I just delivered a web workshop on Appraising Performance. (The next one is scheduled this Friday so if you are interested, register today.) The session was based on the content from one of our NetSpeed Leadership modules. In preparing to deliver a workshop, I like to cruise around the Internet and see what interesting insights or statistics might allow me to make the content come alive for participants.

I ran across lots of blog entries on the need for performance appraisal systems, the folly of doing performance appraisals, the necessary evil of performance appraisals, and so on. Truth be told, I don't know any manager that enjoys preparing and delivering appraisals and I don't know any employee that enjoys receiving performance appraisals. However, put me in the camp of consultants who think that well-designed performance appraisal systems administered by well-trained managers and supervisors are an absolute business necessity.

We judge others' performance every day. Some of us do it well and some do it poorly. But if we manage others, we make decisions about paying, promoting, transferring or firing employees based on these judgments. In fairness to everyone involved, it just makes sense to me that we use a formal system to communicate our conclusions. And, even better, that we engage our employees in these conversations about their performance. Sure it's tough to do, especially when there are skill development issues and challenges, but the alternative is a business environment with no rules, no structure, frivolous actions, or unfair decisions. The bottom line for me is that the wise use of a solid performance evaluation system engages, protects, and supports everyone in the organization.

If you live and work long enough, you end up with a story about how you were fired or nearly fired. In my situation, I worked for a regional bank for almost nine years. In my first 8.5 years, I had a history of outstanding performance, annually documented in glowing performance appraisals. In the last 4 months of my banking career, I reported to a woman who was determined to get rid of me. She made my life impossible, embarrassed me publicly, stopped giving me projects, and (unbelievable to me even now) secretly interviewed participants in a leadership program I had delivered to see if she could dig up some dirt that could be used to let me go. (She couldn't.) It's been 17 years since this incident occurred but it stripped me of any illusions about organizational loyalty! Because my past performance was well-documented, it was difficult for her to fire me outright, and, in the end, I chose to resign.

So what's my point? As an employee in an organization with a well-established performance appraisal process, I was able to present my side of this situation to a few key people in Human Resources roles who supported me. Their support made it possible for me to move to another industry with a better job as the manager of a training department.

Because I've also managed the performance of others in banking, healthcare, and my own company, I believe that managers too are benefited by a formal appraisal process. It challenges us to do right by our employees, to consider their development needs, to have open, honest discussions about how things are going, and to take the time required to support people who are essential to our success. And that's not a bad thing either.

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had a most distressing and enlightening experience over the past weekend. For four hours on Saturday, I believed that a friend and colleague had been killed in a freak bus accident. When I opened up the Saturday paper, my eye fell on an article about a local woman who stepped off a bus and fell under the wheels as the bus left the curb. She was on her way home after a long day. The details listed in the paper included her name and age, as well as a fellow passenger's description of her as a beautiful woman with a soothing voice. He said she had a sparking light in her eyes and he just had to talk with her. He was shocked when her life ended right after their conversation.

My friend shares the same name, is the same age and completely fits the passenger's description. She's beautiful. She has a soothing voice (she's a mediator and conflict resolution expert), and she lights up a room when she enters. I was filled with grief that her life might have ended. I was 98% certain that I was reading about my colleague. I called a mutual friend and shared the news. We both wondered what we should do. I looked up her contact information and thought about what I would say when I called her home.

And a tiny voice in my head kept saying, “It might not be her.” With that hope, I worked up my courage and left her a voice mail message telling her I was worried and asking her to call me. Ten minutes later, I was ecstatic to hear her voice asking, “Cindy, why are you so worried?”

It took me four hours to make that phone call. I moved from sorrow and grief to relief and happiness in a single moment. We talked about how odd it was that someone else in our city shared her name, age and personal characteristics. We felt sad that anyone had died in this awful way. And we made a date for lunch in the future to catch up on our lives.

As I reflected on my Saturday, it was clear to me that I created the experience of losing a friend. Believing that she had died, I cried and worried and felt deep sadness. Since then I've been wondering how often I have created the very emotional experience that I fear. When I'm looking at cash flow, do I act as if the money won't be there and react to that fear? When I'm thinking about a difficult relationship, do I act as if that person is impossible and treat them that way? When I think something should happen the way I've scripted it in my mind, do I get tense and impatient when it unfolds differently?

You and I are always making up stuff to explain what's happening around us. What lens do you choose to view the world through? I spent four hours on Saturday believing something that was untrue and experiencing all of the emotions that stemmed from that false belief. How would you live differently if you believed that you were 100% responsible for the quality of your experience?

Life has a way of providing just the experiences we need.

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)