Posts Tagged feedback
“My Performance Sucked”: Leadership at the NFL Playoffs
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Feedback, Leadership, Motivation, Performance, Teams, Trust on January 25, 2012
Empowerment is what leaders give to their people.
Today’s blog post was written by guest blogger, Doug Trainor, Consulting Associate with The Ken Blanchard Companies and Co-founder of Leadership Vanguard.
I know that many of you reading this might be Baltimore Ravens fans. For those folks, I’m sorry about the playoff loss on Sunday. I hope you will bear with me despite the fact that the leadership I am writing about comes from Tom Brady, quarterback for the Patriots. After the Patriots win in the AFC Championship game Sunday, Brady was being interviewed and the reporter mentioned how great Brady played, leading his team to a fifth Superbowl while he was quarterback—and tying a record doing so. To which Brady responded, “I sucked today—fortunately the team did better than I did.”
Is that leadership? Yes! I think we need more of that type of leading in organizations across America—both public and private sector. So please tell someone you were a poor performer today! It may sound a bit funny but there is something to it. A lot to it, actually. The first thing is candor. We need candor to make our agencies and departments better. Leaders address reality—even when it is tough to do and with upcoming budget pressures and the sometimes extreme political dialogues we hear on TV—candor will serve you well with those you lead.
The next quality Brady displayed with his comment was accountability. He took personal accountability for his performance and he did it publicly. When leaders do this it builds credibility with those they lead and with the customers they serve. It can be a powerful way to increase the trust in your organization. A side benefit is that makes it easier to give difficult feedback to people around you when you admit your own failings. Something that makes feedback easier? Who couldn’t use some of that?
Last, but not least… it promotes humility. Humility is a leadership quality that will serve you well in every way. Not thinking poorly of yourself; but realistically. And realizing our teams are the reason we succeed in our leadership roles and giving credit where it is due.
3 Key Elements of an Effective Performance Review
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Coaching, Communication, Direction, Goal Setting, Leadership, Performance on July 13, 2011
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry positioned his strategy for implementing a more effective performance review process within the Federal Government at the Excellence In Government conference this week. Berry has referred to the current review process ad “infrequent and rote.” His vision is to encourage managers to give frequent recognition and praise for good work to keep employees motivated and to ensure an increase in the lines of communication. In addition, the OPM just completed a pilot mentoring initiative in June and plans to implement a mentor program later this year.
You don't want to save up feedback until somebody fails.
In their new book, Helping People Win At Work, leadership experts Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge support Berry’s sentiments. Ridge believes that there are three aspects of an effective performance review; planning, execution, and review and learning. Both Blanchard and Ridge use the analogy of providing students with the final exam and giving them the answers. Managers sit with their direct reports once a year to establish SMART goals and create the employee’s ‘final exam,” they then must coach them throughout the year to support the agreed upon goals and tell them how to accomplish those set goals. They call this philosophy, “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A.” The last aspect, review and learning, helps managers and employees look for any learnings they may have encountered and determine what is working and what isn’t.
The concept of continuous coaching throughout the year has the biggest impact on performance. While goal-setting provides direction and gets performance started, what keeps performance going and helps achieve the goals is day-to-day coaching. Unfortunately, this is the step that is missing in most agencies. Typically, when annual reviews are complete and goals are set, they are filed away until the following year.
I agree with and support John Berry’s initiative to improve the overall performance process with frequent recognition and praise. This form of communication is an excellent motivator and builder of trust among mangers and their direct reports.
How often do you communicate with your manager about your performance?
Listen to Garry talk about how the power that managers have is within the people around them.
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