Posts Tagged ‘Assessments’

You probably remember your mother teaching you The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Well in this day and age I say “Do unto others as they want, not what I want” .

A great example of this is recognizing the good work of a team member.  You may like the “lime light” and want public recognition yet many people don’t want to be put in the spot light.  Private praise will do just fine for them.

Being certified in Myers Briggs and DiSC, I see leaders using the Golden Rule when they should be determining what their employee prefers.  For instance, I often observe a misalignment between introverts and extroverts.  Extroverted leaders generally don’t like silence, while an introvert is not challenged by silence.  In meetings, I will see an extrovert start peppering an introvert with questions to fill the silence. In turn, this further shuts down the introvert who likes to process in her head, not out loud.

There are plenty of situations during the day and workweek that a leader needs to adjust her leadership to the preference of the employee.  Here are some situations that you should be cognizant to being an adaptive leader:

• Decision Making
• Problem Solving
• Communications
• Conflict Management
• Change Management

So when you are in one of these situations, think about the people you are interfacing with, either through direct leadership or influence outside your organization. What are their preferences? And, how can you adapt your behavior to what they need in order to perform at their very best.  If your organization hasn’t done an assessment like Myers Briggs, this may be a good time. An instrument like Myers Briggs will provide you and your employees with a greater understanding of how each other prefers to operate and communicate.

Or if you aren’t ready for this step, start really observing the behaviors of others and take note of what they are doing in the way of communication, decision making etc and start mirroring them. A good time to start is during one on one meetings with your team members, there is less risk and you can direct all of your attention to one individual. It may feel awkward at first, so take it slowly and choose one area that you would like to adjust for the person you are working with. This should be an area you feel comfortable changing, such as speed of talking.  Ideally it will be one that, when mastered, has an impact on your employees performance.

So the next time you are treating a person like you want to be treated, stop and evaluate, is it what they really want?

Have you recently delivered a performance review to an employee who was surprised at your feedback? And in turn you were surprised at their reaction?

Mind the Gap, reports that on average managers rate their employees performance and contribution by almost a half point less than employees self-ratings.

There are five known biases that attribute to rating discrepancies between managers and employees

• Two Self-rater biases: the need for self-esteem and the lack of self-awareness
• Three Manager biases: lack of awareness of an employee’s contributions, justification of their role as a manager,  and budget justifications relating to pay increases

So if the gap is widening, what steps can be taken to decrease the effect of these biases and narrow the gap in performance ratings?

I would suggest that increasing an employee’s self awareness and increasing a manager’s awareness of employee contributions are two biases that can be decreased.

Decreasing Bias in Performance Reviews

Let’s start with the employee. Self-awareness can be improved through assessment tools such as Myers Briggs, 360º degree feedback, etc. Assessment tools should be used in conjunction with coaching.  It is important that employees have their assessments explained in detail to them so they can relate the results back to their workplace and position within the organization. Learning for the assessments is critical to actually increasing self-awareness. Results of the assessment as they relate to changes in performance should be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

On the management side of the equation, increasing the awareness of employees’ contributions can be addressed by:

• incorporating a team review into performance reviews.
• performance goals should be jointly developed with the employee
• separate performance reviews from salary reviews

Team Reviews

When I ran a consulting company, we instituted a team review process. Because the consultants often worked on multiple engagements for multiple leaders, it was a necessary step to get a true sense of an employee’s contributions. Your company may not have this specific organizational dynamic but there are other employees who interact with the employee being reviewed whether it be a cross functional project, or department team members as a manager it is imperative to get a wide input on an employee’s performance.

Goal Collaboration

When putting together performance goals, the employee should be part of the process. Including the employee in the process provides both manager and employee to clearly define what constitutes specific levels of contributions and the employee’s ownership and commitment to the goals are strengthened.

Separate Performance and Pay

When performance and salary reviews are linked together something interesting happens, the employee forgets all the feedback and only remembers how much money she will be making in the future. So of course an employee is going to rate themselves higher in performance than the manager, their pay increase depends on it!

Many companies have moved to a process of performance reviews done more than once a year and the salary review is completed outside of any performance review.Multiple reviews provide consistent feedback and the opportunity for the employee to make adjustments to their contributions.

In short, providing employees with assessment tools to elevate their self awareness and incorporating team reviews, goal collaboration, and separating performance and salary reviews will help to narrow the performance gap ratings. Ultimately if these gaps are closed or narrowed, your employees will be happier and more engaged in their work. And as a manager, you will have more time to manage and lead.

In the October 2009 edition of Chief Learning Officer, Michael D Watkins’ article The Eight Toughest Transitions for Leaders outlined the top transitions that most business leaders have to navigate through during their career. The transitions are:

• Promotion
• Leading former peers
• Diplomacy (authority versus influence)
• New organization
• International move
• Organizational turnaround
• Corporate strategy realignment
• Business portfolio change

Watkins suggests that in order for a leader to transition successfully, a leader must be competent in adapting his personal style and competencies, as well as focus on the organization’s needs to build a plan for organizational growth.

IDENTIFYING NEEDED CHANGES

This past year has brought change to a great many leaders, what changes and transitions did you make in 2009? How would you rate your ability to adapt personally and organizationally?

Looking into this coming year, here are some questions to ponder and help you with your leadership success.

1. Given your experience and leadership strengths, what do you need to do more of and less of?
2. What new skills do you need to learn? What is your plan to obtain them?
3. What adjustments do you need to make with your communications, delegation, decision making, team building, and trusted network of advisors?

The quality of the answers to these self-reflective questions is contingent on your level of self-awareness. Some of us are more self-aware of our strengths and weaknesses than others, so I always recommend that in addition to answering these questions use at least one other technique:

Leadership Assessments such as Hogan Leadership Survey, or Observational Feedback can add insight into needed changes Assessments provide an unbiased view of your behaviors while observational feedback can provide you with information on how individuals view your key competencies as a leader as compared to the organization’s leadership competency model.

PLANNING TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE

Now that you’ve identified the changes you need to make, a development plan needs to be created. Creating a solid plan with SMART goals and implementing the plan are critical to leadership because in the end, unless you actually make the necessary changes success will not be in your future.

This is often the time when I and other executive coaches are asked for assistance. Co-developing the plan with the leader and coaching the leader effectively through the necessary behavioral changes are effective to creating sustainable change. Using an internal coach is also effective.The advantage to an internal coach is their organizational knowledge while the disadvantage is the potential concern of the executive being coached of confidentiality. Whatever your choice is, internal or external, coaching will provide you with a systematic and proven method to create long term change.

CONCLUSION

So if you are like most leaders, you and your organization has to adapt to the economic changes that have occurred over the last 18 months. Adapting requires changes both personally as well as organizationally.Personal changes first need to be identified by you, others around you, and an assessment tool. Then a development plan should be created and a coach identified to work with you for sustainable change.