Performance Empowerment

Throughout this year I have had the pleasure of teaching a seminar on "Cultivating Employee Engagement" to a variety of professionals. I moderate an interactive conversation as we explore the pillars of what attracts and retains great talent.

I told the story of the Goldman Sachs employee who posted his letter of resignation in the New York Times. This example was used to validate the fact that most exit interviews are dismissed as discontent from a soon-to-be former employee. Why wait until your employees are fed up to the point of quitting to ask for their input?

This lead us to the topic of "stay interviews" - a process of checking the organizational pulse by gathering input from all ends of the organization. We were told the story of a company that promoted the "best place to work" survey to their employees...the Executives soon found out that they were the worst place to work....the culture was broken and the brass didn't know.

In all of the sessions there has been one overarching theme....Performance Reviews are not working:

• Assessing areas of weakness once a year is hardly a retention strategy
• People need encouragement every day to achieve their goals
• Everyone should have an opportunity to support their peer's performance

Here's What You Are Not Doing....
If we cannot learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it. However, if our past failures are used to overshadow our past accomplishments, we will be distracted (not motivated).

Let's be very honest. Performance reviews are a way to document areas of concern so in the event you need to fire someone you have documentation. You send along a word document rating hours of human effort and note your areas of concern. So I have put in 3,120 hours away from my family to make the organization better only to receive a 3 out of 5. Hardly motivating.

If you are measuring performance simply as a means to validate termination your culture is broken!

Here's What You Are Doing Right....
What if one-on-one meetings and the annual performance reviews were replaced by daily goal setting sessions? What if you looked forward to interacting with your boss because he/she existed to encourage your success instead of berating your effort? What if performance assessment became goal empowerment?

It would be nice to hug your boss when you see him or her instead of turning in the other direction to avoid criticism.

We know our business critical objectives and we need input to achieve them. We need to be empowered every day! With the recognition of our path to success we get closer to the sunset (instead of doing just enough to stay out of trouble). Picture a world where we all work together to achieve greatness...I would be willing to bet we would get more done with greater purpose.

"Hand me the club and tell me I'm the best golfer in the world"
- Jack Nicklaus

Here's What We Can Achieve Together!  
Working in silos is a way of avoiding transparency. Transparency is avoided not because you suck at your job but because your boss has been forced to act as a manager not empowered to lead.

That's right! That poor review you got is a result of disabled coaching not lack of effort on your behalf.

What if our goals were transparent? If we all knew what we had to achieve together and were able to encourage one another while we navigate our collective path to success. The collective is empowered to help one another instead of using accountability as a means for motivation.

The workplace is changing. Employees have never been more empowered. The greatest organizations are using bottoms up feedback to drive their organizational strategy. No longer is ivory tower dictatorship acceptable. Micro-management will only encourage employees to do one thing: revise their resume.

It is time to help one another succeed instead of planning who to blame when things don't go well. It is time to tear down the silos and tear up the performance reviews.

We all just want to be happy. We are happy when we succeed. It is even more fun to succeed together.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Unique Value Proposition

It's the 4th installment of the the Employee Purpose Perspective (EPP)...and today we will focus on Creating Unique Value.

What have we learned so far:
Collaborate don't compete
Develop purposeful intent
Create personal relevance

We've discovered the power of collective effort, we have brought purpose to each task and we have personally invested in our work. Now that our intent is genuine we need to create value for those we have asked to take the journey with us.

Work becomes a monotonous grind because we allow it to. When Monday morning comes we hit the snooze button and wish we were training for the x-games. We put on the same shirt, get our usual cup of coffee, listen to the (bad) news on the way to the office, sit at our cubicle and think about 5pm on Friday. Boooring!

The unfortunate thing is that we think in distinct absolutes. It's our 'safe' worklife by day and a super hero existence by night. The work hard/play hard myth we visited a few weeks back. Our fear is that if we take that which we love, and make it part of our work, we will grow to hate it. Work might suck but we can escape to music, literature, or the movie house to level us off. The alarm clock rings, we forget what the movie was about, and head into traffic.

...then we snap. We get to a point of asking ourselves what good the countless work hours have done for the world around us. Another day, another week, another year....now what. We are tempted to quit our job and head for Alaska to work on a fishing boat.

What Are You Running From?

You have to be honest with yourself. YOU allow your day to be boring, YOU allow your job to be a drag, YOU wait to be told what to do and waddle off to do it with your tail between your legs.

You don't have to quit your job, you don't have to picket headquarters, you don't have to take peyote on a mountain top. All you need to do is accept every day as an opportunity to do something totally unique. The number one determinant of what makes you great to everyone around you is what you can do that no one else can. You possess it, you are simply afraid to use it.

What Are You Running To....

Stop hiding from what you dislike and set goals that involve your positive intent. Move forward, don't hide away. Take what you uniquely have and bring it to each and every day with divine passion. This is how you create value for your company, your customers and for yourself.

You are a person not a number, You are a creator not a commodity....now go prove it!

Create VALUE:
Be Yourself
Step Out on the Ledge
Find The Door

Last Night...
You dazzled your friends with your ideas for organizational improvement over dinner. Today you sit in the conference room silent. What happened?

Assess what you love, take the energy behind it, and make it part of your work day.

If you are an awesome story teller, build a presentation that tells a story for your clients. If you are an incredible athlete, use your competitive drive to motivate your clients.

You don't have to live a double existence. Working hard only to blow off steam does not create synergy....you need synergy to find a grander purpose.

You have the Conch...
Why do you try to out commoditize your competitors?

You have to bring meaning...a solution to a problem with a unique value. Something only you can create. A piece of YOU in the product or service that meets a need.

Don't be afraid to make a pitch with a bit of uncertainty to it. Uncertainty is an affect of treading in foreign waters. You need to find new frontiers to create irreplaceable value.

YOU know what?
Pretend you know something they don't because you do. That thing which you can bring to a job, company, or partnership that no one else can.

I can show you the box scores but teams need contributions beyond statistics.

Did the Yankees win the game that Derek Jeter jumped into the stands for a fly ball? We don't remember the statistical outcome, we remember the extraordinary effort! If you are able to extend yourself beyond the spreadsheet you bring a new element to the job. If you write a few more lines into the job description you have expanded the possibility of achievement without being asked to.

Don't wait to be asked, make it happen. Assume your opinion is valued and assert yourself. Create something every day. Focus on capabilities, do not let limitations restrain you.

There is no one in the world like YOU! That is why YOU are irreplaceable.

Go Prove It!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Extraordinary Conquest

We go in fits and starts throughout the year: success lifting our motivation, failures causing questions and doubt. Readers of this blog have seen the inspiration of personal empowerment and the frustration with those who deter it.

We are wonderfully imperfect and that is the whole point of living.

We must live and learn. To try harder in the eye of failure and to be humble in our success.

So today the message is simple: Achieve the Impossible!

There has never been a time when the naysayers haven't lined up to cross arms and shake heads in the midst of your effort. Allow not those whose time has come and gone to pull back your intent for greatness. They are the reason the word impossible exists.

In every phase of living records are broken, new goals are set and achieved, revenue production is exceeded and new standards are set. We have never gone backward. This mostly because someone comes around who fails to hear the whispers of distraction. If you do not acknowledge the negative, they are powerless.

So Today...you walk from your front door into a world of possibility because you have not acknowledged limits....they do not exist....they are an excuse for the failed effort of others and their inability to transcend short comings.

It's Go Time!

There are 3 Distinct Ways in which you can avoid the negative:
* Ignore
* Smile
* Question

Only If You Notice
We are all driven by our egos. So when a guy elbows you on the way out a 2 way door his hatred literally rubs off on you. When someone cuts you off and pulls up next to you on the street, naturally you want flip them off. These people are miserable and they want to drag you into their misery. When you snap back at them you add fuel to their fire.

Ignore them. They will get back to their car, shake their heads, realize the ass they have become and wallow in their misery alone.

No One Can Resist
Does your smile cause others to look over their shoulder. As if they can't imagine that anyone could be happy...as if they think you must be noticing bird droppings on their head.

I used to bock at those who smiled...wondering how they could do so in the midst of this tortured world. Make no mistake about it, those who smile are courageous! Any coward can frown, grumble and oppose everything.

Is Everything OK?
Those with stored up discontent want to share, be heard and to be validated. If you are strong enough to invite discussion with the malcontent you may find a simple question will empower them...to get their anger off their chest, to get it out in the open and to move on.

All you have to do is invite a question. You may not have to say another word to them there after. They may thank you...and remember your positive intent.

Sometimes the best way to help someone is by helping them understand that their sissy behavior will not be encouraged.

Times are tough, every day has it's set of new challenges, one thing goes right and five new things come up.

We are imperfect! There will never be a time when everything is where it needs to be....this is our opportunity!

Grow Every Day! Stay Positive!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave