Great leaders judge performance, not people.
Sharon, a department manager, was furious. Her new employee Mark was clashing with coworkers. Sharon had hired him to help the team, but Mark was turning into a big headache.
She told Mark that he “had a bad attitude”. He disagreed, and the conversation became heated. Nothing positive was accomplished, and Mark went home and started job hunting. In the meantime, he vowed to do just enough at work to get by. Mark was now actively disengaged.
A strong manager assesses performance while supporting people. Confusing the two – judging people instead of performance – leads to disengagement and decreased performance.
For instance, Sharon decided that Mark had a “bad attitude”. OK, but to quote a famous film, “well, that’s just, like, your opinion”. The manager’s job is to objectively gauge performance, not subjectively judge character.
How did Mark’s “bad attitude” manifest itself? Lateness? Rudeness to coworkers or customers? If so, what form did the rudeness take, and what was the context?
Solution
Sharon should have gotten these facts and used them to create SMART goals for Mark. Instead, she took the lazy way out and labeled him in a negative way. This virtually eliminated all hope of a positive outcome.
And getting to know Mark as a person might have helped Sharon solve the problem. She could have created engagement that would have moved him to improve on his own.
There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.
~ Robert Half
As a leader, you need to know your direct reports as people and treat them that way. They are not tools for you to manipulate, and their lives are bigger than the hours that they are with you. They have hopes, dreams, struggles, and anxieties (just like you, by the way).
Somehow, your colleagues have set their complex outside lives aside to get to work every day. They hope and deserve to be respected and treated well. And the fact that your path has led you to be their manager does not make them inferior to you. It means that you now serve them.
The best way to do that is by becoming a great manager. The ability to accurately evaluate performance without antagonizing employees can transform your team.
Five Steps to Judging Performance Without Alienating People
- Get the facts
- Eliminate subjectivity (opinion and hearsay)
- Gain agreement on the facts
- Set SMART goals that will elevate performance
- Measure performance and coach for improvement
