Performance Management, Respect, a Butcher at Lake Louise...and Love

Let’s let out a collective groan about performance management. I know you want to.

Leaders groan about performance management, and for good cause. They’re not often supported with the time, tools, skills, and knowledge to do it well.

Employees also groan about performance management, and why? Because it tends to be perfunctory, surface-level, rushed-through, non-specific, untimely, unsupportive, and delivered one-way. At worst, conversations happen once a year (review time!) or only after there’s a problem.

Think back on all the performance conversations you’ve had with a supervisor. Now focus on the ones that bucked the trend of the GROANWORTHY ANNUAL REVIEW. Your manager coached you, developed you, supported you, gave you actionable feedback in a timely manner, provided you with information and tools to learn and grow, with an opportunity for you to share feedback, too. You got some tough feedback, sure, but useful, and motivating. It was delivered in a spirit of respect, accountability, generosity, clarity, and love.  

Now count those positive experiences. One… two… three?

Okay, unless you’re the small-town butcher* my family used to camp with – who for all I know could very well have had amazing supervisors throughout his tenure at the meat counter! – I’m willing to bet you have not run out of fingers.

So first, let’s define performance management for everyone who’s experienced it as simply:  

1.     Your annual review.

2.     You’re in big trouble and about to get written up.**

**Why do you hate this so much, again?

If you’ve ever attended supervision training, you know effective leaders manage performance continuously, so when tough conversations need to happen, they're not a shock, and they're hardly out of the blue. Delivery of bad news isn't the only time boss and employee sit down for a meaningful chat. And when that annual review comes around – and they do tend to come around eventually – your employee is unlikely to be surprised by the feedback. In fact, it’s a time you both look forward to. You get to sit together and celebrate progress. You’ve been coaching them all dang year, so darn right they made progress - your support and responsiveness helped enable it! (My one regret is that I haven’t always done them over lunch. You really should do them over lunch.)

Performance management is:

1.    Regular and ongoing goal setting, evaluation, update, and review.

(You hear that? Not just once a year. Not just when you’ve screwed up.)

2.     Timely and actionable feedback.

(You hear that? Again… not just once a year. And not just a score with some meaningless words attached, scaled differently by different leaders because some always give all 5.0s and others have allegedly never even met a 5.0. What if all supervisors aimed to coach, develop, and support their employees into these elusive 5.0s? What if?!?)

3.     Coaching and development.

(Want to actually make this engaging for the employee, and drive a high-performance company? Check out the shelf-life of most people’s skills these days. Spoiler: It’s short. Those skills they arrived with, they’ve already spoiled. They’re rotting in the back of the cabinet next to the Rolodex and the expired vending machine noodle cup. If you want to retain your employees, and if you want to achieve your organizational strategy, purpose, or mission, this is crucial. D E V E L O P   Y O U R   P E O P L E !)

4.     Recognition and rewards.

(Find out what motivates your employees, and recognize them per their preferences, not your own. Tie their performance to rewards, monetary if possible because last I checked, can’t pay the rent with a THANK YOU gif posted to a Kudoboard.)

5.     Addressing performance issues.

(See again: Timely. Actionable. And with structures in place to identify root causes and address ongoing concerns in an equitable manner. Did you hear me slow down my words when I said that last part? I totally did, read it again. Slower.)

6.     Always making the connection with impact.

(Whether their performance has been in alignment with organizational values and priorities, or out of alignment, talk about the impact. Especially when in alignment. How are their unique contributions advancing your company's strategy and mission? Connect it with their personal motivations and sense of purpose, please! That means, you gotta get curious about what those are! And guess what - they change over time! Being a manager is hard! And more exclamatory statements!!! This point must be extra important!!!!!!!)

I’ll add: Good performance management is an ongoing series of mutual, two-way conversations marked by safety, respect, clarity, alignment, and purpose. It motivates. It engages. It inspires.

Does giving and receiving feedback make you feel icky? Of course it does! So stop right here and learn about feedforward, a concept I picked up in an excellent course on Agile People Development. It's more effective, and eliminates the icks! (I also recommend the course.)

Are these things happening consistently in your organization? If not, why not?

You know what makes me groan? It's not performance management. It's HR leaders who groan about performance management. I know them. I've met them. I see you. You’re the experts on… what, now? Pay… some health insurance stuff… posting some jobs and getting people to fill them… Googling for the answer to a compliance question so you can look smart when you check the answer with your Legal team (heh heh)... managing job descriptions…

There, that one! Ding ding ding! Pretty sure it’s in your job description. So why the groaning? Sure, some components are administratively burdensome, but it's important! Maybe it needs a reframe.

Performance management is not about the annual review, and it’s not about writing people up. Stop making it about that.

Performance management can be about respect, accountability, generosity, clarity, and love.  

Respect for your employees: Embracing their unique contributions, and giving them the information, skills, resources, and workplace culture to show up at their best.

Respect for your leaders: Giving them the tools to lead well, and holding them accountable when they fall short.

Respect for your organization’s mission, purpose, strategy, and the communities you serve: Prioritizing the time and effort required to create and sustain a high-performing culture.

Nothing there to groan about, right? Right!

*Stay tuned for more content on personal and professional development strategies from Lake Louise. Next up: “Things could always be worse.”

Scene: Nikki, age five, slams her fingers in a metal camper door. She starts crying. She feels very sorry for herself.

The butcher cracks open a beer, tips it back using the thumb and pinky remaining on his left hand, and deadpans: “Things could always be worse.”

And he was right. See: Totally embarrassing leech check performed by my aunt, and me, nekkid as a jaybird in the middle of the campground later that summer.