The performance review

• provides the basis for equitable reward for the employee’s contribution. [rewards contribution]
• Highlights the employee’s strengths
• Identifies areas in which the employee may improve to achieve higher ratings and/or more responsible assignments.
• Provides the basis for fair salary administration across the organization. [makes salaries equitable]

The performance review is a formal, scheduled meeting.  The manager asks the employee to prepare a self evaluation prior to the meeting.  Using the employee’s self evaluation and the manager’s project and task information, the manager writes the review.  The review considers and documents factual, observed performance and rates the performance using the position description as the standard for acceptable performance.  I suggest a 4 category rating system.

• A zero rating means that the performance criteria was not met.
• A one rating means that the employee’s performance met the requirements of the job.
• A two rating means performance exceeded requirements in some aspects of the job.
• A three rating means that the employee’s performance exceeded requirements in all aspects of the job.

The manager rates each of the employee’s assignments using this rating system, then computes or derives an overall rating using the individual assignment ratings and their relative weights or importance.

The manager notes and comments on the employee’s strengths and areas of improvement and documents these comments in the performance review document.

Having completed the review documentation, the manager schedules the review with the employee.

The performance review is a formal, scheduled meeting.  In the meeting, the manager provides the employee with a copy of the review and provides the employee the opportunity to read the review.  They discuss the review, the manager answering any questions the employee may have.  The manager may change a rating if the employee provides factual comment that the manager did not consider. In matters of opinion, the manager’s opinion prevails.

During the conversation, the manager discusses the employee’s strengths and areas of improvement. The manager and the employee will schedule a separate meeting to discuss a development plan to address these areas of improvement.

Both the manager and the employee may then comment on the review.  The manager should summarize the meeting in his comments.  The employee may comment on the review too. If the employee disagrees, the employee’s comments should so reflect it.

The manager and the employee sign the review.  The employee’s signature states that the employee understands the review.  The signature does not signify agreement.

The employee and the manager set a meeting to create a performance plan for the next year.  They also set a meeting to create or update the employee’s development plan.

Summary:

• Based on facts only
• Rates 0-3
• Comments on each task
• Notes strengths and areas of improvement
• Conduct the review
• Manager and employee write summary comments and sign

Counseling takes two forms.

The first are scheduled interim reviews during the performance period. The manager meets with the employee and discusses what the performance review would be if it were conducted now, today. The manager discusses the basis for the assessment, identifying deviations from the plan. The manager and the employee investigate the reasons for the deviations and devise an approach to address them. Both individuals may have assignments in the corrective plan. The manager also recognized the employee’s demonstrated strengths. The manager and the employee discuss how these strengths may be further enhanced and utilized. The manager documents the counseling session and provides a copy to the employee.

The second form of counseling is immediate, occurring when the manager or the employee identify a significant deviation from plan. The manager and the employee meet and discuss the deviation. They jointly identify the issue, identify corrective action, and agree to address the issue. They also schedule a meeting to follow up on the issue and its correction.  It is important to note that either the manager or the employee can initiate this discussion. [Added Nov 13, 2008] It occurred to me today that constant immediate counseling would be demoralizing.  The compassionate manager should reserve immediate counseling for those situations that require immediate attention.]

These mid course corrections are essential in maximizing individual and organizational performance.

To summarize:
Feedback is essential.
Impromptu meetings address issues that require immediate correction.
Periodic reviews summarize performance to date in the plan cycle, providing areas of improvement and identifying strengths to exploit.

A position description should exists for each position in the company and should be the basis for determining the compensation for each job and subsequently for each person in the organization.

the position descriptions allow the company to set salaries consistent with the industry and also to ensure that the individuals within the organization are being fairly and equitably compensated in relation to each other.

Position descriptions are also the basis for hiring.  They define the skills and abilities of the desired candidate and suggest where the candidate should demonstrate experience in the required duties and responsibilities.

Second, the job description is the basis on which the manager writes the performance plan, in cooperation with the employee.  It defines the level and extend of the tasks that are valid for an individual in a particular job.

to summarize:

• Job descriptions describe each job in the company.
• A job description describes the duties, responsibilities, authority, and skills associated with the job.
• A particular job description describes the expectations that an individual in that job should meet.
• It allows the organization to establish salaries consistent with the industry and consistent within the organization.
• It is the basis for hiring.
• It is the basis for performance planning.
• It sets the acceptable level of performance in a performance evaluation.

A search on the Internet will reveal several sources from which an organization may obtain a set of job descriptions if the organization does not have descriptions for their job categories and does not wish to independently develop a collection.

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”

We all know this one as, ” The best–laid plans of mice and men often go awry” but i am a romantic and prefer the older language.

But the fundamental truth here is that no matter how carefully we plan and execute our projects, occasionally situations arise when, in spite of our best efforts, plans and projects fail. This happens for one or more of many reasons, but I think it comes down to this distillation.

• We did not know all of the parameters necessary to construct and effective plan. We did not have all of the necessary information.
• Our assumptions were erroneous.
• We had a faulty plan.
• We did not have control of the environment in which we executed the plan.
• We did not have contingencies in place to deal with deviations from plan.
• We do not have enough time (or other resource) to respond.

I am sure the list goes on and I missed a big one, so if I did please comment to this blog and we can start an aggregate list.

What do we do when a project does fail?

• Realize that life is an ebb tide and a flood tide. There will be more failures and more successes in life, and no one event is totally life changing.
• Look for the solution. From every failure comes the opportunity to learn and to achieve a greater success. The cause of he failure, when analyzed, will demonstrate significant opportunity for contribution. Entrepreneurs thrive on identifying failures and problems in processes and systems, and they benefit and succeed when they provide solutions.
• Examine what you could have done. We all have a circle of influence, to borrow from Covey. Often the cause of the project’s failure occurs outside of our circle of influence, and consequently we have no way to exercise control over the situation leading to the project’s failure. If the situation was in your circle of influence, reflect on the issue in the project review.
• Always conduct a project review, a post mortem. The purpose of this exercise is not to place blame but to identify real issues that we can correct, escalate for correction, or provide contingencies should they occur again. Our focus is creating a blueprint for a better plan and a successful project next time. Before you start the project review, review the following list with the review team and brainstorm other questions and tasks you want to add to the list.
  • Identify what went right with the project.
  • Identify what went wrong with the project.
  • Identify assumptions that were invalid.
  • Identify defects in the plan, its execution, and/or the project’s control systems.
  • Identify what was our of our control that contributed or caused the project’s failure.
  • Identify resource deficiencies and shortages.
  • Identify communications issues.
  • Identify structural issues and organizational aspects that contributed to the project’s failure.
  • Have each participant relax, clear their minds, and intuitively sense why they feel the project failed, list these observations, and discuss them

  From this exercise, produce a succinct report listing items that people can take action upon, identify the importance or priority of each item, and identify the person or organization best capable of resolving the issue. Publish this report to your management team, then to those who have action items to accomplish.

• I think the most important thing that allows us to deal with project failure is to maintain a realistic and healthy view of life. There are no successes or failures in our lives, just outcomes. Some are positive outcomes and some are negative. We will experience both outcomes several times in our lives. We need to view both our successes and our failures with this perspective and realize that we are not our failures, nor are we our successes.

Plan the meeting.

• Define what the desired outcome of the meeting is.  Too many meetings occur without an end objective.  Consequently, few of these meetings achieve the intended result.
•  Identify the meeting participants who are capable of making the desired outcome a reality. Avoid inviting spectators.
• List the minutes of any previous meetings that have been held to achieve this outcome.  Occasionally, it is necessary to frame the problem for the participants in a meeting, then meet again to reach an agreement.  Recalling the minutes of previous meetings hopefully prevents addressing issues that have already been decided.
• Define the meeting duration.  Keep the meeting as brief as possible.  Like work, meetings tend to expand to fill the time allocated to them.
• Construct an agenda that states the desired outcome and includes references to the previous meeting minutes. Include a list of the meeting participants.
• Schedule the meeting at a convenient time and place for all participants.  Be sensitive to time zone differences for dial-in participants.
• Send out the invites.

Conduct the meeting.

• Start on time and end on time.
• Begin the meeting by stating the desired outcome.
• When discussion drifts from the desired outcome, gently bring the discussion back to the stated outcome.
• Work for synergy within the meeting participants.  Encourage discussion.
• Reserve time at the end of the meeting to summarize the meeting to assess the success of the meeting in accomplishing the desired outcome. Obtain agreement that the outcome was achieved.
• If the outcome was not achieved, list the issues and obstacles that prevent accomplishing the outcome, identify and owner for each issue, and agree to meet again.
• Conclude the meeting on time.

After the meeting

• Write up the minutes of the meeting and send to all participants.
• Include in the minutes those items that have been agreed upon and resolved.
• List items requiring further action and the owner of each.
• Send the minutes to all participants.

Rinse and repeat.

Yearly the President presents a State of the Union address, presumably to detail just that, The State of the Union, summarizing the state of the nation and its future intentions.

It seems that such an assessment would be good for me as well.

Doing my state of the person assessment entails the following items:

• Recall my mission and vision.
• Recall my written SMART long term and short term goals.

First I will examine my SMART short term goals. Since they are measurable, I go through this list of goals and for each one I indicate the degree of success I have had, the planned versus the actual achievement. I now have a visual element that describes how I have done versus what I had planned to do. Some of these goals may be in progress, but I think it is still constructive to list them and figure out their degree of completion or realization.

I could use this data to construct a spider graph showing the shape of the invidivdual (me) and have a good visual representation of me. Bar charts would work just as well.

Now we see why SMART goals are useful. They are measurable.

I now have the basis for preparing my state of the individual speech to my audience (wife). I know how I have done relative to the plans and the achievements  that I had hoped to accomplish.

I think I need to fine tune this part of the presentation a bit. I need to do a reality check on what I observe. I need to review the assessment I have made and ask myself if this really reflects the state of the individual. Do the metrics really tell the honest story? Did I accomplish the goal but not the achievement I intended? In any situation where I feel uneasy about what the assessment reveals I need to make a footnote and figure out why I have fallen short. Am I really honest with myself? Is this goal really what I want? Did I “cook he books” and achieve one objective like eliminating credit card debt but deferred maintenance for which I did not have a measurable goal?

The next viseral check is to review my mission and vision and to ask myself if the numbers show that I am consistent with my mission and vision. If I get an uneasy feeling that I am not consistent, then I know that when I get to the next step I need to align goals with my mission and vision.  This visceral check is really important. I have found throughout my career that, when I had an uneasy feeling about something, I was usually right in my concern.

Equipped with the mission, vision, goals, and quantitative assessment, I can develop the plans for the next year.

• Is the mission and vision still accurate? If not, modify.
• Referring to my goals and my assessment, am I where I need to be? Do I need to add other goals? Do I need to modify the goals based on a revised mission and/or vision.
• What do I plan to do this year, based on this process? What are the goals for the year? Where do I want to be 1 year from now?

Now I have the current state of things and my plans for the next year. I can complete a state of the individual address.

I believe this assessment does the following

• It shows us our successes, giving us confidence, reinforcement, and a sense of accomplishment.
• It indicates shortcomings, suggesting that we are not really identified with the goal[s] that we list. “Stop Smoking” has been on my list for years. Perhaps “live a healthy life, evidenced by healthy diet, weight management, cholesterol management and exercise” might be better.
• It validates our direction, that is, our mission and vision, or it suggests that we need to revise our mission and vision, then our goals.
• It lays the foundation for the coming year.