Fearless Performance Reviews: Coaching Conversations that Turn Every Employee into a Star Player - Softcover

Russell, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071804722 ISBN 13: 9780071804721

Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Turn the performance review process into a performance enhancement process

Fearless Performance Reviews introduces a groundbreaking new framework that transforms not just the review process but the entire relationship between coach and employee.

Experts Jeffrey and Linda Russell replace the traditional performance review with the Performance Coaching Conversation, a bottom-up alternative in which the employee takes the lead both during the review process and throughout the entire performance cycle.

" Fearless Performance Reviews is a great way to step new and experienced supervisors through a much more effective process for performance reviews. The process that is described in the book really does take the fear out of both sides of the performance assessment process."
-Dawn Thistle, Organizational Learning Manager, Springs Window Fashions

"Getting to the goal of effective performance reviews requires collaboration. What better way to share the journey to success than to agree on the route. Jeff and Linda offer us a powerful and clear framework for making the review process more collaborative and gives us a framework rather than a script."
-Annamarie Shanahan, HR Director, Plastic Ingenuity

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jeffrey and Linda Russell are principals of Russell Consulting, Inc. (RCI) which helps leaders, managers, supervisors, and teams build effective and productive organizations.

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FEARLESS PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

COACHING CONVERSATIONS THAT TURN EVERY EMPLOYEE INTO A STAR PLAYER

By JEFFREY RUSSELL, LINDA RUSSELL

McGraw-Hill Education

Copyright © 2014 Jeffrey Russell and Linda Russell
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-180472-1

Contents

Preface
Introduction: The Idea of Fearless Reviews
1 Why the Fear in Reviews?
PART 1 THE MY-WAY MINDSET
2 What is the My-Way Mindset?
3 Governing Values and Underlying Assumptions of the My-Way Mindset
4 Enacting Behaviors of the My-Way Unilateralist
PART 2 THE COLLABORATIVE MINDSET
5 Transforming Relationships and Reviews Through the Collaborative 
Mindset
6 The Governing Values of the Collaborative Mindset
7 Underlying Assumptions of the Collaborative Mindset
8 Enacting Behaviors for Collaboration
9 Where It All Leads
PART 3 WHAT TO DO WITH ALL YOU'VE LEARNED
10 The Purpose of Performance Reviews
11 Establishing a Framework
12 Diagnosing Why Things Go Right or Wrong
13 Laying Down the Foundation for Success
14 Identifying and Developing Goals for the Coaching Conversation
15 Actions to Take to Start Moving in the Right Direction
16 Putting Your Hard Work Into Action
Appendix A: Performance Coaching Conversation Preparation Guide
Appendix B: Common Questions and Answers About Fearless Performance 
Reviews
Notes
Index

CHAPTER 1

Why the Fear in Reviews?

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, thenwe are a sorry lot indeed.

—Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist

Years ago, our client Brenda called us because she was afraid. Her performancereview was coming up the next week, and she was concerned about being ambushedand blindsided by her manager. "I know this guy all too well," she said, "and Ijust don't trust him." Brenda went on to ask if we would be willing to sit in onthe review to keep things accurate and, more importantly, safe.

Our response to Brenda was cautious: "That's not a role that we typically play,"we said, "but we're open to the possibility. Let us think about this a bit andget back to you." We were somewhat hesitant because we normally don't getinvolved in facilitating supervisor–employee discussions.

About 30 minutes later, while we were still pondering whether to get involved,our phone rang again. This time it was a supervisor on the line, saying that hehad a performance review with a difficult employee the following week. "I waswondering," Tom asked, "if you'd be willing to sit in on this review to keepthings more level headed. Frankly, this employee is pretty volatile, and I'dlike someone there as an insurance policy. I find her pretty intimidating, and,"he added, "I just don't trust her."

Yes, you guessed it. Tom was Brenda's supervisor. Without hesitating, we saidyes to Tom's request—with the qualifier, "as long as Brenda's open to us beingthere." Tom clearly sounded relieved. Tom said that he'd clear it with Brendaand that, unless we heard from him to the contrary, he would see us at thereview the following week.

What Brings Out the Fear?

So why did Tom and Brenda feel anxiety and fear as they each approached thisannual performance review? What caused them to dread this encounter so much thatthey needed a third party to mediate what should have been a prettystraightforward discussion of the past year of Brenda's performance?

Before we get into the origins of fear in Brenda and Tom's situation, let's stepback from their unique relationship and explore what it is about performancereviews in general that too often brings anxiety, if not fear, bubbling to thesurface in both employees and supervisors.

In our experience, performance reviews often produce uncomfortable feelings inboth parties due to the following reasons.

It Seems There's a Lot at Stake

And sometimes there is! Organizations often try to pack a lot into performancereviews—expecting them to be a primary driver of merit-based raises, anchoringpromotions to good reviews, surfacing high potentials based upon review ratings,and so forth. Beyond the stakes set by the organization, there are even higherstakes from both the employee's and supervisor's perspectives.

For employees the personal and professional stakes include professionalcompetence, credibility, and reputation; self-esteem and self-worth; jobsecurity; career growth and opportunities; and personal pride. These stakes areunique in that they aren't defined by organizations but by employees themselves.A sense of self-worth and professional integrity as well as possible careergrowth contribute to the importance and potential long-term consequences of theperformance review.

But what's at stake for supervisors? Aren't they just raising the stakes foremployees? What do they have on the line? For anyone who has held the title ofsupervisor, the stakes at performance reviews are just as clear as they are foremployees: a sense of competence as a supervisor, the ability to maintain asense of control or influence over the situation, the feeling of responsibilityfor employees' performance failures, and future career growth as a manager orleader at the organization.

The Process Seems Overly Judgmental

For employees, the anxiety and fear arise in part from the perception that theirprofessional accomplishments and contributions are being judged as worthy ornot. Rather than a forward-leaning developmental method, the performance reviewhas a reputation as a backward-looking process that examines an entire year'sworth of the employee's performance and then grades that performance asexemplary, good, satisfactory, needing improvement, or unacceptable. Employeesfeel judged when their entire performance life seems to have been reduced to acheckbox. And why shouldn't they feel anxiety and even fear about that?

Not surprisingly, supervisors have as much difficulty with passing judgment asemployees have with being judged. They may not feel confident that they know theemployee's work well enough to accurately assess the employee's performance.Even if supervisors feel comfortable with the accuracy of a performanceassessment, they may still feel uncomfortable knowing that their judgment of anemployee's performance is likely to have an impact upon the employee's image,reputation, and future success at the organization. Checking a box on theperformance review form seems easy to do, but good supervisors understand theimpact of such judgments. And that's a heavy—and frightening—burden to have ontheir shoulders.

The Review Process Sometimes Raises Uncomfortable Truths

The greatest value of a performance review comes from an honest discussion ofwhat's working and what's not. Unfortunately, for many people, getting to thatlevel of honesty is hard. It's hard to hear it, and it's hard to speak it.

Who wants to hear their boss point out mistakes they have...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071804722
• ISBN 13: 9780071804721
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar