Engaged Performance Management

Is your performance management approach managing to get the best performance out of the people being managed?

If you are a leader of a manager how do you go about managing the performance of the people who work for (with) you?

Do you avoid the annual performance review like a mini plague and just hope any issues will go away or do you fully engage in the process and make it a contribution to the energy of yourself, the person who reports to you, and the organization?

I intend to write on this topic a number of times in November as I believe performance management and employee engagement are linked together.

To begin the month, I encourage you to read Samuel Culbert’s article in the Wall Street Journal on Get Rid of the Performance Review!.

Here are a few statements from the article:

To my way of thinking, a one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional pretense.

In almost every instance what’s being “measured” has less to do with what an individual was focusing on in attempting to perform competently and more to do with a checklist expert’s assumptions about what competent people do.

…improvement is each individual’s own responsibility. You can only make yourself better. the best you can do for others is to develop a trusting relationship where they can ask for feedback and help when they see the need and feel sufficiently valued to take it.

I also encourage you to watch the following 4 minute interview with Sam (click here is the video does not appear in this window):