What to Assess When Assessing Performance

What is performance management? Now that is a loaded question. What do you measure when assessing performance? Does everyone in your organization measure the same things when assessing performance? How often do you assess performance? If you could correct performance before the results hit the bottom line, would you?

I am suggesting that there is only one thing that should be measured when assessing performance – commitment to the organization. How often have you wishfully asked, ‘why can’t “they” just put the organization first’. The strength of any organization is the result of how well the members serve the vision. When people are committed to the vision they put the needs of the organization before their own interests.

The manager in my last blog was working from an incorrect assumption. He assumed that it was enough to be a great chemist. He believed that if the chemistry was done right that was all that mattered. So the young chemist, being fresh out of school, was trying to get the purist sample and a scalable process. No one even took into account the needs of the organization or the customer.

The organizations goal was to make money for their shareholders and the organization by providing the best samples at a competitive price and fastest time possible. The organization was built on the assumption that the customer needed the sample for testing and needed it fast. If the sample proved useful good service, on our part, would bring the customer back for further development. Chemistry is what the organization does it is not the goal.

Because the manager was working from the wrong set of assumptions he was measuring the wrong thing. If commitment is the one thing every manager is measuring there could be no confusion. If the manager had been committed to the organization’s goals he would have been able to coach the young chemist and created a department that was committed to delivering the best sample possible within the customer’s timeframe and budget.

As it turned out, this manager valued chemistry over the organizations needs. He was coached, the assumptions discussed and agreed to, but his behavior did not change. His department continued to loose money and his employment terminated.

You will notice that I used the word behavior. Behavior is how to measure commitment. What people say and what they do is the only measure of their commitment to the organization. People will make excuses or blame others for poor results but that is a whole different blog.

What's the Focus?

I find it interesting that most articles or books on the topic of communication, management or leadership are very theoretical. Some are very well written and interesting but most do not provide practical, sustainable tools that the average manager can implement quickly and easily. It seams to me that the more we know about the subject of performance management the less productive a tool it becomes.

For example, when I Google “performance management” all kinds of software tools pop up. What are we managing – software or people? Don’t get me wrong – theory is important – but only to the human resources professional. The person who has recently been promoted to a managerial position needs tools not theory. Most people rise to a managerial position because they have exhibited great technical skills. Up until that moment they have managed data, projects, time and that is what they continue to manage. No one tells them, “forget all that, your managing people now.” Furthermore they did not go to school for this. In fact, they hate the thought of having to deal with people.

I once had a manager of the R&D department that loved to hire “great” chemists. These people just loved the lab bench. This manager hired a young chemist who was a wizard at chemistry. The problem was that her job was to provide the customer with samples of potential product. This did not have to be the perfect product or a scalable process. The customer needed something to test – quickly. The Company goal was to make money by providing it’s customers with samples, on time and in budget. The young chemists’ goal was to be a “great” chemist. The manager assumed that if you were a “great” chemist the rest would just happen.

Needles to say, the projects assigned to the young chemist were always late and over budget. The manager could not understand why the young chemist was failing and was not able to properly coach this promising young talent. In fact, the focus of the whole R&D department began to change. Over time chemistry became more important than the customer and the manager had to be let go.

There is only one thing that performance management should assess and that is commitment to the organization. Keep it simple. Stop managing the software. Start managing the people.

The Tale of a Successful Organization

When the weather warms up I will be spending alot more time in my garden. I especially enjoy the early morning hours before the rest of the world intrudes on my thoughts. Birds, rabbits and chipmunks join me as I sip a cup of coffee. The creature's behaviors remind me of peple I have worked with. There is the clown, the pushy one, the know-it-all, the complainer. Yet, somehow, this diverse group of creatures get along and the garden thrives.

Over the years I have observed bright knowledgeable professionals struggling to deliver projects on time and in budget. These same bright knowledgeable people try to manage numbers, procedures, events, projects, talent, innovation - everything except the one thing that creates success - people.

People bring past experience, opinion, blame and excusses to the organization. People cloud and confuse the issues and it is therefore hard to determin if they are creating a problem. In trying to be objective and not to offend the person, we end up talking about the resuts when we should be talking about how we got those results. So what should we be assessing?

It has occurred to me that in the garden there is no blame. There are no excuses. As long as everyone does what is expected, peace reigns. If any creature creates a problem, they are chased out.

People get results through other people, relationships. How people behave determins the success of the relationship. Behaviors are performance indicators. Frustration, blaming, anger, developing the wrong thing, late delivery, saying one thing doing another, are clues that there is a problem with the relationship. When assessing performance there is only one thing that should be measured- committment to the organization.