Is Your Performance Review System Outdated? By Doug Staneart

One of the most common complaints that comes up in job satisfaction surveys is, "I never get useful feedback about how I am doing my job."

Most companies today use a performance appraisal system or an annual performance review system that was invented decades ago in a much slower business economy. So the assessment that is given to employees in annual, semi-annual, or even quarterly reviews tends to be outdated by the time it is received by the person who could benefit most from the information -- the employee.

In addition, the measurements that are in place in these appraisal forms are typically arbitrary and subjective. For example, when I was in college, I had an internship with a major Fortune 500 company. At the end of the 3-month internship, my performance assessment was reviewed by the other members of my department (in a 360 degree feedback method.)

All of these people thought that I was an exceptional intern, but they had to judge my performance based on the same five-point scale on the same form that they were judged by. I still remember the ache in the pit of my stomach when I saw all of the threes and fours on the job evaluation. My boss explained to me that very few people ever received fives on their evaluations, as that would leave little room for improvement.

After reading and re-reading the document, I was left with the same question that many employees today are asking: Did I or did I not do my job well?

In today's fast-paced economy, these traditional systems just don't work. Performance appraisals should be short, no more than ten-minutes, and should focus on the results expected from the employee's current position, and how effectively the employee's current goals are being met. And above all, the reviews should be easy to write!

For example, a Project Manager may have a number of different results that are expect from his or her performance. Is the project on schedule? Is it under budget? Are the company quality standards being met? Is the customer satisfied? Are employee expenses in line?

All of these results can and should be measured consistently. Intangibles can also be measured such as morale (through employee surveys, workplace absenteeism, and turnover,) leadership (productivity, development of people, and problem-solving skills,) and work ethic (are goals consistently met, are goals challenging, and are projects completed timely.)

With this system, a manager can schedule monthly "mini-interviews" taking just minutes. These sessions are valuable because they open lines of communication and they give the manager a chance to update the progress of the employee in different result areas.

If the employee is performing above expectations, then this is an opportunity to shine and set new goals, and if the employee is performing below expectations, then corrective actions can be taken. Then take just a couple of minutes to write the results.

These "mini interviews" make annual appraisals a piece of cake, because the employee and the manager now have as many as 12 separate (written) measured checkpoints along the way that show how the employee has performed over the last year.

This annual review now has documented facts to base an appraisal on. The employee sees that he or she was on budget 95% of the time versus receiving a four out of five, or that he or she is ranked in the 90th percentile of managers within the company based on leadership.

This system, although not foolproof, can greatly reduce the stress and tension associated with Performance Appraisals. It will cut down on the ill feelings associated with 360 degree method assessments as well. Companies using this type of system show dramatically higher productivity within months of implementation.
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Doug Staneart, doug@leadersinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training. His classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-What do you think are the key ingredients to ensuring that performance reviews are the most effective? Were there any ideas shared in the above article that you agree or disagree with?

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com

Conducting Effective Business Meetings By Doug Staneart

How would you describe meetings you have attended in the past? Last Tuesday, I was facilitating a workshop on how to facilitate more successful meetings, and to start things off, I asked the group that very question. The answers that they provided were very similar to answers that I have received from hundreds of workshop participants over the last ten years.

The first two responses were…
"Meetings are looooooooooong," and
"Meetings are BOW-ring (this workshop was actually held in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas - thus the Texas twang.)"

Those two responses almost always come up when I ask the question. Others that also come up a lot are: Wastes of time, non-productive, confrontational, inefficient, repetitive, and a number of other negative descriptions. Every once in a while, I get a response like positive, informative, or necessary, but usually the other participants gang-up against the person very quickly.

Most people believe that business meetings are necessary evils, and in many cases, they are. But one of the most important things we can remember about business meetings is to NOT have one unless it is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Nothing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. Some one of my first pieces of advice to people who want to make meetings more effective is to have fewer of them.

About five years ago, I made this statement in a class, and a young lady in the front row raised her hand and said, "That sounds really good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings." I was intrigued, so I asked her to tell me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day.

After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.

The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.

1. Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the "chasing of rabbits," and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.

2. Follow the Agenda: This sounds very elementary, but you'd be surprised by the number of people who take the time to create an agenda, and then totally disregard the agenda during the meeting.

3. Limit the Agenda to Three Points or Less: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?" Limit the agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time?

4. Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient, and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting.

You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently.

5. Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don't Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out" (especially if it is a looooong and BOW-ring meeting.) If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot.

Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, "Good, let's hear from someone else." If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add." Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn't, then you haven't embarrassed the person.

Meetings can be a very powerful way to communicate and solve problems. In past workshops that I have facilitated, we have shown leaders how to identify the root-cause of a problem, come up with dozens of possible solutions, come to a consensus as group on the best possible solution, and create a written plan of action that is measurable in 15-minutes or less.

Your meetings can be that efficient and that powerful too if you use these simple tips.
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Doug Staneart, doug@leadersinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training. His classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-Do you have any other advice you'd like to share on making the most of your business meetings?

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - This powerful training resource is designed to meet your leadership training needs! Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com

Become a Strong Leader - Throw Out The Creative Filters, and Get Buy In! By Connie Timpson

A great new idea is like striking gold for any leader and team. It can be collected, examined, enriched and sold. But the process of finding the gold can be difficult even for the best of leaders and managers.

Creative Filters that thwart creativity - “I will not offer my idea until I am sure it’s what my boss is really looking for.” “The last time I offered an idea my colleagues ridiculed me.” “My ideas are too off the wall for my manager.” “My ideas never get accepted, so I will not try.”

What risk is there in sharing ideas? Many, you say, theft, betrayal, ridicule, doubt? Oh yes, and let’s not forget jealousy and ego. As Albert Einstein said,

Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds!

Remove the Filters ... We have learned to layer ourselves with filters that we believe protect our professional life. With training and coaching, a leader will be able to help his team feel safe during the creative process, strip off the filters, get the best ideas, and return the creative process to the most basic.

Give a child a shovel on the beach and he will create a dream castle. Give an adult a shovel and he will most likely store it in the garage. Millions of ideas have been stuffed into garages, attics, drawers, or abandoned in corners.

Tap Into Creativity and Gain Buy In ... Access both sides of the brain - unlock your team’s fears of being a little “wild.” Give them a green light to express their ideas. A strong leader will encourage every idea, while focusing on core principles like:

* There are no wrong answers - Encourage your team to put a lid on the left side that is always telling you, “Be careful, do not take professional risks, don’t share your ideas or someone will take them.”

Encourage every idea no matter how wild it might seem. At the age of fourteen Filo T. Farnsworth saw the idea for electronic television in the parallel lines of his father's potato field in Idaho. He battled with David Sarnoff of RCA until the bitter end. Sarnoff became rich and Farnsworth won only the title of “The father of television.” But while watching Neil Armstrong step on the moon, he said, “it was all worthwhile.”

* Rub one idea against another - Jim Henson created Kermit while home with the flu. He was inspired by his mother’s old green coat. He got the scissors, added a tennis ball, and Kermit was born! Having shared Kermit, his concept of a whole troop of lovable creatures got team love and development. Henson helped his crew rub one idea on the other to come up with the best ideas and characters.

* Defer judgment – keep comments positive. As the team leader you wield power over individuals. Your opinion influences advancement and stature. You have implicitly promised to keep ideas and people safe in the brainstorming session.

Gaining Buy In

Lead through discussion

* Focus on quality – which idea has monetary value, can be implemented and will advance the project.

* Analyze all possibilities - Grow and play with each idea. A better football, NERF balls, play dough, slime, all came from playing with an idea. The more they kicked it around and played with it the bigger the idea grew. Love the process – Stephen Spielberg said,” I dream for a living.”

* Lead your group to the best solution – “No, that does not mean – tell them what the best solution is.” Work through the ideas with the group until you come up with a common consensus that incorporates bits from many ideas that evolved during the creative session.

Every new idea is a great one. Learning how to become an effective leader, who knows how to manage his people and get the best ideas from his team, will help you advance your professional course.

The only bad idea is the one that stays in your heart and head.
An effective leader can convert those creative nuggets into gold.

Bill Gates - We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.

Taking a risk on your team’s ideas, giving the ideas flesh and voices, may be a bit daunting. But ideas will never be brought together and grown if they remain silent. We can help you learn how to be a highly effective leader, who can turn ideas into gold.
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Connie Timpson, is an instructor and personal coach for The Leaders Institute, Management and Supervisor Training. Her classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. She can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-What are your thoughts on the ideas you just read?

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - This powerful training resource is designed to meet your leadership training needs! You and your team will get clear insight into timeless leadership principles and learn a process for continual growth in the life of your organization. Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com

Today's Economy Demands A Critical Skill: Optimism By Eileen McDargh

Global warming. Water shortages. Terrorism. Failing health care system. Wars around the globe. Gas prices. Severe economic downturn. Look at the headlines and it's enough to make you stay in bed.

But wait! There is hope. It's not the cock-eyed optimism sung about in South Pacific, the hottest show on Broadway. Rather it's what psychologists in France are calling "intelligent optimism." Such optimism does not deny the reality of today's world, but rather seeks to Learn how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life's work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.

Consider these basic steps:

(1) Focus on what you can control. Don't get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming, but you can control your energy consumption. You can't stop the downsizing in your company, but you can arm yourself with marketable skills. You cannot halt the bleeding on Wall Street but you can rebalance your portfolio.

You can take a hard look at expenses and determine what are necessities and what are nice-to-have items that can be dropped. At the same time, do resolve to spend some money or time on something that truly gives you pleasure and lightens your spirit. Two-for-one hamburgers at the local joint with my best friend make my heart glad and brings a smile to two faces.

(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim. There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not "planned" to "get" me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in place of the cancelled work.

When Hurricane Katrina wiped out the home of a nurse, she told me that she focused every day on what she still had and she had her children do the same thing. Every day started with gratitude. She refused to see herself as a victim.

(3) Think "enough". When we concentrate on what we don't have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough. It might not be as much as you would like but, for today, it is enough.

(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded, and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a wise response because it keeps us grounded in reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture.

Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can do to see a result that gives you a sense of power. As Alexander Graham Bells stated, "Sometimes we stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that is opening." The 3M engineer who thought he had failed to make a glue compound that would stick discovered what we all now call Post-In Notes(tm).

(5) Remember the power of generations. Children of depressed parents are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to be optimists. What do you choose to pass along? Even if your parents were negative, you can break the cycle by stopping, freeze-framing a situation, listening to the negative self-talk, and then literally giving yourself a different message. Yes, this is a practice. A hard practice. But you can make it a habit if you work it over time.

(6) Sing. When all else fails-start singing. It is impossible to feel negative when you lift your voice in song. Music allows you to formulate words, to add nuance, and to even get your toe tapping.

(7) Refuse to watch or read anything that puts a dark pall over your day. Instead of tuning into gloom, read a book that transports you to another time and a better mood. Go play with the baby next door. And if you are one of those folks who just can't stand children, take a walk with your dog, dig in the yard, or get a bucket of balls and practice your golf swing. Better that than walking around with heart and mind weighted down.

(8) Refuse to participate in a chorus of negative conversations if the only thing you will hear is whining, complaining and moaning. Tell your group that they have three minutes to throw a hissy fit but then it must stop and the next six minutes must be devoted to either finding something positive about the situation or something that they can do.

Lastly, practice saying this mantra, "This too shall pass." It always has and it always will.

(c)McDargh Communications.
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Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE is head of McDargh Communications, a training and consulting practice founded in 1980. She's also an award-winning author, radio commentator, and on the Board of the National Speakers Association. Eileen can be reached at www.EileenMcDargh.com.

-Consider some ways that implementing a few of the ideas above would make you a better leader. Try one or two of them and see for yourself the positive results that happen as a result.

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - You and your team will get clear insight into timeless leadership principles and learn a process for continual growth in the life of your organization. Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com