February 6, 2020

Don’t Confuse – Effort with Results

Competitiveness and Aggressiveness have become the driving force for Managers and Employees, in today’s complex business environment and in an uncertain world. There is always a race against time. Hence, it’s important that we work on arriving clear objectives of tasks to be done during a specified period. To remove ambiguity, fixing Goals in a clear and quantifiable way is a prerequisite. I like the phrase that if you cannot attribute your performance to a MS Excel cell in a number form, then your role continues to be ambiguous. If the Manager wants to have an effective conversation with an employee on performance and development areas, the ambiguity factor needs to be nil. Often we hear Managers say efforts you are putting in are great but in the end results matter. In my experience, I have found myself in a dichotomy when my team members says that they have done exceptionally well however we are only around 85-90% of our goal, on revenue or profitability or cost of procurement or margins. Yet they want to be rated high because of the exceptional effort they have put in. No doubt each team member strives for success but we should differentiate achievement to goals and efforts. I am sure many of the Managers can empathize with the above scenario with your team members at your work place. I would like to share on how I handle this situation at my work place.

Performance Agreement

Have a simple performance contract/ agreement with the team members on the end goal before you embark on a new one. Most important aspect here is to ensure that there is a tight linkage to the strategic business goals as it needs to reflect in day to day actions. Each goal must be SMART. S - Specific M - Measurable A - Achievable/Attainable R - Results oriented/Realistic/Relevant T - Time bound If one of the above attribute is missing in the goal setting, then confusion and ambiguity has already crept in to your work culture. I have experienced some goals written as - “Completion of budget preparation 3 days before the D date”. Well it is Specific/Measurable/Achievable and time bound? But is it relevant? Budget preparation is an enabler for the goal but it’s not the goal. What happens if the team member is 10 days before the budget and at the end of the year, the budget achievement is at 80% only?. He will rate himself as a high achiever but the business goal is compromised? Employee becomes disengaged and feels frustrated. Hence it’s very crucial for Managers to be micro objective as possible and tightly align to the end goal.

Constantly Evaluate to share Feedback

Once the goals are mutually agreed, it’s important to have regular real time feedback sessions on development. It cannot continue to be an end of the year affair. GE recently adopted real time performance development model where feedbacks are given instantly. The millennials workforce made GE dump its Bell curve evaluation that they followed for three decades. I love what Deming Said “In God I trust Rest everyone should bring Data” so it’s data, data, data till the end. Numbers should speak the story. I am part of appraisal meetings where there is a lot of discussion on what efforts have gone into but end result not achieved. I politely say – “of course we recognize efforts but reward unfolds only on achievements of the result”. A regular mechanism of reporting performance and giving feedback is extremely crucial to avoid unnecessary ambiguity in the minds of your team members. We developed a fantastic tool that reports performance across my team members no matter which department has been a game changer in my business. It’s heartening to see that the employee himself knows where he/she stands and what needs to be done.

Identify Development needs and consequences management

Make the process of Appraisal an important tool for talent management. Many organizations are linking performance to compensation. This link, cannot effectively be established without the existence of sound performance management processes that is seen as fair and equitable. A clear documentation of progress against performance expectations by the Manager also allows proper recognition for a job well done. This can be provided by a number of ways, i.e. formal recognition events, informal public recognition or privately delivered feedback. It is important also to note the benefits of a consistent process across the organization. A consistent process creates a sense of fairness and significantly increases job satisfaction. This is even more critical if compensation is linked to performance. Employees need to know that if an individual in one department is identified as a top performer and compensated accordingly, then an employee performing at the same level in another department will receive similar rewards.

"At Raymond, we have a Town Hall regularly. The stand out performers are well recognized and rewarded by the President or CEO."

Finally there will be under performers, Managers must handle these cases with utmost sensitivity. Managers must reflect - Has there been enough chances given to the team member, adequate training needs are imparted, maybe switch departments. I had one team member whose core competence was something else to what he was doing a simple switch not only made him productive but the existing job that he was doing got a new competent guy. With a smart performance agreement, constantly monitoring to share real time feedback with a proper performance feedback model, identify development needs and having multiple recognition for the efforts put in by the team members, I am confident that Managers will not confuse efforts with results. I end with Devin Durrant’s quote – Small efforts sustained over time can produce significant results.