Why Traditional Performance Management Systems Don’t Work

Have you ever wondered why so many people on your team, in your business or organization, totally dread the end of the year human resource driven, management review and appraisal system? Beyond the anxiety of having to tell one of your direct reports that (most likely for the first time this year) they haven’t been “doing the job you need done”, you also have to dig deep into that mental brain vault of yours and surface the reasons why putting them down on paper (usually for the first time) and then meet face-to-face with the unsuspecting soul to explain it all to them in accurate and meaningful ways that help the company. Argggghhhhh! Get ready to embrace the “suck”.

It’s no wonder that people have a difficult time with this process and do all they can to avoid it, talking around the real issues and even in some cases—just ignoring the process in the hope that it will all just go away. 

We’ve known for a long time that most appraisal processes don’t work, primarily due to the concept of “garbage in-garbage out”, yet we still value and use them as a way to reward, promote and move people throughout the organization. And worst of all, we use these processes as a way of driving individual team member performance and then expect great results at the company level by years end. Insanity? Maybe, but for now let’s just accept that businesses and organizations use traditional performance management systems to execute operationally and it just does not work.

Here’s why;

1) Performance reviews are exactly that—reviews—they are backward looking discussions that involve the past, not what’s going on now or individual future capabilities or even what the priorities of the company are and how that individual fits in to those priorities,

2) Performance reviews only engage people at required times of the year—most typically at the end of the fiscal year (or twice per year if you are lucky) when the box needs to be checked off and an appraisal needs to be given, documented and filed,

3) Performance reviews focus more on individual and career development for team members—which is not a bad thing but, does little to help the business achieve its goals and does even less in terms of telling a team member what they need to do to more fully contribute to the company’s success and how do we all make more money? 

Let’s face facts people, there are only so many books to read, conferences to attend, personality centered trainings to learn and mentors to talk with. At some point we need to be able to shift from assigning superficial tasks through once or twice per year meetings to clearly articulating primary job responsibilities and setting achievable annual objectives for everyone on the team. What I am talking about is having well written job responsibilities and individual goals that relate to and flow from company objectives that consistently (read: throughout the year) tell each team member how they are doing.  Discussing in detail what they are doing well or what needs to improve and providing the coaching that gets them to where they need to be in order to succeed. Yeah, right, managing performance! We all remember that!

But know this, managing performance can only happen by creating the “right conversations” on an on-going basis between a manager and a direct report. These conversations need to be at the heart of the process and from what we all know from experience, they just aren’t happening or happening frequently enough.

So, in the name of executing better, getting things done, driving real results and increasing the mental well-being of everyone involved—here’s three things you can do:   

First, let’s separate the performance review process from managing the day to day performance of our teams. Yes, we need a way to evaluate people at the close of the year and there are good off the shelf programs and forms available to all that can accomplish that. What I am talking about is managing performance through better execution, which requires that every team member know where they stand, performance wise, on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in terms of their role and how they are contributing to organizational effectiveness and success.

Second, let’s create the opportunity for those “right discussions” to occur by having regular “touch points” or “check-ins” by phone or at a sit-down in person, where individual performance is openly and collaboratively discussed and each party knows and understands expectations. This is called creating accountability, not with a hammer but with trust, respect and a willingness to help others succeed. Remember that every conversation at work is an opportunity to improve the enterprise so let’s stop wasting them.

Finally, we need to engage team members at a level of understanding where they can take control of their roles and future opportunities within the organization. Create leaders, don’t by default develop drones. When you manage people effectively and remain transparent in what the company is trying to achieve and everyone on the team knows how to contribute to that achievement—team members will actually take control of the process. They become people that can be counted upon to deliver results and begin to work better as a team, effectively managing their bosses and direct reports while aligning everyone around expectations. 

When you manage people well, they also begin to think differently (positively) about their career aspirations, the company and they also set higher goals for themselves. We just need to make them aware that they can do it!    

Try to envision the traditional performance management process in a perfect world where the following happens—You’ve had such a great year…revenues and profitability are up double digits, turnover is low, culture and competitive advantage are being developed and lived, employee engagement and job satisfaction ratings are at an all time high, customers are happy and buying more and more from you. Isn’t this the kind of year that you would enjoy documenting as part of the annual performance review process? It’s all possible and it begins by more effectively managing individual performance through execution and understanding that the traditional performance review, while it has its place, is not the answer to how you get there. Now get started!

Monte Pedersen is the Principal of The CDA Group, a unique leadership and training firm that specializes in strategy execution management, an operations-based system and process that positively changes the behaviors of individual managers and teams across all disciplines. They specialize in developing leaders at all levels of an organization while creating greater accountability and achieving more consistent results. They can be reached via website at www.ClarifyDeployAchieve.com