Performance Management 2.0

Too many managers give performance appraisals the same level of thoughtfulness that one might put into scratching an itch. Employees often are not interested, either, except to find out what kind of pay increase they are getting.

What if performance was addressed every day in a way that engaged employees and managers in lively conversations about the work being done? Imagine a work environment in which managers and staff communicate continually throughout the day about performance, attitudes, goals, accomplishments and new ideas.

Marcus Buckingham, bestselling author and internationally renowned consultant, is best known for helping people work to their strengths and helping managers bring out the best in their employees. I recently caught up with Buckingham on a webcast offered via the SHRM website.

Buckingham suggests that we apply social media principles to revitalize the performance management process. Here are some highlights:

According to Buckingham great managers tend to:
A) Have frequent interaction with their people.
B) Instinctively focus on an individual’s strengths.
C) Focus on the future and ask, “How can I use this person’s strengths to create a brighter tomorrow?”
D) Have a knack for aligning people of different traits to create well-balanced teams.

Buckingham says that most managers do the exact opposite:
A) They have very infrequent conversations about performance.
B) They focus on areas that need improvement rather than on a person’s strengths.
C) Most performance management efforts focus on behavior in the past tense.
D) Managers isolate people rather than consider each person’s performance in relation to the team.

Buckingham then adds that social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have proven that people are quite happy to go online to discuss what they are working on as well as how they feel about what they are doing. “I’m putting together a multi-media presentation aimed at helping small companies get greener. I’m totally jazzed!”

He proposes that companies use this type of self-driven, positive, dynamic, strengths-focused approach to manage performance. He shares how the tool works on the webcast. Check it out.

Just when I had decided that social media was nothing more than a narcissistic pastime for self-involved egomaniacs, someone found a way to make it useful.

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