contact content owners and barter for their services. We’re trying to stay free, right? Is there an author or industry leader that you’re passionate to learn from? Why not email them and propose a trade, a benchmarking session, a mini-conference, or some other way to put them in touch with you & your team, while giving them back something of value that’s not actually, um, cash.
8. Peer training. Have folks on the team offer brown bags or round-robin training to broaden everyone’s skill set.  Or set up learning groups that meet and dive into topics of interest on a regular basis.
9. Mentoring. Hook everyone on your team up with a mentor in your company or your industry organization, with a specific eye towards working on a developmental opportunity. Or, go out and find your own mentor for the same purpose.
10. Stretch assignments. It’s been proven that 70% of effective adult learning comes from hands-on, on-the-job activity. Or at least that’s what my HR/Organizational Effectiveness departmnet claims, but I believe them.  So make sure every last person on your team has at least one stretch assignment. If you yourself don’t have at least one stretch assignment, ask for it and keep asking until you get it.

How do you get free training content & experiences?

My Performance Review

My mid-year performance review was yesterday. (Mid-year huh??)  It went very well! One of the things I really appreciate about my company’s culture is that reviews are expected to be no-surprises events.  You should be hearing about your strengths & weaknesses all year long in direct and actionable feedback from your boss.  Your boss is supposed to be  your partner in this — I like that expectation.

Here are my results:

+  I keep teams focused on delivering the high-value items, especially when chaos or scope creep starts up.

+  Excellent communication

+ Excellent execution, especially with large, complex projects.

+ Several partners, including three directors, expressed relief that I’m back from leave. One said, “I just feel more comfortable with her around.”

- Don’t over-use my communication strength.  Influence the communication strategy but hold others accountable to deliver, instead of stepping in to do it for them.

- Leverage my communication and relationship-building strengths to influence more without authority, particularly with a project that is at risk for derailing.

No promotion yet, but I’m working on it!

Miscellany

Team, I am waaaaay too busy tonight making an Amy Sedaris I Like You Lil’ Smoky Cheese Ball for tomorrow’s happy holidays potluck lunch at the office to be bothered with attending to this old blog. Career, schmareer I say. Who needs a career when there is smoky Gouda?

Behold, I present you with some happy miscellany instead.

Good things happen to good people, even in a sour economy.

Case in point: one of my favorite employees got a new job today.  In a climate of unofficial hiring freezes.  And it’s a perfect, perfect fit for her.  And it’s a promotion.  And it’s super well-deserved.

I am on track.

I had a great career development conversation with my boss today.  He is extermely glad I’m back — this from someone who hardly ever vocalizes that type of thing — and unprompted, he made a big effort to make sure I understood his goal is to broaden my visibility to the SVP and across the company, and to get me short-listed as right-fit roles open up.  It’s really, really nice to feel that he and his peers want to retain me.

Happiness is contaigous.

Did I mention this before? It bears repeating. Strangers can make you happy. Wings on the butterfly, people, causing tsunamis.  Get with the program: we all have the responsibility to choose optimism and choose happiness, to rearrange our mental constructs, because we all affect our brothers, our neighbors, our neighbors’ brothers.

People are finding their stride.

At yesterday’s goal & objective setting session, we devoted a good chunk of time to a first pass at employee assessment, to get prepared for the upcoming annual review cycle.  I found out, to my very happy surprise, that two of the folks who last year we considered borderline in performance and of low promotion potential have since that time really found their sweet spots.  They have both shown remarkable improvement and are now outperforming. Turns out one of them was promoted while I was on leave, a truly excellent result.  I certainly think it was a well-deserved promotion, since he added a ton of value to one of my projects, earlier this year.

Good breeds good better.

Good things keep happening, even if the news is telling us otherwise in order to boost audience and sell more ad revenue.  Choose life, as they would say in Trainspotting, (hands down my favorite movie of 1996) but I mean it noncynically, I really do, maybe I’m a polyanna.  Look for the good, bias towards the good, and in turn drive out even more good.