“Get Rid of the Performance Review: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing — and Focus on What Really Matters” by Samuel Culbert with Lawrence Rout, Business Plus, $24.99.
Think about your last performance review. Did you come away with a sense that your boss knew how you worked and what motivated you? I’d bet that the majority of the discussion focused on what you needed to improve upon, and not the positive items. While there are objective measures (i.e. goals met/not met), much of a review is colored by a system “with a bias toward finding supposed faults.”
Performance reviews are one-way communications that, Rout says: “are about the boss getting the subordinate to buy into the boss’s way of thinking.” That’s command-and-control management, not leadership. The goal should be: Build off the employee’s strengths to make both the employee and the boss more productive.
Culbert’s answer: The Performance Preview — “an ongoing dialogue between boss and subordinate, where each of them is responsible for asking the other: What can I do to make us work better together and get the results we’re both on the hook for?” Its focus isn’t what got us here; it’s what’s going to get us there. It’s an exercise of knowledge-sharing rooted in “What was learned and how that knowledge can be applied.” Performance previews are running conversations that explore perspectives.
In theory, performance reviews force the boss to grade his/her staff on a bell-shaped curve — some excellent, most average and some subpar. In reality, the boss tends to inflate the grades because his performance rating depends upon the grades of his people (i.e. the boss’s rating can’t be excellent when most subordinates are average).
Previews, on the other hand, do away with individual comparisons by focusing the boss on working “to create the conditions for people to do their best” and allow for creativity without fear of penalty. Previews create teamwork, too. Instead of doing what’s best on an individual basis, achieving department and organizational goals becomes a joint effort.
Will Culbert’s previews become reality? That depends on senior management’s view of the performance evaluation process. If they see inflated performance ratings, poor morale and average results, it’s time for a change.
“Making Ideas Happen — Overcoming the Obstacles between Vision & Reality” by Scott Belsky, Portfolio, $25.95.
Creativity without organization makes no impact. Belsky’s Action Method is a creative way to manage projects. It starts with a “relentless bias toward action” that pushes ideas forward.
Every project involves meshing three components:
1. Action Steps — the concrete must-be-done tasks that inch you forward to little victories;
2. References — information sources; they require no action, but can be used to clarify and/or tasks.
3. Backburner items — stuff uncovered while taking the action steps or during the reference-gathering process. It falls into the may-do-later category.
Every project team member needs to have their individual list of action steps, references and backburner items. Why? They need to own their segment of the project. Also, with responsibilities divided, they can identify likely within-the-team reference sources to be consulted when carrying out their steps. The backburner items can be shared during team meetings. The team may well find that a backburner item on one list may be a do-now on other lists.
Write down and prioritize your action steps. They’re not to-do lists in the sense that an action step may come spontaneously. It could come as the result of an off-the-cuff remark someone makes, a thought that pops into your head or when talking to someone about what you’re doing.
Let’s say that you’re at the monthly dinner meeting of your professional association and, during table-talk, someone mentions that his/her company just completed a similar project. An action step (i.e. talk with … about the project) should be created. Belsky suggests starting all action steps with an action verb, so you know action must be taken.
Managing the creative process also involves killing ideas. All ideas are not created equal. Those that just won’t work should be killed; the decision may be unpopular, but necessary. Those that create little impact should be on the backburner.
At actionmethod.com, you’ll find a free iPhone app; the desktop version costs $99 — it’s worth it.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
