The Science of Praise: A Manager’s Guide To Giving Effective Employee Praise

Posted on 28. February 2011 by Melany Gallant

Praise can be a funny thing. When we’re kids – as a study published in Psychology Today shows – we can respond negatively to praise. The article provides examples of a 5-year-old who “burst into tears” when her grandmother looked at her school workbook and proclaimed, “It’s brilliant!”, and a 15-year-old boy who “blushed with fury” when his teacher said his English homework was “intelligent and sensitive.”

As author, Dr. Terri Apter, discovered while conducting this research study, praise is a highly personal interaction. From a child’s point of view, the praise received for achievements may fall short of expectations or seem highly exaggerated; it may cause confusion or be construed as veiled disappointment, or may cause embarrassment for being acknowledged at all.

Interestingly, as we get older, we crave praise more than any other reward. But we’re still very fussy about how and when it is given. Praise causes the brain to release some of its own natural opiates. Once we’ve had a taste, we seek these mood-changing chemicals in many of our everyday encounters. In the workplace, praise from a manager for doing a good job is one of the most motivating incentives. As best-selling author and motivational speaker Bob Nelson says, “Praise is priceless, yet it costs nothing.”

But just because the best things in life are free, doesn’t mean they aren’t challenging to do right. It’s far simpler to hand out a bonus than it is to create a business culture in which sincere “thank yous” are a regular occurrence.

Performance Appraisals – Why Do We Do Them?

Posted on 12. February 2011 by rulrici

So, why do we do performance appraisals? I have been around for quite awhile and I’m still not sure. Let’s review the traditional reasons HR tells line managers…

1. People need to know where they stand. Really? You mean to tell me you don’t talk to your employees everyday? You are not constantly playing the role of coach and counselor? If you tell them once a year in a performance review meeting, that will suffice?

2. Employees need to know what they are doing well. This is true, but you should be telling them when they do it, not a year later.

3. Employees need to know where they need to improve. One more time – you are going to wait a year to inform them of a performance issue?

4. You need a documented performance appraisal in order to determine a salary increase. Even Human Resource people have different views on this one. I’ve worked in HR departments where they separated the timing of the review and the merit increase just because they didn’t want to associate one with the other. Also, there has been countless studies that show most performance appraisal ratings are skewed upwards which doesn’t allow for objective criteria for determining salary increases.

5. You can’t fire someone unless you have documented evidence. How many times do managers walk into the HR office and ask to terminate someone for bad performance when all the appraisals in the file show no evidence of it? A lot.

I’m still not sure why we do performance appraisals. It gives Human Resource people something to do?

Competency Assessments: Going Beyond Regulatory Requirements

Posted on 26. January 2011 by Melany Gallant

An increasing number of healthcare organizations are looking for new and innovative ways to support competency assessment programs. The traditional paper and pen tracking systems are becoming more burdensome to manage especially with the growing number of regulatory requirements healthcare organizations must comply with, such as Joint Commission and MAGNET®.

In a recent webinar, leading competency assessment expert Donna Wright discussed the challenges of competency assessments.

In particular, Donna cites there are too many competencies, too many checklists, and too much of a tendency to use education as the answer to every performance-related problem.

New approaches to competency assessment, such as those advocated by Wright, help healthcare organizations to effectively monitor and document employee performance and competency proficiency to drive results beyond meeting regulatory requirements.

The Performance Appraisal Solution

Posted on 19. January 2011 by HR Bartender

I’ve seen more articles lately about the failures of performance appraisals than just about anything else. And, it seems that the only logical answer is to abolish them. You can read some of these viewpoints here, here, here, here, and here. And, my apologies to writers I may have missed.

While I admit I haven’t spent any time researching the history of the performance appraisal, it only seems reasonable that performance appraisals were created to fulfill some kind of organizational need. My guess is some company had a bunch of employees complaining they never knew how they were doing. Managers were busy running the operation and hated giving feedback so it just didn’t get done. “No news is good news” was the performance management philosophy.

So some human resources pro suggested creating an annual process called the performance appraisal. Managers would be mandated to give employees performance feedback on a regular schedule (whether they liked it or not). Once a year, employees will get feedback about their performance.

(Insert sarcasm here) The HR pro was instantly heralded as a genius and a statue in their honor was erected in the parking lot. The managers hated it. But who cares? Life was good for both employees and the HR Pro company. Of course, this performance appraisal utopia was destined to only last for so long (for the reasons my colleagues explained in their articles.)

Which brings us to today. Don’t get me wrong…I agree with many (if not all) of the observations my fellow bloggers have about performance appraisals. But I’m not convinced the answer is to abolish the performance appraisal.

Leading Unstoppable Teams; using 360 degree feedback

Posted on 5. January 2011 by Bowland Solutions

I attended a great event last night courtesy of one of our partners, Clarity Leadership, who had a number of speakers discussing their experience of leading high performing teams; Clarity have started using our new ‘Partner360′, a 360 degree feedback platform which enables such leaders to get a rounded view prior to the programme.

It was interesting to hear how they succeeded through setting a clear, simple vision and then inspired high performance by leading by example and engaging wholeheartedly with their team as they embarked on the journey; regular communciation and feedback was critical.

What I enjoyed most was the honesty in the presentations which not only highlighted their successes but shared where things didn’t go so well; it was clear that quickly learning from inevitable mistakes along the way was just as important as the things they did right first time.

3 tips for discussing a 360 feedback report with a recipient

Posted on 5. January 2011 by Bowland Solutions

Taking a recipient through their 360 degree feedback report is a key moment in the 360 feedback process. It is multi-faceted and requires a good amount of skill and effort. I just wanted to note down my 3 top tips. There’s more to the job, but here is my recommendation.

1. Read it, read it again, and read it one more time

The first time you read the report you get a feel for it. No more. As you read the latter parts of the report it perhaps hints at themes from earlier in the report. You can’t get these in the first reading because you need to have read the whole thing.

Then you read it again; this time you draw out where you think there may be strengths, development areas and themes. I make my notes of areas I’d like to explore in the debrief meeting. This is only an aide memoire, it most certainly isn’t you working out what the report is saying – it just hints at areas you may want to explore in the meeting.

And finally I read it once more when I am with the recipient to refresh my memory and get into the moment of the debrief session.

2. Look at the self feedback

The self feedback hints at the self-perception. How does it compare to the other feedback? Are they aligned, high, low? You should avoid judgment of why you are seeing what you are seeing but make a note and explore it with the recipient in the meeting. All of the 360 feedback is important of course, but the self feedback is the most important.

Trends; what will Performance Appraisals look like in 2011?

Posted on 5. January 2011 by Bowland Solutions

With all the different customised performance appraisals solutions we delivered in 2010 and those projects we are about to start in this year, we can see some new trends developing in what organisations want to achieve through the performance review process.

1. There is more and more emphasis on competencies within the process; the desire to assess how people behave as well as what they achieve – furthermore, feedback on these competencies is being solicited from more than just the Line Manager.

2. Longer term development needs and career aspirations are more prevalent in appraisal forms as organisations seek to manage their talent more effectively, retain people and promote from within.

3. There is a greater understanding of how setting objectives is absolutely key in the whole process; poorly set objectives lead to a poor perfomance appraisal process – we are seeing more guidance in this section of the form.

4. There is more attention being given to interim performance appraisals, be they quarterly or more, with some ability to capture achievements and progress in a performance journal or log within the online system all throughout the year.

Great Expectations: How managers can deliver effective performance appraisals

Posted on 26. December 2010 by Melany Gallant

In our first article of a three-part series on performance appraisals, we discussed HR’s three wishes this holiday season when it comes to performance reviews. In this second article, we provide insight and tips to help managers prepare for performance appraisal meetings with employees.

Whether you are a manager now or in your past life, you’ve probably seen performance appraisal season coming and dreaded it. The process is time-consuming, you have to squish the appraisal meetings in between an already heavy workload, and well, sometimes you need to give feedback that can be hard to deliver.

Here’s the thing.

Performance reviews shouldn’t be used to give your employees feedback.

I know – sounds crazy right?

Here’s why:

Feedback, especially constructive feedback, on areas where employees need to improve will never be effective if you save it up for the end of the year. The feedback – both positive and negative – needs to given at the time a success or issue occurs; it is counterproductive to give feedback weeks or months after the event.

A common pitfall to waiting to deliver feedback all at once at the end of the year is that we tend to either focus too much on recent performance, or we paint the entire year’s performance with too positive or too negative of a brush based on one significant event.

How to Make Employee Performance Appraisals More Respectful

Posted on 16. December 2010 by Respectful Workplace

Ideally, the goal of your employee performance appraisals is to give employees feedback, direction and development so they can be their best. But in many cases, performance appraisals demoralize and discourage employees rather than engage and inspire them. Often, this is because the process fails to respect the individuals involved. Instead, the focus is put on filling out forms, and rating and ranking employees as “resources” rather than as individuals. Here are some practical ways every manager can make their employee performance appraisals more respectful:

Seek your employee’s point of view
Before you make any decisions or judgments about performance, seek your employee’s perspective. Ask them how they perceive their performance, their strengths, their weaknesses, the challenges facing their role, etc. You can do this formally using a self-appraisal, but you can use things like periodic one-on-one meetings, staff meetings, progress reports, performance journals, etc. to get your employee’s perspective and allow them to provide details and context you might be missing.

Make it a two-way dialogue
Your performance appraisal meeting should be a conversation about your employee’s performance, development, expectations, needs, etc. Don’t just tell them what your ratings are and assign them goals. Ask them what you could do to better support their performance. Share your ideas, insights and observations. Solicit their input on goals. Ask what kind of learning activities best suit their learning style. Discuss your ratings and explain why and how you arrived at them. Ask for their perspective and discuss all this in a respectful way that accommodates differences in communication style.

An Employee Feedback Story

Posted on 12. December 2010 by HR Bartender

Here’s a reader’s story about giving and receiving feedback:

Our company recently had an employee meeting. Senior leadership conducted the session to talk about the status of the company in terms of finances, jobs, etc. At the end of the meeting, they asked if anyone had questions. One employee raised his hand and proceeded with a 10-minute monologue on communication and some other points. The overall message was good however, senior leadership and myself thought the delivery was negative.

After the meeting, the employee asked me what I thought of their comments and if I felt it should have been kept out of that forum. I replied the overall message was fine and appropriate for the meeting but it would be good to find a positive way to convey the message.

The employee then blasted me via email stating his new motto is to “shut-up” when asked and my feedback really meant the company didn’t care about his opinion in the least.

I’m very confused about how to deal with this employee. I was only trying to help. Any advice?

We all agree feedback is important. The challenge sometimes with feedback is making sure the recipient is ready for it. People ask for feedback all the time and then get hurt and/or offended when you give it to them.

Here’s What HR Really Thinks of Employee Reviews

Posted on 8. November 2010 by The Hiring Site

Spoiler alert (or not?): HR officially hates performance reviews. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh, but HR professionals sure don’t think very highly of them these days.

At least that was the indication from the results of a recent survey from Sibson Consulting, Inc. and WorldatWork. Of the 750 human resource professionals who participated in the 2010 Study on the State of Performance Management, 58 percent of human resources professionals graded their organization’s performance-management system at a “C” or below.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement the system, eh?

Not exactly surprising, either, though, considering how performance reviews have long been a topic of contention among management experts. And with the release of this survey, we get a little more in-depth look as to why. Other major findings included the following:

Only 43 percent of respondents view their organization’s performance-management system as effective.
When asked to name the biggest challenges to performance management, 66 percent of respondents said that managers lack of courage to have difficult performance discussions, 47 percent said the perception that performance management is an “HR process” rather than a business-critical process, and 36 percent identified poor goal setting.
Over a third (35 percent) of organizations have no targeted method for differentiating individual performance ratings.
Only 30 percent of respondents believe their employees trust the performance-management system.

4 Unconventional Ways to Manage Managers

Posted on 8. November 2010 by Melany Gallant

By: Mary Montserrat-Howlett

reward_failure A lot of companies pay lip-service to the importance of innovation and creativity, and often don’t have a clue how to create an internal culture that promotes either. What they may not realize is that in order to nurture creativity on a large scale, upper management and middle management need to be in-tune with each other, boosting each other’s creativity too. People don’t usually quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. As a manager managing other managers, it’s vital to maintain positive, functional relationships with your team.

Here are four unconventional ways to manage managers, which can help to intrinsically motivate them and, simply, make work more fun.

Reward Failure, Punish Inaction

I read a great excerpt written by Stanford business professor Robert Sutton regarding management practices and how they can cultivate or stunt innovation in business. His advice is that rather than rewarding success and punishing failure, companies should reward both and reserve punishment only for inaction. No great idea was ever conceived without generating a lot of bad ones first. Failure and success can both be the result of taking intelligent risks, and both can provide value for different reasons. They can also be rewarded in different ways. What you should be more concerned about is a middle manager who stifles thoughtful risk-taking, and resorts to phrases like “that’s not how we do things around here” when presented with new or different ideas.

Performance Management: Not Everybody’s a Superstar

Posted on 18. October 2010 by Erik Samdahl

Little People It’s time to take off the type-A blinders and get some perspective; not everybody in the workplace is a superstar or future leader, and a lot of people don’t want to be. They want to work, to get things done, to keep things moving and to do a good job of it. They don’t have huge egos or need constant attention, validation, public praise or a corner office. But just because they aren’t tooting their own horns every time they do a good job doesn’t mean they aren’t as valuable to an organization as any recognized hi-po or future leader.

How organizations value people and their contributions can be a source of toxicity and a serious team killer if not managed well. And i4cp’s recent study on performance management shows that, more often than not, it’s not managed well. High-performing organizations take the time to do it better, but even among that group less than half (47%) agreed that their performance management processes promoted the desire behaviors to a high or very high extent, and only 42% considered their processes efficient. More telling is that, overall, even fewer employees find the performance management processes to be fair (38%) or valuable (27%), numbers that climb to only 49% and 42% respectively among higher performers.

A Blueprint for Success: Goal Alignment and Our Customer Satisfaction Story

Posted on 15. October 2010 by Melany Gallant

A few years ago, the Halogen management team made an organizational commitment to delivering a world-class customer experience. This means that regardless of what department you work in, every employee understands that a brilliant customer experience is at the core of what they do on a day-to-day basis. The mantra is everywhere – we use our own systems to manage it as a goal, we use it to guide our thinking and business decision making – it is without a doubt part of the fabric of working at Halogen.

Fast forward to September 2010 and some of our team members are sitting in a presentation at the HR Technology conference, listening with great interest to Josh Bersin and Barb Arth of Bersin & Associates present some very interesting content. The session was called Talent Management System Vendors – Leaders and Laggards in Customer Satisfaction. For the second year in a row this respected industry analyst firm surveyed hundreds of organizations to determine their level of satisfaction with their Talent Management systems, and debuted the study at the HR Technology Conference.

And for the second year in a row, they ranked Halogen as the clear leader among all 16 talent management vendors included. We took top marks in every satisfaction area measured – product quality, implementation, service and business partnership. We even scored the highest marks on the 12/13 subcategories, which was no small feat.

Why Don’t Most Companies Manage Performance Well?

Posted on 8. October 2010 by Erik Samdahl

There’s a good reason the performance reviews in your company probably aren’t going well. Most of your managers don’t know what they’re doing.

Less than a fifth of organizations have leaders who are either highly or very highly skilled at conducting performance reviews, according to a new study i4cp conducted for a member organization. Companies should not expect employees to be engaged and satisfied with the performance appraisal process when the people conducting the reviews are, well, just not performing.

This insight is supported by another recent i4cp study conducted in partnership with member companies participating in i4cp’s Performance Management Accelerator group. That major study shows one of the most critical keys to performance management is having leaders with the right set of skills.

High-performing organizations recognize that performance management is difficult, so they develop their managers accordingly. We found, in fact, that high performers are about twice as likely as low performers to provide, to a high or very high extent, the necessary training to managers to make them successful: