get rid of the performance review by samuel l culbert

Now Look at the Mess You’ve Made

Source: Google Image

The mission of this book is to put corporate executives on notice that they have created a monster called performance review.

They’ve built a corporate culture where bullsh*t, not straight talk, is the communication ethic of

choice.

Reviewing performance is good, it should happen every day. But employees need evaluation they can believe, not the fraudelent ones they receive.

They need evaluations that are driven by need, not a date on calendar.

Those Who Can’t, Get Promoted

The boss’s assessment is really about whether the boos “likes” you or “comfortable” with you. None

of this good for the company unless the boss is some kind of extremely genius & able to read employee’s inner talents &

personal priorities with laser accuracy.It’s impossible.


Manager don’t just abuse the performance review; the performance review

abuses them, by allowing bad managers to hide their incompetence & preventing good managers from getting the employee honesty that allows them

to use their competence


Getting rid of the performance review is a big step forward in allowing a boss & the boss’s direct reports to

communicate candidly about what’s needed for better results on the job.

Performance review won’t get you there, since it’s just about the boss getting the subordinate to buy into his/her way of

thinking. With performance reviews, the subordinate’s agenda is ignored.

Without them, I know your agenda, you know mine, & we go from there.

If the Performance Review Doesn’t Work, Why Does Everyone Use it?


ARE YOU READY, PAK RADIT?

Lipstick on the Pig Recognizing such flaws, corporate executives tried to fix it by coming up with

measures that similar with “lipstick on the pig”.“Shows leadership”, “Take Initiative”, “Communicates effectively”, and “works well in a team to motivate employees to do what was right for the company.

But these criteria sound like kindergarten’s report card- were difficult to

quantify & require. Specifically, they did nothing to inspire workers to think outside the box, to step

outside the metrics that had been designed for them.


But Guess, Who It’s Good For?

The performance review may not be good for employees. It may not be good for companies. But it sure as hell is good for

the HR people

The problem isn’t that HR people are bad people. The problem is that they have the politics all wrong. They want authority, they want to be listened to,

and the performance review is the way they get it. This is a power grab, pure & simple.


Imagine the HR department’s life without the performance review. It would be

pretty basic support stuff. They do recruitment, legwork, administer

health & retirement plants. They keep the employment statistics. If there was a problem, they would report on it, and then kick

the problem to another department.

Enter the performance review. Suddenly, HR can argue they are essential to the bottom line. They’re there to keep the place honest, they’ve become the cops.Notice that it’s HR that insists on keeping performance reviews with negative comments in the files for an individual’s total tenure with the company. Why

would they do such a thing?The lame excuse that HR gives is that these reviews are necessary “legal backup”

documentation for the faults of poor performers. Oh, please.

From My Point of View, I’m Objective


When someone is working well, don’t interrupt that person’s workflow with an exercise that isn’t much use to what’s being accomplished now. Conducting a

performance review when there is no specific real-time need makes no sense.

I believe discussing performance should be an option available at all times, dictated by circumtances, opportunity, need, and most important, relationship.

Discussing performance, not issuing pronouncements & rendering categorical judgements.


Look Who’s Talking How far apart are boss & subordinate in this performance review dance?

They’re not even listening to the same music. The boss wants to discuss performance improvements & further

development needed, while the subordinate is focused on such “minor” issues as compensation, job progression, and career advancement.


In Search of Failure

“You can’t give everybody top marks, that isn’t objective” the HR department tells manager.

If you have to satisfy the bell curve, and some people have to do better or worse than others, you’re starting at a point that demands you throw

objectivity out the window.It also requires the boss to spend a year searching for negatives to use next

year, to prove that he/she isn’t positively biased.

The Typical of Performance Review

The typical workplace interaction between boss & subordinate– is so fake. They’re only one opinion

that counts- the boss’s.

It’s all about the subordinate telling the bos what the boss want to hear, instead of speaking one’s mind about what the subordinate believes is best

for the company.


Pay for Performance.. Other lies your bosses tell you


With praise linked to pay, bosses have to hold back their kind words, for fear they’ll expected to back up the appreciation with money that the company

doesn’t have. For the employee, authentic appreciation ends up

feeling like so many empty words...

Too much stuff going on to suggest that pay is simply about merit and

performance. It’s about interpersonal politics & loyalty.

About what’s important at any particular moment to any particular boss, about the department’s budget.

It’s about ninety different variables – none of which any two bosses will see exactly the same

way.


Here’s what’s

wrong with you, now FIX

it.

The basic issue with the performance review is that the outcome is predetermined. The review is either a blunt weapon to move the employee to the door, or to reward “star” employees. The worst part is the self-evaluation, where you are required to read to read the manager’s mind and “sign-up” to their issues. If the boss has something on his mind, and you don’t list it, then you’re in “denial”.

-writing by a worker-

Another example from workplace (1)

I’m shy & I sometimes stutter and don’t like to speak up at meetings. I don’t

like large groups. But I’m terrific one-on-one. So I have a lot of individual

conversations with my colleagues, letting them know what I’m working on &

where I stand everybody is on the same page. But in my performance review,

I hear one thing: “I don’t participate in meetings. Once again, the boss’s

framing of the issues implies that the cure is having me do something that I

just can’t do. What a waste of time.

In the end, the boss doesn’t help the subordiante improve;he just alienates him.


Nine principles that bosses need to understand if they are going to effect a change in a subordinate

1) Make subordinates see that you understand their perspective2) Show subordinates that change is important for the company3) Be willing to make exceptions to the rules4) Show subordinates how their making a change can make a difference for their

future5) Consider your subordinates’ entire lives, understanding that doing well at work

takes a backseat to doing well in life more generally6) Be specific, don’t be universal7) Avoid comparison8) Use I-Speak9) For your eyes only

Employee want feedback, they are starving for it. Just not the kind most

bosses give them. They want to address areas that make them more competent,

but in the way they want to be competent. It has to make sense to

them. Source: Google Image

We’re All in This Together. Not


The performance review pits colleague versus colleague, It pits

department versus department. And, most important, it pits boss versus subordinate.


You believe (falsely) that it will affect your pay. So you’re going to find out who got 4s and 5s, and you’re going to wonder what they did to deserve it.

You’re going to do everything you can make sure that person does not do as well as you do. What a nice teamwork


The Lesson Learned

First: “Consider this person you valuable employee until you decide you are better to training a replacement”

Second: “Your kid May Be an Honor Student but You Drive Like an Idiot”- my favorite bumper sticker

Third: straight-talk relationship, a true team, is the most effective & efficient management tool any manager potentially has.

And the biggest point is:When boss assesses a subordinate’s performance, more than one variable needs consideration. It’s not just the subordinate & his/ her efforts

There Has to Be a Better Way: And There is.


It’s a tool that is as simple as it is elegant, as obvious as it is revolutionary.

It is the Performance Preview

Replace it

Replace the reviews with the preview- an on going dialogue between boss & subordinate, where each of them is responsible for asking the

other:

“What can I do to make us work together better and get the results we’re both on the hook for? The focus isn’t on the past and how one person screwed

up, but on making the system work better in the future”

Performance Reviews Mean That If The Subordinate Screws Up, The Subordinate Suffers

Performance Preview Put Both The Subordinate’s & Boss’s Skin in The Game

With performance review, the boss trying to bend you, the subordinate, to boss’s will. If I can’t do it, it’s your fault and you’re out.

But with previews, the whole dynamic changes. With previews, both parties are measured on the same thing: how they produce company results. Both

parties have to be held accountable if results aren’t achieved.

Performance Reviews Focus on Deviations From Some Ideals as

Weaknesses

Performance Previews Celebrate Differences

Get rid of that checklist,get rid of the absurd idea of what the perfect employee should be like. With the

preview, bosses don’t evaluate how their subordinates get to their final destination; they only need evaluate

the results and how they compare to what was pledged against company goald. If it works, proves

useful.


Performance Reviews Are About Comparing EmployeesPerformance Previews Treat People As Individuals.

By accepting differences, the performance preview also does away with destructive comparison of employees. No longer are bosses forced to grade on a curve, giving some subordinates 2s, some 3s, some 4s, some 5s.Under

the performance review, they have to compare. Under the performance preview, they can’t compare. Their goal is to make everybody a 5.

Performance Reviews Create A Competition Between Boss & Subordinate

Performance Previews Create A Team Where Both Teammates Inform & Learn From Each Other

Substituting performance previews for performance reviews welds fates together because the discussion will no longer be about the boss finding fault

in the subordinate. It will be about accomodations each of them makes to accomplish what they have signed up for together.

The Performance Review is a Scheduled Event.The Performance Preview Happens Whenever,

Wherever.

The Performance Reviews Give HR People Too Much Power.

Performance Previews Put HR People in Their Appropriate, Supporting Role.


In Case you Still Have

Doubts


Previews are supposed to be all about getting rid of the comparison between people. And yet promotions are all about comparing. If I have bigger job, I

have to pick somebody over somebody else. So, what do previews really change?

Now, at least no longer can the boss justify a promotion with bogus objective measure. No longer can the boss hide behind meaningless scores on a review, or pretending to be picking this person by the numbers rather than because

of personal preference. “This person has been getting 5, and I want to promote her” is not acceptable.

Now the boss has to say, “This is the person I want, this is the person I can work with best”

It’s personal not objective.

HR People Can’t be All Bad, Can They?


Rather than making the line manager the leader & playing a guiding function,

they volunteer to perform the function that manager should be performing.

Like all of us, they want to feel needed, important, indispensable. That’s why they do so.

But in doing so, they end up enforcing a system that doesn’t work, that nobody likes, that makes

everybody miserable.

They should be giving power, and sharing power, with line manager.

And in the end...

It’s important to understand two things here. First, there’s no question that performance reviews don’t work, and that companies would be better off without them.

Second, previews have the potential to give managers more of what a

company is looking for. They enable straight-talk relationship at work.

However, I don’t think previews are either a sure thing. All I can do is hope that enough people are thirsty enough to drink.

get rid of the performance review by samuel l culbert

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