Performance Management

It is that time of the year in the federal government. The recently completed fiscal year has set in motion a cycle of documentation, writing appraisals, holding panels to evaluate each appraisal, providing feedback, and ultimately, determining pay and bonuses. It is a convoluted system that most of us hate (and I won’t use this page for my angst against the time killer that this system has become) but it does have great value and in many ways is worth the investment of key leader time and energy.

Previously, our evaluation system was a waste. Most everyone received top marks, the annual appraisal itself (often the only feedback an employee might get in a year) took only a few minutes to complete, and the system did nothing to reward greatness or to identify low performers. Yeah, we all liked the ability to crank out any number of evaluations without having to engage our brains. But the system allowed us to be cowards, never forcing us to deal with real performance issues. And this made it difficult to recognize true greatness, as superstars often received “scores” and financial rewards at the same level as known slugs! That is not good leadership and has a direct impact on employee morale and performance.

Our current system is not without its faults. But when I meet with my senior leaders to evaluate the files of all the supervisors in our organization (a very talented group of about 80 low and mid-level managers), we truly get after some difficult issues:

-- Evaluate performance of each individual against their agreed upon performance objectives…on a scale of 1-5…and where a “3” is a good score.

-- Greatness requires more than just doing a good job. Recognition as such by a broader group of senior leaders (i.e. more than just one’s direct supervisor) requires measurable, appreciable IMPACT.

-- Superstars are identified and considered within our organizational succession plan. If they have gaps (skills or tools) that they might need in order to advance, they are tagged accordingly for future development opportunities.

-- Employees with low scores are considered using the Jim Collins (Good to Great) analogy with these two questions:
- Is the employee on the right bus? Do they fit with our mission, our culture, our values?
- If yes, is the employee on the right seat of the bus? Is there a position where the demands of their job could better align with their strengths?

Most employees are on the right bus. They could -- and usually do -- add value to the team. But many are not cut out for management (and in fact, if asked, might say they prefer the technical work out in the trenches to supervisory duties). Others have extenuating issues in their lives that make it difficult to perform at the high level (personal problems, poor subordinates, difficult mission). For those on the right bus but the wrong seat, senior leaders need to take action to get the correct alignment.

This sort of thing is hard work. Leaders usually love their subordinate managers and fight to see them rewarded for their hard work. That's a good thing. But there must be a check in the system that prevents against grade inflation such that our evaluations have meaning. And true greatness must be allowed to rise to the top…and be recognized as such.

So what about you and your team? Do you have a system to evaluate talent within your ranks? Is it a “check the block” sort of approach or does it force you to make “hard calls” on superior (and inferior) performance? Are you using some sort of peer comparison to move beyond loyalty to one’s team and fairly evaluate the broader contributions of a team member toward the goals and objectives of the organization? Are you having meaningful discussions about placement on the bus…and who needs to get off at the next stop?

I have no doubt, that no matter the pain of the process (hey…we are government so…we have to make everything difficult), the time spent with my senior leadership team on these sorts of discussions was invaluable. High scores have to be earned, contributions have to be measurable, and success has to have an impact that the full leadership team can appreciate. I gained insights both on my senior leaders and those whom we had gathered to evaluate. That made this week’s session in which we measured subordinate leader performance…Leader Business.

It's about TEAM!

I just looked at today's baseball standings. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have the best record in all of baseball. They win at home and on the road. They lead their division by 15.5 games and are the leading contender to win the World Series.

But here's the amazing thing. There is not a single Angel in the top 10 of any individual offensive category. From top to bottom in their lineup, no one player is having an outstanding year. They are in the middle of the pack in batting, pitching, and fielding -- statistically. A couple of guys are having very good years but overall, there is nothing to get excited about in looking at their numbers.

Except one -- 75-44. The best record in Major League Baseball. You see, by themselves they are average. As a TEAM, they are amazing. Isn't it interesting what can happen when people don't care about themselves as much as they do for each other? Isn't it encouraging to watch the results of a group who thinks less about individual stats and more about TEAM goals?

Since my team is out of it already (yes, another bad year for the Orioles), I'm rooting for the Angels. I like their style. I like their attitude. I love their results.

It's about TEAM! That's Leader Business.

It's the Execution...Stupid

Dan McCarthy in his blog, Great Leadership, pointed me to the latest issue of Fortune magazine and the cover story on "The Best Advice I Ever Got." Among the business leader comments that he highlighted, this gem from Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard stood out to me:

Nine years after starting at NCR, I moved to a head-office job in Dayton in 1988. An NCR executive was giving a presentation; he had great slides and an even better delivery. The CEO, Chuck Exley, listened to the entire presentation in his typically gracious, courteous manner. At the conclusion, he nodded and said something brief but profound: "Good story, but it's hard to look smart with bad numbers." And as I reflected on it, the presenter, articulate as he was, as good as his slides were, simply had bad numbers. That comment has always stayed with me. You have to focus on the underlying substance. There's just no way to disguise poor performance. I've tried to follow that advice throughout my career. Deliver good numbers and you earn the right for people to listen to you.

What a great reminder to me that it is not the delivery of comments that make our product great but the delivery of product that makes our comments great! It's about the bottom line. It's the execution, stupid!

Too often I get caught up in things that don't matter. My calendar does not reflect my priorities. My conversations are about everything other than what helps us accomplish the mission. I'm not focused on performance. I forget that if I don't execute, it does not matter what else I say or do.

Sometimes I need to hear comments like this. I consider myself a good speaker. My presentations are usually pretty solid. But if I want people to hear what I have to say -- I better be able to back it up. I had better be obsessive about execution. I better spring out of bed and act as if my competition was breathing down my neck. I better have a sense of urgency about delivering on promises and about finishing projects -- on time, under budget, etc.

"Deliver good numbers and you earn the right for people to listen to you." That's Leader Business.

Cheaters Never Win -- Still!

I was in Washington DC this week and was in between visits with Congressional members on Capital Hill when I walked by Roger Clemens. He had just finished the committee hearing regarding his alleged use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs. Surrounded by his security detail, it was clear that his world had been turned upside down.

Cheating will do that to you. Ask Mark McGuire and Rafael Palmeiro -- two other certainties for baseball's Hall of Fame who will likely not get the nod following their infamous moments on "The Hill." It is little wonder that Clemens is fighting the allegations as hard as he is. His high-priced lawyers will likely do anything to preserve his reputation and distance Mr. Clemens from the damaging testimony in the Mitchell Report.

Over on the Senate side of Congress, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was meeting with US Senator Arlen Spector about the "Spygate" episode involving New England Patriot's coach Bill Belichick. Seems this wasn't an isolated incident in which the Super Bowl coach was caught video taping an opponent's signals. There appears to be a lot more to the story there.

Now we can debate whether there are more important things our elected officials should be doing than investigating cheating in sports. (Would you rather they were figuring out another way to get more of our paychecks?) But it is important that someone shine a light on cheating in a profession that many of us care deeply about -- sports. If they are cheating, let's be glad that someone is doing something about it. And it appears that the sports themselves appear unable or unwilling to do so.

Nope -- cheaters still never win. There are better ways to make a buck. We can do our jobs without taking shortcuts. We can win without risking our reputations -- and those of the teammates with whom we serve. We can keep things in perspective and remember that short term victories can be lost in a second if they are not gained fairly. And we can face our accusers without throwing our wife under the bus (a real class act, that Clemens!).

Let's make a case instead for the use of these performance enhancers, in sports or in business:

-- Hard work

-- Open, transparent communication

-- Disciplined people, disciplined organizations

-- Diversity and Equal Opportunity

-- Empowerment

-- After Action Reviews

-- Morning Huddles

-- Leader Development

-- Milk (still a legal performance enhancer, despite the accusations in this video!)

That's Leader Business!

Happy New (Fiscal) Year!

Our performance year ended on September 30th - another strange decision by our government that has to have a year that is different from what most others call a year! But we finished the old one with a flurry. In a line from my favorite family movie, Remember the Titans, we finished strong...and "left no doubt!" We set many new performance records and met or exceeded almost all of our beginning of the year goals. Our focus on Execution made me proud to be a part of a great team.

And now we're already 1/52 of the way through the next performance year. Our schedules and budgets for the next year have to be locked in. Our goals must be identified and articulated to the team. Our After Action Reviews must be completed, with lessons learned captured and applied to our plans for this next year. Our customers must understand that we are focused on project delivery, not on the complexities of year-end and new fiscal year activities (of course, made more complex by the rules of our federal government!). The train never stops.

Here are a few of the things we have done to bring closure to the last year and to kick off the new one:

- We're holding daily synchronization sessions during the first two weeks with key leaders to ensure that we start the new year on the right foot. We dug ourselves into a hole last year because we were slow out of the gate. The synch sessions that allowed us to finish so well are continuing to ensure that our success is sustained.

- I have mandated that all After Action Reviews (AARs) be completed prior to our organizational review here in a few weeks. All section, branch, division, and support staff AARs must be completed, with key lessons recorded and posted onto our intranet site, before we meet to review those district-wide issues. While this is somewhat new to my team, it is how the Army does it - and it works. (You may want to check out my Leader Business Newsletter on AARs if this concept is new to you!)

- We have locked in our objectives for this next year that will drive our performance. We can't be "on time and under budget" if we have not established the goals for either one!

- We celebrated! I had my Public Affairs team create an internal game (a virtual "Whodunit" activity like Clue) that had people buzzing. We announced the winner of the game, championed the many great milestones that we had achieved in the past year, and had balloons, confetti, cake, and "bubbly" to ring in the New Year. I held a "virtual" town hall that allowed all 700 employees in our several dozen offices to be connected so I could tell them how proud I was of their accomplishments. It was a great day.

- I'm still working on a more long term strategic planning session (scheduled for several sessions over the next couple of months) that will allow us to really look deeper and really get after some badly needed transformation and culture issues. Those are coming and will be wrapped into our objectives for this new year.

So Happy New (fiscal) Year everyone! We have finished our celebrations and are re-focused on the road ahead. And that multi-lane highway, still under construction in a few areas, is wide open and already passing vehicles at full speed. Hooah!

That's Leader Business.