Recognise This! – Managers must make the tough decisions – and the good ones – their role calls for.
What’s the worst “people practice” you’ve heard? To borrow an American phrase, I’ve heard some real doozies in my career. And then there’s this one, forwarded to me by an American colleague (from whom I also stole the word “doozy”).
Apparently, an American newspaper needed to reduce staff and told two journalists only one could continue with the paper. But the two journalists would have to decide between themselves who would stay and who would go.
That’s horrifying and total abdication of leadership. There are many reasons why managers get paid more than average employees. Having to make and execute the tough decisions and execute them is near the top of that list.
While this may be an uncommon example of management abdicating their duties, a far more frequently occurring example – in workplaces around the world – is the employee self appraisal. Some argue in favor of the self appraisal, saying it is a good way for the employee to make the case for all the good work they did throughout the year. Isn’t that the manager’s job? To notice, appreciate and note their employee’s good work?
Yes, I understand the manager’s challenge of having to remember 12 months’ worth of achievements and areas for improvement for every employee on their team. But that just serves to highlight the main problem with the review process as a whole – it’s annual! (And that’s just one of the problems with the traditional review – check out this post by Dr. John Sullivan on TLNT for the top 50 problems of the traditional performance review process.)
If managers engaged with their employees regularly and in the moment to celebrate success and correct performance in an easily documented way, then would we even need the annual performance? Layer in the ability for peers to celebrate the successes of their colleagues, and you’ve gained exponential data points on employee contributions and efforts throughout the year.
That’s the point of Eric Mosley’s latest book, The Crowdsourced Performance Review. As my CEO at Globoforce, Eric has observed the horrors of the traditional review process and crafted the ideal solution for the modern age. If you agree the traditional review process has long outlived its usefulness and are looking for a better way, I highly recommend The Crowdsourced Performance Review.
What other ways do you see management abdicating their leadership role?
