How to get great work from more people

It is time to forget about Quiet Quitting and Quiet Firing. Instead, think about the Pareto Principle from physics and microeconomics, commonly known as the 80/20 rule. Your goal should be to figure out how to expand the 20 percentage…

How to ensure your performance management engenders trust

Organizations typically conduct their annual performance reviews and make decisions on merit pay increases and pay adjustments at the end of the year. Employers need to remember that the most effective and innovative teams are built on trust. Executives need…

How the War for Talent looks different in the 2020s

CEOs are asking their human resources leaders to implement talent management strategies to beat the Great Resignation and attract new employees to their brands. This request is not a nice to have. It is essential for business growth. Talent management…

Why and How Performance Management Will Change in the 2020s

Organizations have been talking about changing performance management for years. Many in the past ten years abandoned forced performance rankings or have eliminated performance reviews all together. Others like Facebook have reinstated performance ranking. Compelling business challenges -- more than…

Five Performance Management Imperatives for 2021

To alleviate stress for new remote workers, many companies stopped their performance management systems during the pandemic’s peak. But rather than stopping performance management, they should have focused on accelerating their organization’s ability to be agile. The best performance management…

How to make giving negative feedback a positive experience!

An IT manager spoke with me recently about how he hates doing annual performance appraisals and providing performance feedback, especially when it is negative feedback. “So many employees are really not self-aware and open to the feedback,” he said. No…

Five Steps for Managers to Improve Their Coaching Success

Companies want managers who will build relationships with their employees, give them feedback, coach and develop them and continually recognize them for their achievements.  The once-a-year performance discussion is not sufficient in a business world of constant change. The problem…

Eliminating Performance Ratings? Managers Ability to Deliver Feedback Is Essential!

When we removed performance rankings from our performance review process at Medtronic Coronary and Peripheral in 2012, some executive leaders and managers warned that employees would lose the competitive edge to perform. They didn’t. Our changes included holding weekly or…

Performance Management Changes Are Often the Missing Link with Innovation

I was seated at an innovation conference for lunch, when the Research and Development leader of a major U.S. active sportswear maker told me he had a confession. His organization was successful at creating new ideas, selecting the best ones…

To Rate or Not to Rate. That is the Performance Management Question.

Although it has obvious benefits for aligning, motivating and developing an organization’s workforce, performance management is the most hated of human resource processes. If not done well, it interferes with the relationships between managers and employees. Performance management is often…