Connecting Performance to Review: Making the Most of Your Performance Evaluations PRESENTED BY: TED BEASLEY, CEO, EMERGENT EXECS

TO: SAN ANTONIO CPE EVENT, JUNE 12-13, 2017

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Reality is your friend

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What’s Wrong with Performance Evaluation?

• Past-Not-Future Orientation • Return-on-Investment of Time • Brain Hijack • The Bell Curve? • Coupled with Compensation

The Actual Performance Curve

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5 Steps for Making the Most of Your Review

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• Get a Net Promoter Score (1-10) • Ask two questions: 1. What did I do well that I should continue to do? 2. What should I stop doing or change? • Keep a journal with dates

#1 Ask for Real Time Feedback

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#2 Tell Compelling Stories of Accomplishment

• Formula of a story: how things were, what I did, what changed

• Explain change in Time, Dollars and Amounts

Below the Surface?

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#3 Use Questions to Get the Whole Iceberg • Can you tell me more about that? • Am I getting this right? (repeating

back in your words) • Can I add a little context? • What would it take to score higher?

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#4 Evaluate the Evaluation • How important is this info? • Who or what is the source? • Have I heard this before? • How much energy is it going

to cost me to fix this and what are the benefits?

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#5 Commit to Measurable Outcomes – Metrics, Projects, Decisions, Capabilities

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To Don’ts When Giving Feedback

• Surprises • Only focusing on the past • Halo or horn • One-sided • Vague personality statements • Recentcy • Ignoring the big picture • Being unprepared • Skipping them altogether

Develop an Internal Coaching Competency

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Host a free “Manager as Coach” session.

Ted Beasley Ted@EmergentExecs.com

512-775-1203

Making the Most of Your Performance Evaluations

Executive Summary

Most of us enter the performance review process with a little anxiety. What if it’s awkward or goes poorly? The real danger, however, is that the discussion would be uneventful – that you and your supervisor would just “check the box” and get through it without talking about how you can take your performance and job satisfaction to an even higher level. If you do some simple preparation, and ask some probing questions at your review, you can emerge with a positive evaluation and some clear ideas on how to develop in the coming year.

Frameworks We Covered in Class

Reality Is Your Friend What’s Wrong with Performance Evaluation?

Past-Not-Future Orientation

Return-On-Investment of Time

Brain Hijack

The Bell Curve?

Coupled with Compensation Case Study: On a 5-point scale, your supervisor gives you a 3.7, and explains her reasons. What’s your internal reaction? What can you do to prevent your brain from being hijacked? If you are giving a review to someone else, what can you do to prevent the hijack? 5 Steps for Making the Most of Your Review

1. Ask for real-time feedback throughout the year.

Get a Net Promoter Score (1-10)

Ask two questions: o What did I do well that I should continue to do? o What should I stop doing or change?

Keep a journal with dates 2. Tell compelling stories of accomplishment.

Formula of a transformation story: how things were, what I did, what changed

Explain change in Time, Dollars and Amounts Case Study: You (or your department) were in charge of a major audit or budgeting project. How will you tell the accomplishment to a non-Finance person?

3. Use questions to get the “whole iceberg”.

Can you tell me more about that?

Am I getting this right? (repeating back in your words)

Can I add a little context?

What would it take to score higher? Case Study: You were assigned to lead a cross-functional team to complete a large, multi-month project. The results were mixed. While you believe you and the team did a pretty good job with the resources you had, one of your team members (Steve) totally dropped the ball and missed deadline after deadline. Since Steve is from another department, and doesn’t officially report to you, you didn’t have much leverage to get him to improve his performance. As a result, the project suffered. Now, in your annual review, your supervisor gives you low marks for your leadership of the project. To what extent do you try to set the record straight? How should you handle it if you disagree with your supervisor about some aspect of your review?

4. Evaluate the evaluation.

How important is this info?

Who or what is the source?

Have I heard this before?

How much energy is it going to cost me to fix this and what are the benefits?

5. Commit to measurable outcomes – metrics, projects, decisions, capabilities. To-Don’ts of Giving Performance Reviews

• Surprises: Giving feedback on something for the first time in an annual performance review conversation is unfair and undermines the trust.

• Only focusing on the past: Positioning part of the conversation on the upcoming year is important in setting goals and discussing the employee’s career path or interests.

• Halo or horn feedback: Give balanced feedback--both positive and developmental because no employee is perfect or a complete disaster.

• One-sided: Begin the conversation asking them about their assessment of their performance over the past period.

• Vague personality statements: Rather than commenting on someone’s personality (“moody and unpredictable”), give specific examples (“You made that loud outburst and walked off the factory floor three months ago when that batch was returned to you for poor quality.”)

• Recency: Take into account the whole period (year), rather than harping on one incident that is most recent

• Ignoring the bigger picture: Acknowledge the larger forces that may have affected their work (“I know you lost four colleagues from your work group in the past 12 months, and you had to take on more responsibility.”)

• Being unprepared: Take time to reflect and prepare your message(s) based on what you want the employee to know, think or do; this demonstrates that the meeting is important and the employee is valued.

• Skipping them: Running the meeting a month late or blowing it off all together sends the message that you don’t care about the meeting or the employee so don’t be surprised when they have the same attitude about their performance

Go-And-Do Instructions

1. Review your notes from our classroom session. 2. Identify 10 possible accomplishments from this past year that you could talk about on your

Wingspan report. To get ideas, review your calendar and email archives going back to the

beginning of this review period. By quickly scanning these, you’ll trigger many memories and potential stories.

3. For each of these 10 accomplishments, use the formula from class for telling transformation stories. Jot down your before-and-after picture:

What were things like before I worked on them?

What did I do?

What changed? In describing what changed, add as much data as you can, utilizing Money, Time and Amounts measurements, as we described in class.

4. Select your top stories. Look for the most dramatic and measurable changes. Enter these accomplishments into your performance software.

5. Answer the reflection questions.

Reflection Questions

1. Was it hard for you to make your accomplishments measurable? Is there something you could

include that is not Money, Time or Amount?

2. What are you hoping to learn at your annual review meeting? What questions do you want to

come prepared with to ask your supervisor?

3. Are you coachable? Throughout this next year, how can you improve at getting valuable, real-

time feedback?

A Personal Offer to Your Company

If you found this session to be helpful, I want to offer your company a free 90-minute session at your company’s office on the topic “Manager as Coach”. I’ll facilitate a lively discussion with 12-25 of your managers or up-and-coming leaders to help them develop a coaching competency. This session will:

1. Help your participants understand the difference between coaching, counseling and directive management

2. Help your participants spot the gaps between potential and performance in the people they manage

3. Teach your participants a simple and effective framework (The GROW Method) for developing the potential of their people, and give them a chance in class to practice the framework

To schedule the session, email Ted Beasley at Ted@EmergentExecs.com or call 512-775-1203. About Emergent Execs -- We work nationally with any organization committed to developing their next generation of high potential leaders. We specialize in manager training, executive coaching, succession planning and high potential leader cultivation. Some happy clients in the past year include IBM, Chase Bank, Dell Computers, Advanced Micro Devices, Rackspace, EZ Corp, Newgistics, RetailMeNot, Indeed, HomeAway, uShip, Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Pearl Brewery, Drees Homes, Assurant, TengoInternet, Mitratech, CLS Partners, Luminex, Spiceworks, Kaspar Companies and many others. We utilize the very best MBA and leadership curricula, top academic teachers and boardroom-seasoned executive coaches to deliver leadership training and succession planning for your company.