Why Most Employee Evaluations Suck
Why Most Employee Evaluations Suck
What Joanne doesn't know is that she probably needs an evaluation herself. As the typical manager, she sucks. Most employee evaluations focus on repairing a person's weaknesses. With good hearts, managers make fruitless attempts to transform weaknesses into all-world strengths. Converting a weakness into a strength rarely -- if ever -- happens, and therefore, managers produce mediocre results from their employees. What do you do instead?-
Recognize weaknesses. But, focus on their strengths.
20-year old Michael Jordan is sucking at baseball. You're his father, personal manager and decision-maker. You tell him he sucks at baseball, but you don't tell him how to improve. Instead, you know his world-class talents lie in basketball -- so you steer him toward that path.
My Employees = Michael Jordans?
Everybody has inner-Michael-Jordan-talents hidden inside of them. Your job as a manager is to not only recognize weaknesses, but steer employees away from those weaknesses, and tap those strengths that will benefit your company -- and the employee. We'll leave you with the following point:Recognize that everything is your fault if something goes wrong.
If an employee is under-performing at a position, know that it's your fault. You either:- didn't provide the necessary resources
- didn't provide enough training and guidance,
- probably placed the employee in the wrong position, or
- incorrectly hired/kept-on somebody who can't benefit the company.
"Sammy, you really suck at your assembly job, dawg. So, I won't let you suffer doing that. Since I know you're a ridiculously fabulous communicator, I'll put you on the front lines as a customer rep. I have a good feeling you'll kick ass."
Read More Business Tips From Trizle »
5 Comments
on Why Most Employee Evaluations Suck
Heather Richards
2008-08-31 06:02:41 UTC
Very interesting blog. Yes many bosses, do not know enough about human behaviour to judge others on their behaviour.
Scott S
2008-11-11 11:20:25 UTC
Yes an interesting blog. But not as relevant when your talking small business (10-15 employees). When the boss has the responsibilities of Ownership,Accounting,HR, and whatever else is needed to maintain a profitable enterprise. Hiring a person with the right credentials is critical, but You won't know at the end of the interview that this is not the person for the job, you find that out a few months after the hire. By that time you typically have a mess on your hands. I find that ridding the business of the problem is best. I would rather spend my time finding the right fit as opposed to attempting to correct what will always be wrong.
Dennis
2009-01-04 23:19:47 UTC
If you cut out the hip-hop English you would improve your site. Some of us get a little lost when trying to read it. I think you give some good advice, (sexy in my world is called "branding" and again, good advice for any business.) but hard to read in the human world means... we quit trying.
Anonymous
2009-01-05 05:13:12 UTC
dennis I think what makes trizle unique is its style of language. it's different and easily readable
Inmate N Asylum
2009-02-21 18:07:19 UTC
In small companies, employee evaluations work exactly like you recommend. There is never an attempt to morph a true engineer into a great communicator or a sales guy into marketeer. Heck, there is hardly an attempt to make a big process out of it.
The bad news is, as companies grow large, employees start to become more and more homogenous bodies. Clueless managers get hired to build teams of sheep. As long as employees dance and sing to the desired tune, they are perceived as doing great.
I don't know if there is any company out there that encourages their employees to be their natural self, focuses on exploiting their strengths and recognizes them for their true contributions. My own experience with employee evaluations has been sobering in that doing what you are good at with extreme focus can only get you so much. If you don't win the popularity contest, which in many cases involves catering to the egos and insecurities of peers and to the whims and fancies of your manager, you will pay for it at the time of evaluations.
I deal with this f***ed process by ignoring it and focusing on what I do best. Sure, I am losing out on promotions and raises. But that is the price you pay for having convictions.
Boost. Business. Knowledge.