Content about Performance management

When people think about performance management (PM), what usually comes to mind is the formal HR system for conducting appraisals. More than 50 years of research have been devoted to designing the perfect formal PM system. Unfortunately, these attempts have failed to produce a PM system that managers and employees consistently view as working well and that yields the positive outcomes expected from PM. So here are three new rules of PM to help get back on track.

Managers are universally advised that there should be no surprises during the course of a performance appraisal discussion and are scolded that, if the employee reacts with surprise to any point the manager makes, the manager hasn’t done his coaching job properly during the year. That’s another example of well-intentioned but poorly thought-out advice, says Dick Grote, author of “How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals.”

Talent management can be approached tactically or strategically. The ultimate goal is to create a high-performing organization for today and tomorrow. A tactical approach to talent management focuses on the processes, systems, and components, while a strategic approach to talent management begins with desired business results. The whole must be more and produce more than the sum of the parts.

By now, almost everyone who works for an organization is familiar with the hackneyed SMART acronym for setting goals: Goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. But teaching SMART goals is a bad idea that needs to be stomped out. Why? For one thing, managers aren’t told where they should look for goals, or how to determine whether their goals are appropriate and genuinely important, or how to make sure there’s some congruity between the goals individuals set and the organization’s business strategy.