and uh as you might have sensed from the introduction, I really believe
that management is a participatory event. It's not something that we do to
employees. It's something we do with employees. So throughout our time
together today you're going to have an opportunity to participate. I'll
have some concepts for you. Probably share a lot of information, but at
the same time I want to give you a chance to apply that information to
your own situation and maybe even do a little networking today while
you're at it. Okay. I have another poll this time more focused on our
topic for the day. All right. So if you would please stand up if you are
currently or have been a manager or a supervisor of other people, you are
responsible for the performance of other people. Yeah. Almost everybody.
Right. And remain standing in that role. You've had to give performance
feedback. You had to have conversations with them about something that
about their performance. Nobody's sitting down on that one. Okay, remain
standing. If you had to do a formal performance evaluation,
everybody okay, remain standing if you liked it. Yeah. Uh kind of what I
figured. Oftentimes I worked with managers and supervisors, you know, as
Christine said all around the country and I find that oftentimes we
managed the way we have been managed. So wait, the way we were early, what
we were early in our career that early manager, if it was okay. We just
pick up those techniques and in particular how to deliver a performance
evaluation. I don't know that I learned that today, as you necessarily,
but I did sure learn what not to do from some of my early managers and so
I think we have to kind of look at is the way we've learned it really the
right way. And are there some alternative ways? And today I want to give
you some alternatives. So hopefully your employees know exactly how what
they do every day contributes to something bigger. And we do that through
our job descriptions through our goal setting process through your list
and all your feedback mechanisms every day. I recommend that you have a
conversation with employees at least once a year to establish those things
whether there are measurable performance goals or even just to remind
folks about the expectations and what are we going to do to make sure we
maintain this great level of performance. So hopefully you're having
conversations on a very regular basis with employees? Probably daily, if
not weekly at a minimum monthly where you sit down and it's gonna have to
be really formal. But you say, how's it going and what do you mean for me
? And at that point that you're having those, you make maybe have to even
make some adjustments to what you expect and what the what the goals are.
But then also that you're keeping good records, I think we could do a
whole session just on documentation about how do we incorporate the
practice of documentation into your daily work because I find a lot of
managers and supervisors don't do it because it just takes extra time and
it doesn't have to, there's lots of strategies for making it just part of
how you do your work. But you've got to have some good records because the
day will come when the event comes where you've got to fill out the form
and then have the conversation. But if you've done this other stuff, it
makes it makes that performance evaluation conversation super simple. When
you see a performance issue with an employee, give me an example coming
late. That's a simple when you see the employee coming in late. Two things
happen in your brain. Um the one is you observe, you see Christine come in
late, right? So I notice and I and I when I observe things, I might
observe her appearance, the fact that she walked through the door, I might
notice her words what she says and I might notice her her tone of voice
and her nonverbals. But I'm basically observing her behavior.
And with that I can say that's evidence that we have a performance issue
or a challenge, right? That's evidence. But at the same time our brains
are doing something else. What are they doing? What is it doing? It's
making a judgment, right? So yeah. So at the same time our brains are
telling stories, imagining issues that come from our thoughts, our
conclusions are beliefs and so and what is louder in our mind? The
judgment or the evidence always the judgment I noticed that you have
really short hair and you've got those Oakley sunglasses. So I imagine
that you're a road cyclist. I have classes like that and and that's what I
wear when I ride my specialized bike and augie I I just from your shine
shoes and the way you're dressed, I noticed all that I imagine you were in
the military. How accurate was I are you a bike rider? And are you in the
military? Nope, Neither one, both of my judgments were wrong and you said
about me that that I picked this color because people to draw people's
attention,
it fits, You know, you understand that it fits? So I really like the idea
, here's, here's my a real quick nutshell That you think the employees
input before you fill out the performance evaluation you ask them not to
write themselves but to answer four simple questions. # one, what were
your accomplishments this year or this cycle? You know, in other words,
what was it you did that maybe I missed? What were your challenges in
other words? Give them a chance to say, you know, I really messed up on
this one thing. I'd rather they put it out there than me, where would you
like to focus next year or what are your goals? And then the 4th question
is what else do you need? Yeah. So in a kind of an open end and what,
where would you like to go? So today, so I really hope that today folks
walked away with some very practical strategies for approaching the
performance evaluation so that they don't see it as any event, but
something that they use as a tool to connect with employees to create um
to create by into the organization's goals and initiatives and then to
help foster the employee's own development. What are people most surprised
about when they read your materials or you work with them about best
practices for performance evaluation? You know, I think the managers and
supervisors that I work with are oftentimes surprised that they don't have
to be in control that they don't. That the trick of it is kind of letting
the employee be part of this process rather than it being something they
have to do to the employee because when we have to do it to the employee
then we are the one who carries the burden. And the painless approach
engages the employee through questions through active questions and
focusing on the future, which allows the employee to get engaged. It takes
a lot of the pressure off the supervisor. I know your upcoming book in
2013 on performance conversations. How does that differ from your first
book and why is it so important? It's a good question. Painless
performance conversations will be released in April of 2013 and it is for
me, the next step from painless performance evaluations. Painless
performance evaluations really focuses on the cycle of managing
performance. And but what oftentimes supervisors and managers struggle
with most are the conversations that happen throughout the year,
throughout the performance management cycle. So the book is a collection
of ideas and strategies and tools to help managers overcome the fear and
two of having these conversations and to develop the confidence they need
so that they're getting the most out of the performance of their employees
and the employees are feeling like they're involved.