M.A.D. As A Manager -- Performance Appraisals

Every manager is required to do Performance Appraisals. Generally, the season for this is once a year. The employees keenly look forward to this, because they are expecting a ‘good grade’ after a year of hard work and more importantly, their compensation increase would be based on this. The managers, usually, do not look forward to this season. During this time, all the ‘work’ stops and only this ‘HR activity’ happens. The 3rd party in this season is the HR team. This is their time, and they push the whole system to get the ‘job’ done. The ‘policy’ already exists, and all clarifications and questions generally are answered with the ‘policy statements’. All departments are required to meet the ‘normal’ distribution of the ratings.

So why do managers generally detest this? There is this huge emotional dialogue and debate with the team members. They get upset. Managers get emotionally overdrawn. Each review lasts for a couple of hours, without seeming to reach a closure (you thought you closed it and pop…there is an email in your inbox from the employee raising some or same points again!). A few even ask for group change and occasionally some even leave citing bad review! Who likes this anyway?

The more important question is – How to do this right? Let’s start with the expected outcome. The employee must feel good after the review and look forward to doing more in future with the manager and the company. The manager is very hopeful for employee’s growth and performance.

A manager has to play the judge and deliver a verdict about the performance of the employee. As a Judge, you carefully look at all the data, and make a judgment taking into account the law (in this case the policy). The big difference here is that the Judge is himself or herself involved – they provide the relevant data and then judge it too, and the employee is judging the Judge too (is my manager being fair to me?). Hence there is an inherent conflict of interest here. If the employee’s expectations are not met, then he/she gets frustrated.

In order to accomplish the goal, the manager, perhaps needs to become the coach of the employee. A coach is also making judgments. But there is a difference. A successful coach earns the trust of his team. The team knows that the coach is working towards their success. This is all the job of the coach is. Hence they listen to the coach. The coach gets to know the ‘game’ and the ‘capability’ of each of the members, and then helps each of them to make a plan to make this better. Trust means that the team does not doubt the agenda of the coach. The agenda is obvious – the team wins and this can happen only when each of the members gets better, and this is what the coach is working on. The coach is helping on a regular basis. He/she is giving pointed feedback, and then asking how the team member plans to improve. The coach gives his/her own suggestions too. A good coach is very demanding, much more than managers. But his/her team listens because they have unwavering trust in the coach – that he/she has their success in mind, and that he/she is competent.

A manager despite competence finds it hard to become as effective as a coach. The team members may not be sure whose success the manager is interested in – theirs or his/her own. Most of the time the manager spends time reviewing the task and not connect to the employee. Employee thinks that manager is focused on the project success (i.e., his own success) and does not care about employee’s interests. It is hard to have a trusting relationship in this situation. Sometimes, there is also lack of clarity on the overall goal. And hence the feedback looks like a judgment, and team members could feel violated because they consider the manager as an outsider rather than as one of them. To top it all, most managers do not give feedback for improvement until the ‘season’, that is once a year, through the review. The employee gets a surprise, and we all know that unpleasant surprises of this type do not build trust.

Perhaps we as managers must see ourselves as coaches who are able to demand high performance from their team because the team trusts them completely. The right way to measure the success of a review is that a manager mails the review document to his team members in advance and asks for a meeting. Many employees say they are willing to sign it off without the meeting. The meetings last for 30 to 45 minutes and are focused on discussing the future, and not arguing about the past. And, the team wants to retain the same coach!

Irrespective of the strengths or limitations of the Performance Appraisal Policy of their company, good managers earn the trust of their team and are able to drive their performance, and make them successful. They are able to Make A Difference to their team. Everyone wants to work with these managers. And the HR team can perhaps focus on how to enable managers to be coaches.

Question 1: In your experience, what determines the success of a Performance Appraisal System?

Question 2: What is the main reason for its failure?

Your thoughts and questions will be a learning opportunity for everyone. Won’t you like to (be) M.A.D.?

Diving into Leadership

One of the topics that has fascinated me is Leadership. With time, a lot of different dimensions and meanings of Leadership have unfolded.

It appears to me that Leadership means Making A Difference. A few days ago, I took an Indigo flight from Bangalore to Delhi. It took off in time and landed in time, which in itself was a wonderful change. As we were waiting for the ramp to be installed before getting off the plane, the captain came out of the cockpit and engaged in exchanging pleasantries with the passengers. I had not seen this earlier, and it was a refreshing change. As the bus was getting filled, I saw something that I had never seen before. The Captain was carrying the baggage of a lady who had some more stuff; he deposited the bag in the bus, greeted the lady and went off. The lady was obviously very pleased and thankful. I thought this was real customer care and wrote about this incident to Indigo management. They wrote back their thanks and said that with this attitude they hope to create a differentiator in the market. Which airline do you think this lady will use the next time? How many people will she share this story with?

Just before taking the flight, I had another incident. I had taken one of the new Meru taxies to the airport, and realized after checking in that I had left my mobile in the taxi. I came out, and approached one of the Meru executives. He was immediately helpful and connected with the driver, who had already returned and was a few kilometres away on the highway. Until the driver returned, the Meru executive kept tracking him, and gave me company. The driver return the phone, and when I gave him some additional money, he refused it and only accepted it when I insisted that he had extra expense of fuel and time for my mistake! These two folks did make a difference. I would certainly use Meru every time I go to Bangalore.

My friend Ravi Kodukula (www.fursatfriday.com) and his wife have recently started a school, at their home. It runs for a couple of hours in the evenings, and they teach children who don’t get to go to a regular school. They even provide them with things that are needed to learn (e.g., books) as well as refreshments. They are doing this with their own resources and making a big difference.

Similarly, another friend Sadhna, her husband Ashwani Lal, and a handful of other like-minded people in their neighbourhood in Gurgaon started a similar makeshift school about a year ago. They have 100+ children and a few of these have already graduated to regular schools based on the ‘step up’ they received. They have pooled in the resources required themselves and they are volunteer teachers too. Wow! What a difference they are making, and this will help the future generations of these children.

Last week, CFO World organized a seminar called ‘Secrets of a Happy, Healthy and Meaningful Life’ in Delhi. The speaker was H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living (www.artofliving.org), which is the world’s largest volunteer-based NGO. In response to a question asked to him, H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that everyone must contribute 3% of their earnings for the development of the society, for the benefit of others.

So many people, moved by the havoc caused by the floods in Bihar and Orissa have contributed in cash and kind. Different people have done different things:

• Felt bad for the affected people
• Criticized the government for not planning better
• Wanted to contribute, but were not sure whether the money would reach the affected, hence have done nothing so far
• Collected some used clothes and material
• Donated some money
• Inspired at least one more person to contribute.

Which one of the above do you think made a difference?

Question 1: You must be having people around you who are making a difference? How are they doing this? It could be at work, home, school or college, neighbourhood or society.

Question 2: What difference have you made in the last 7 days?

Your thoughts, feelings, anecdotes and insights will help all of us. Would you not like to (be) MAD – Make A Difference by sharing these?

PS: By the way, if you not watched ‘A Wednesday’ yet, go for it this weekend. Don’t miss it for anything!