Getting to Know All About You

One theme surfaces frequently these days in our presentations to leaders of organizations, and consumes those of us who are trying to help create best-practice companies that attract and retain top talent. That theme is, know your employees well, better than they know themselves. 
 
Knowing an employee well is a key element of performance management, and we are stressing that heavily as we shed the traditional tools many organizations still use. These outdated tools include backward-looking employee appraisals that occur infrequently. Instead of that approach, we place our highest priority on coaching, a development-based strategy that looks forward by setting goals and establishing a plan to achieve them. This forward-looking kind of management asks coaching leaders to work with employees to set and reach their goals, after assuring they are aligned with the company mission.
 
A fundamental fact to acknowledge about this kind of coaching for performance is that although employees are alike in many key areas, they are different in significant ways. No single coaching/managing style fits all employees. This is a difficult idea for many managers to grasp, and it can be overwhelming if a conscientious manager believes he must memorize the names of his employees' children and spouses.  While knowing all those names is a nice thing to do, it is not imperative. But getting to know employees is an imperative, and it is less time-consuming and more enjoyable than playing the churn game – hiring employees for jobs they don't fit, leaving them to flounder, then replacing them six months or a year later and wondering what happened. 
 
Let's use Fred as an example of someone we need to get to know. Through assessments, we already know
that Fred has a high learning index and energy level, measures low on needing to control others or the situation, and high on manageability. What we do not know is whether the job we want Fred to do requires these competencies for successful performance. We also do not know:  

• How Fred fits with the rest of the team.
• How Fred fits with his manager/coach.

 
Obviously, in addition to getting to know Fred's competencies, we have to comprehend fully what we want him to do and what makes people in that role successful. Knowing all of these things allows Fred's manager to form a coaching strategy that will close the gaps, if any, between his capabilities and job requirements. 
 
Now let's look at the phrase "one size does not fit all" as it applies to managing people. Perhaps another way to say this is, don’t generalize or make assumptions about people based on age, gender, ethnicity or any of the other qualities that make Fred appear similar to Joe. As similar as some employees appear to be, to presume that two women, two men, two young people or two people of the same ethnic origin will think and act like each other because they share some of the same traits is a foolish oversimplification. That kind of thinking ensures we will be mired in yesterday's management rut.   
 
Here are some ideas about getting the right people into your organization from the start, then getting to know them: 

• Know your organization's culture well enough to talk about it. This includes the business strategy, the vision of top leaders, how employees view one another, and how workers treat each other.
• Communicate with employees. Go beyond regular meetings and memos. Take frequent walks through all departments.

Getting to Know All About You
 
Find out what is going on by talking to people. Figure out what they are thinking. How? Ask them.

• Ask for feedback about resources and other critical issues. Keep the channels of communication open and flowing freely. 
• If you want your employee rewards program to be effective, knowing your people is essential. Instead of planning rewards around the CEO's interests and needs, find out what workers want. Special incentives should be tailored to recognize the person who performed well.
• People change. So do their job interests, their energy levels and their competencies. It's the coach's job to know them at every stage in their lives and to change the motivation program to match their changing skills and interests. 
• Know yourself. It's much easier to understand other people if you get to know the inner you first, the things that make you tick, the job tasks that you enjoy and the ones that you do not, how you work with teams, and your compatibility with others.

Jim Sirbasku, CEO                                
Profiles International

Comments

[Shauna@IncreasingVelocity.com]

Hi, Amy;

I came to see if your site link was still valid as I parse the infamous 'Personal Development' list we are both part of, and which I keep on my own site as a reference for my readers.

While I'd like to say hello - hello! - I also want to comment on this article by Jim Sirbasku...it is excellent. I can recall a contract I had a few years ago with a company which performed 'traditional' backward-looking performance reviews for its regular employees, and I could clearly see how de-motivating the process was. Even when they attempted to throw in some goal-setting and coaching (kudos for trying, I suppose), it was still done with the same 'reviewer' and still not often enough, so it did not effect any change or help anyone at all.

Truly working with what motivates and lights people up (and not just remembering to ask about their kids) is a key to personal and professional motivation, which are intricately connected.

Thanks, Amy, for providing a forum for intelligent conversation and career advice. I look forward to reading more!

Sincerely,

Shauna Arthurs
IncreasingVelocity.com

[Mike Carden]

Great article. I think the theme of backwards looking performance reviews being less and less useful is becoming well established.
Our research shows that the key here is actually engagement. A review of an employee’s performance against objectives is useful to an extent because after all we all like reinforcement – golf would be much less enjoyable if there was no scoring. But the real benefit of a regular process is that you have a level of engagement with an employee where you can start to focus on their competencies and their development. The forward looking stuff.
As soon as you understand what an employee is striving towards (whether its towards their personal career goals or your business goals) then you can start to cheer them along and performance management stops being an annual review and becomes an ongoing process.
As a side note. The world of managing people is changing at a faster clip than most people realise. Many of my employees are Facebook friends, and I am more privy to their personal motivations and challenges now than I have been with any employees anytime in the past. How I learn to use this new access is now the key to being a great manager.