MVP handed me a copy of this excellent post from Creating Passionate Users about the ass-backward way that most performance evaluations tend to focus on cataloging employees’ weaknesses and improving them, rather than cataloging their strengths and focusing on enhancing and exploiting them to benefit the organization.
Too many companies (and managers, spouses, etc.) focus too much on bringing everyone up to some level of competency in a laundry-list of attributes including time-management, communication skills, writing ability, filling out TPS reports, teamwork/teamplayer, attitude, organization, sensitivity, adhering to corporate goals and policies, etc. Clearly, there is some minimum threshold for each attribute beneath which a person might be impossible to work with no matter what the situation. But too often those minimum thresholds are set MUCH TOO HIGH and not specifically tailored enough to the individual.
By focusing on “areas of improvement”, we’re putting a square peg in a round hole. What do we end up with? A crappy, rounded off peg who meets the minimum thresholds at the expense of their most kick-ass attributes. What if let ourselves (and those we manage) spend a lot more energy in the areas where we are–or could be–amazing? I suggest taking a very hard look at the “areas of improvement” list and see if we can rearrange the context so that those things become less important. In other words, why don’t we try to make a square hole?
The comments to the post are also worth reading. I don’t seem to be able to directly link to any single post, but there’s an excellent one that is in the form of a memo about the manager’s responsibilities that was really good,
Functions of your manager
In support of the above goals, your manager will assist in the following ways:
1) Eliminating Assholes. If anyone or anything is standing in the way of you meeting your objectives, please seek assistance to get the obstacle cleared. It is his role to absorb uncertainty and to provide the environment where you can deliver your projects unhindered. We want you to enjoy your work and to be proud of your achievements.
2) Your manager will do his best to provide an environment where you are learning (and helping the company learn) every day. Requests for training are welcome. Sharing of ideas and distribution of your learnings to your manager and your colleagues, ideally in small digestable chunks, is encouraged. And you are expected to make mistakes. That’s the way we all learn.
3) Seek forgiveness, not permission. In the same way you can escalate issues to your manager, there will be times when the data, or key staff, aren’t available for us to hit a key decision deadline. Time to market is key; having weighed up the pros and cons, make the decision that you believe is right for the company, our customers and preferably both.