You are fired!

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:46:17 GMT

I was leafing through the pages of Jack Welch's "Straight from the Gut" over the weekend. I have read the book twice now but every time I read it, makes me self reflect on my management philosophy and approach. One of things that Jack is very clear about is that as a manager you should provide your directs regular feedback and let them know where they stand. If you have done your job and have to go through the tough experience of firing someone, it shouldn't come as a surprise to them. They should be mentally and emotionally prepared for it. So realistically speaking, how many times does that really happen.

It is far easier to provide positive feedback than negative feedback to an employee. It makes them feel good and it makes you feel good. You might feel like you are doing a good job as a manager/coach as the employee's performance had something to do with the guidance that you have provided them. However negative feedback is much tougher to deliver and is not as pleasant to receive. To deliver negative feedback appropriately you have to think about:

What specific behaviors and occasions support the feedback you are about to provide
What is the impact to the employee of continuing this type of behavior
How would you like their behavior and results to change? It is important to be very clear on this
How will you help them towards this new goal and what are the timelines for this change
How will you work with them to develop an improvement plan with detailed tasks and milestones that they should accomplish
It is also important to be very candid, yet sensitive when delivering feedback

There is no point in sugar coating your feedback to such an extent that the employee thinks its minor issue and the implications are not far reaching. I would rather hear the hard message early on and be given a chance to improve than be caught off guard and fired (I guess so would others) :). I find timing of feedback to be very important as well. It is important to deliver timely feedback right after you have observed something go wrong rather than during the traditional review period. Its sad to hear about people who have been provided negative feedback for the first time during their annual review period. Now you cant tell me that the manager didn't notice their performance slipping or the fact that they weren't living up to expectations, however they decided to leave the issue un-addressed until it came to handing out a performance bonus or promotion. There is no excuse in the book for this.

I have also had the fortune to learn a lot (of what not to do) from managers at previous companies I have worked for. I am sure most of you will recognize what I call "promote the trouble child" maneuver. I have seen managers that have allowed the poor performers on their team to be hired for a higher positions in other teams or make a lateral moves into other departments. They do this to avoid dealing with the issue directly and having those tough conversations. The consequences of this are far reaching:

Allowing such moves to take place will directly impact the morale and performance on your team. People will now think that sub standard performance is not only tolerated by you but rewarded. There is nothing more demotivating than to watch colleagues who are not performing up to standards be rewarded.
Allowing poor performers to move to other teams will also impact your creditability amongst the management team. The hiring manager will soon learn about the performance issues with the candidate that they just hired and will definitely wonder why you never raised those concerns with them during the hiring process.
You will start attracting the poor performers as it will soon become know that people can coast and get promoted on your team. This will impact the quality of work being produced by your team and will also impact your upward career mobility.

I have actually seen a manager hold back a super star and giving them a luke warm review during a hiring process and recommend a sub standard performer on their team for the same job. That person left their team within 4 months as she knew that her manager was not vested in her career and did not appreciate or recognize superior performance. I also had to go through the experience of performance managing a sub standard performer and then finally "walking them out" within a few months of joining a new company. I did not cherish going through this experience for many reasons, one of them being how it would impact my reputation considering I had been in the organization for a few months. To my surprise, I had numerous people from my team and adjacent teams come up to me and provide me positive feedback for handling the tough situation. They all cited how demotivating it was for them to watch that person get away with sub standard performance while they were trying their best. They also commented that this move would have a positive impact on morale.

I always try to provide and seek feedback on a regular basis. Keep it real as that's how I like it.

Pitfalls that first time people managers should avoid

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:12:33 GMT

I thought I would talk about a topic very near and dear to me, Leadership. We seem to use the term quite often but rarely do we use it to truly describe leaders. I have seen the word being used interchangeably with management and yet they are so different. I believe that you have to master being a good manager before you can be a good leader. I view being a good manager as the basic building blocks upon which leadership resides. This does not mean, people can’t naturally be great leaders. I have had the pleasure of working for great leaders and some substandard leaders. I say pleasure, as I have learnt as much from the great ones as the substandard ones, I now know what pitfalls to avoid at all costs.

I am very passionate about people development as I truly believe it helps you develop a competitive advantage over your competition – the employees in your company. First level managers who are new in the role, sometimes fall into a common pitfall, they continue to do what has made them successful in the past and got them to this point. Seems logical doesn’t it, it worked in the past, it should work now. Wrong, this prevents managers making the leap from individual contributors to their current role as a manager. Michael Watkins in his book, The first 90 days, indicates that first time managers should first mentally promote themselves. They have to change their mindset and realize that they are no longer in their old role. They have to deliver success by working with their team rather than doing it themselves. This seems easy, but is actually very difficult and requires a lot of discipline. Its easy to slip back into your comfort zone of “doing” when faced with a challenging situation or tight timeline. This might result in your team members feeling disempowered.

Although, I didn’t particularly enjoy The Leadership Pipeline, I did like the fact that Ram Charan has created a simple chart the lists the differences between an individual contributor and a first level manager. This is an easy tip sheet that can be used on a daily basis to guide ones actions and also check to see if you have slipped back into an individual contributor role. I am not saying that managers should not roll up their sleeves, get into the trenches and help out their teams in crunch time. They most definitely should, however they should ensure their team is okay with them helping out in such a way. Most people managers were not born as great managers, we have to be disciplined about it, work at it continuously and solicit continuous feedback from our team members. This is a sure fire way to nailing the management piece and moving on to focusing on the leadership piece.

SMS: People Management & Leadership

You are fired!

Pitfalls that first time people managers should avoid