Performance Management

I honestly think that employees dread hearing "It's time for your annual review" more than anything else except "You're fired." I also think that managers and supervisors dread saying those words.

What gets everyone so apprehensive? Because we try to formalize the processes to make it "easier" and more convenient, yet we tend to ignore how utterly personal the subject matter is.

Performance management is not about having an uncomfortable conversation once a year, or filling out a form to put in the personnel file to have documentation if the lawyer asks for it later. Performance management is a large, detailed tapestry that takes time, energy and detail to get right. The ultimate goal of performance management is to maximize the potential of employees, strengthen the team, and in doing so maximize the performance of the company. Everyone wins if it's done right.

As managers and supervisors, we should have regular daily conversations with our people. We should get to know them; we should build trusting relationships. These daily conversations are the bare bones threads of the tapestry. Each conversation is a thread. The more threads there are, the stronger the tapestry. Everything else, the finesse, the details, builds upon this foundation. If the substrate is crap, the outcome is a failure.

Why is performance management important? Two common sense reasons:

• maximize the company's return on investment (the company exists to make money);
  
• maximize the employee's return on investment (the employee works to earn money).

Every single employee should be able to answer a few critical questions at any point during his or her employment:

• what does my employer think I do well?
• what does my employer think I need to improve upon?
• what do I need to do to be a success in my position?

Job descriptions, by design, are usually very generalized. Competency scorecards are more detailed and give employees a roadmap for the journey. KPIs (key performance indicators) can show trends when people are struggling or when they're not challenged. None of these tools are substitutes for regular, consistent, respectful conversation. Start having honest talks today. Keep doing it. Don't avoid the hard topics just because they're uncomfortable. For those of you who have to fill out the corporate annual review forms, doing so will be easy if you've already discussed the difficult stuff. Treat people the way you'd want to be treated: respectfully. Put everything on the line, every day. Don't you owe it to yourself, your employees, and your company?

25 Stinkin' Things

1. My favorite candy is a mint meltaway.
2. My declared major during my first two years of college was fine arts.
3. I don’t swim well and I rarely go in the water, but I love the beach.
4. There are usually banana popsicles in my freezer.
5. I’m an ice snob. I put ice in all my drinks except milk or juice, and I want the crystal clear, cylindrical ice with the hole in the middle.
6. My first memory is from when I was four years old.
7. My favorite holidays are the summer ones: Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. They’re casual, no gifts, no family expectations. In other words, low stress.
8. When I like a book, I get lost in it. I don’t hear anything around me.
9. The best job I’ve ever had is the one I have right now.
10. I love the way leaves swirl around everywhere in the fall. I love the colors, the chill in the air, and the smell of dried leaves.
11. The only (finished) room in my house that I don’t like is my bedroom. I hate the color.
12. I love 80s music and trivia.
13. I’m an introvert by nature. My MBTI profile is ISFJ.
14. I was in Junior Achievement. I loved JA.
15. We used to have license plates that read NOKIDZ8 and NOKIDZ4.
16. I’ve learned that bad jobs are usually bad because of the people you work with or for, not what you actually do.
17. It saddens me I no longer remember the small quirky things about my friend Carleen.
18. I love to see the laugh lines around my husband’s eyes.
19. At times, I feel like I still see my Teddy dog out of the corner of my eye, even though we had to put him down four years ago. He was sixteen. I miss him. He was my pal when Mike was overseas.
20. During our first two years of marriage, Mike and I saw each other a total of approximately three months (and not all at once).
21. I love scrapbooking and stamping tools.
22. I have an extensive Marvin the Martian collection.
23. My first trip to Disney was in 1987, and I only saw Epcot. We went back in 2006 and we saw all the parks - but I’ve never seen the Magic Kingdom during the daytime.
24. The websites I visit most often are facebook, twitter, fatwallet, amazon, and my bank’s site.
25. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!

Love Quotes - A Day Late for Valentines

"You don't marry someone you can live with - you marry the person who you cannot live without."
-Unknown

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
-Ingrid Bergman

"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition."
-Alexander Smith

"The Eskimos have 52 words for snow because it is so special to them; there ought to be as many for love!"
-Margaret Atwood

"Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart."
-Unknown

"Within you, I lose myself. Without you, I find myself wanting to be lost again."
-Unknown

Find Beauty Where You Are

February 12th, 2009: as I watched the sun set over the Mississippi River, I was struck by the beauty of it: a silver, glistening ribbon brighter than everything surrounding it.

Memory

Funny the things you remember. From To Kill a Mockingbird I remember the line, "Thank you for my children." Why this line?

My Most Memorable Events since 1990 - Good and Bad

1990: Started job at a craft store doing picture framing. My best friend, Carleen Verstraete, died in a car accident.
1991: My husband Mike returned from the first Gulf War.
1992: On Christmas Eve, we brought home a puppy from a pet store, because her eyes looked so sad. She turned out to be the sweetest thing.
1993: My Grandma Ferne died.
1994: Mike's first ACL reconstruction. Moved back to the Rockford, IL area.
1995: Held our friend Tim's daughter for the very first time. Awesome trip to New Orleans with friends Ron and Tonia. Mike bought a red Camaro Z28. Started working at SwedishAmerican.
1996: New house. Our sweetheart puppy Christy died. Yes, only 4 years old. Heartbreaking.
1997: Decided to go back to college.
1998: Learned my friend Tonia was pregnant. Mike's second ACL reconstruction.
1999: Held Ron and Tonia's son for the first time. Switched to the Human Resources Department.
2000: Left SwedishAmerican for Klehm Arboretum. Earned Bachelor of Science, Business Administration.
2001: Watching the news as the events of 9/11 unfolded.
2002: Started working at FatWallet. Blue Man Group.
2003: Mike started working at the Mendota wind farm. Holiday party was at the United Center, a Blackhawks game, in a super suite. Had to put down our dog, Teddy.
2004: First Vegas trip. Became an aunt when our first nieces entered the world. Mike started working at FatWallet. First BMW.
2005: New house. Mike's back surgery. Trips to Vegas, San Diego, Disney World, and Disney Cruise. First ride on a corporate jet.
2006: Earned PHR certification. A new nephew.
2007: Groundbreaking of FatWallet's new HQ. Trip to Vegas. A new niece.
2008: 20th wedding anniversary. Trip to Galena. Trips to Florida.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

I love this recent painting of mine!