Performance Reviews: Advice for the Supervisor and Supervisee

In theory, the formal performance review is valuable: It provides useful feedback and a rational basis for determining pay and promotions.

Alas, in practice, performance evaluations too often result in the employee feeling unfairly judged and, in turn, demotivated. Bosses don't like doing formal reviews because they require much preparation and paperwork. Another disadvantage: bosses may feel an annual review can largely replace ongoing, just-in-time, informal feedback.

It is the latter, evaluating by walking around, that is usually most useful. Unless dealing with a remote workforce, the good boss spends a lot of time walking around among the supervisees, stopping to give attaboys/girls, and asking "How are things going?"

The boss might accept the typical "fine," or follow up with, for example, "Any way I can be of help to you?" Sometimes, the employee will ask for additional resources, which you may or may not want to give, but sometimes will elicit a request for your evaluation or guidance.

Whether or not you're evaluating by walking around, if you think there's a problem with an employee, unless s/he suffers from clearly too-high self-confidence and thus needs a wake-up call, start with tact and good listening. For example,

John, I've noticed that your reports (or whatever) haven't been great. Anything I can do to help, or is there something I need to understand that explains it?

Then listen carefully. Indeed, there may be a reasonable explanation. Then, if possible, instead of imposing a solution, let alone a punishment, it's wise to ask, "So what if anything do you propose we do?" Even if you don't fully agree or you doubt that will solve the problem, it's usually wise to say, "Fair enough. Let's try it." Your simply having raised the issue while being face-saving, not punitive, may be enough to sufficiently improve the employee's performance.

If that light hand turns out insufficient, you can always later offer suggestions, a structure for accountability, or if necessary, termination. It's usually wise to be punitive only if the aforementioned good-cop approach is unsuccessful--a confrontation often yields worse problems than it alleviates.

That said, many employers make the mistake of not cutting their losses early enough. In general, employers quickly know if it's wiser to replace an employee or to keep trying to get the employee to improve.

Unfortunately, today, dismissing an employee usually demands much stressful effort: months of written documentation of poor performance, and often contentious meetings to discuss an improvement plan with the employee. The whole process usually engenders defensiveness, may well hurt performance, and even cause the employee to sabotage your business and/or start legal action.

It's often wiser to try to counsel-out the employee, for example, "As you know it's been a bit of a struggle. You have real strengths (insert), which aren't made best use of on this job. How'd you like me to try to help you find a better-suited position in or perhaps outside the company?" Indeed, many people who perform poorly in one job could do better with different responsibilities or with a different boss or coworkers.

If You're Getting a Performance Review

Collect a goodie file: kudos, list of accomplishments, especially those that would build the bottom line. Send it to your boss in advance of your review, saying you hope these will be considered in the review.

Many employees exacerbate the effect of a negative evaluation by their response. Even if you're furious, don't respond right away. If you can muster up the restraint, say something like, "I appreciate the candid feedback. Of course, it's difficult to swallow so I'd like to take a few days to let it sink in." Then, with your reflexive anger likely reduced, you're more likely to respond wisely.

If you ethically can, say, "I'll work on it." If you can't, it's usually wise to respond gently, for example, "I thought my work has been better than that. Could you give me examples to help me better understand?" If you sense there is legitimacy to your boss's concern, you might ask the boss for a bit of help in improving. That would increase your boss's investment in you. I know it's not easy to stay on your A game when attacked, but it's usually worth trying to exercise restraint.

Employee evaluations are often dreaded by both employees and employers, but handled with delicacy and emphasizing just-in-time, informal, situation-specific feedback, dispensed in a positive face-saving way, performance review can be among the most beneficial components of a manager's job and of real benefit to employees.

Time's attack on capitalism and my response

On Time.com, Toure' wrote, "America has institutional inequities built into its structures that guarantee that millions of Blacks have no chance at success."

Here's my response:

That is true for tens of millions of people of all races. And hundreds of millions of people of all races have a greater chance of success than under any other system. Of course, people of any race who are unintelligent, lazy, unethical, emotionally unstable, and/or or not resilient will have a low probability of success, especially in today's tough job market that is toughened by global competition, and because of a wealth of policies that redistribute dollars and human resources away from the job creators.

And yes, in a socialist system, such people would no doubt benefit, because they'd get an equal share of resources, no matter their productivity, their merit, but that brings with it huge liabilities to the overall society because of that very redistribution: the aforementioned reallocation of resources from those most likely to abet society through innovation, leadership, and job creation, to those with the least. And of course there's the demotivating effect of paying people the same whether they're productive or not. The liabilities of that became clear, for example, in the endless Soviet bread lines. But we have a short memory.

So I have only have a minor disagreement with the author's statement, "America has institutional inequities built into its structures that guarantee that millions of Blacks have no chance at success." I would replace "no chance" with "little chance."

But far more important, for the statement to be placed in the necessary context, I would add, "But other institutional structures, such as the more socialist one the author advocates, are likely to cause far greater net harm to the nation's people.

Blacks' Self-Sabotaging Beliefs

One of my clients is seeking feedback on an article he wrote on self-destructive African-American beliefs. The article is titled, Group Psychosis in the Black Community.

I found the article of potentially significant societal benefit, for example, as the basis for a workshop for African-Americans.

I don't normally like to mention the race of someone I'm writing about, but in this case, it seems appropriate. The author of the article is Black.

The site on which he posted the article gets little traffic so he asked me to post it on this blog. Feel free to post your comments below.

HERE again is the link to the article.

Job Hunting Advice for a Midlifer

One of my clients is a midlife guy whose resume makes him look unqualified for the position he aspires to: operations manager at a 10-50-employee high-tech company.

Here are a few of the strategies I offered him:

• With your networking contacts, use a one-page bio rather than your resume. The bio allows you to highlight your strengths. Your resume lays too much bare for everyone to see.
• Like most geek types, indeed most men, you've put all your work effort into working and into getting more skilled, and no time building what alas seems more required than ability: a network. So rather than continue only to tap your existing network, which you describe as having already been queried enough, you must take the time to build a new network, which includes, not just formal networking events, joining clubs, taking positions on small boards, etc, but making conversation with people you meet everywhere, from the supermarket line to the people waiting at the barber shop.
• Having limited experience in your aspired-to job, you must do some reading and informational interviews with respected people in those positions. That way, you'll be able to discuss how the job is well-conducted. For example, as an operations manager, you should be able to richly discuss the ways in which you'd manage upward and downward, your approaches to getting buy-in on technical implementations from the not-very-technical people who will be using it, etc.

Job Hunting Advice for New Graduates

A friend of mine asked for my advice for his son. The situation is prototypical, so I thought I'd share his situation and my suggestion.

The son is a new college graduate with a BA in psychology from a reasonably regarded but not prestigious state university. He's tried to land a job for a year but can only land something he could have gotten with a high school diploma. He asked if I had any advice. I suggested he try one or more of these strategies:

• Identify one company, govt office, or non-profit at which you''d most like to work. Read up on it and then talk to one, or better, two or three people there, explaining why you'd love to work there, and what are some of his better skills and abilities. If necessary, it could be an internship or low-pay job as a launchpad.
• Ask relatives, friends, parents of friends, etc. Usually only people who love you will--especially in this job market--give you even a strong lead on a good job. Be sure to tout your transferable skills--for example, the leadership and organizational skills you acquired as your fraternity's activities chair.
• If you've tapped out your network, you must build a new one. Volunteer at places likely to give you face time with people who could employ you. Create deep connection: listen to them, offer to help them, tactfully teach them something, be pleasant.
• Start a low-cost, simple, non-trendy business, replicating a successful formula, for example, a coffee/dessert cart in the lobby of a large hospital or office building. Status is the enemy of contentment. After the first cart is successful, establish a second one and hire trusted people to staff both. Keep expanding until you've netted $200,000 a year. More than that and the quality control often goes down or the workload expands too much. $200,000 is more than enough to live well on.

If that advice is inadequate, your son might read one or more of these:

• What Career to Pursue
• Top Careers for the Coming Decade
• Developing Drive
• Finding a Good Job in a Bad Market
  

Only if all that is unsuccessful, would I recommend his seeing a career counselor. If he needs to do that, he might ask who the best career counselor is in the career office at his alma mater.

Developing Drive: Replacing procrastination with motivation

I've just finished writing what I believe is my best article on replacing procrastination with motivation, willpower, and drive. HERE is the link.

I've devoted particular effort to developing this article because I'll be using it for three purposes:

• as the basis for the speech I'll be giving at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral this Monday,
• as the demo class that The Great Courses has asked me to do. Indeed, you'll notice that it is written as if it were a lecture for The Great Courses.
• as the basis for my NPR-San Francisco radio show a week from tomorrow, Oct 23.

While I always value your feedback, I'd particularly value it on this article. (HERE is another link to it.) Which of the article's 11 strategies do you believe would and wouldn't actually help you? Care to suggest any others? Does the article's tone work for you?

My Bucket List: Does it make you want to create yours?

Here's my bucket list, from most to least likely to occur.

I present it here to increase my likelihood of making these things happen, and to encourage you to create your own list.

• Dinner at Fleur de Lys restaurant in San Francisco. (when I've lost the 20 pounds I want to lose.)
• A world-class, nurturing (but not sexual) massage
• Attend a concert by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.
• Get my book manuscript, How to Do Life: What they didn't teach you in college, published by a respected publisher.
• Extend my forthcoming five-part Washington Post series, "What's the Big Idea?" into a continuing column.
• Teach courses for The Great Courses. They've asked me to do a demo class. Hold a good thought for me.
• Present my blueprint for reinventing education to Tom Torlakson, the California State Superintendent of Schools and his cabinet (which includes my wife, Barbara Nemko.)
  
• Fund an annual prize for the most promising research toward ethically enhancing human intelligence.
• Write a column in the New York Times
• Host a show called Honest Conversations about Race.
• Write a screenplay that gets made into a movie about a wise person whose views and way of being are out-of-step with the times.