by admin on February 15, 2009
A friend was telling me that the HR department in the organisation where he works advertised a workshop called ‘Managing Performance’. He manages a team of bright, talented designers and thought this sounded like a great workshop to help him to help his team be the best they can be.
He went along to the workshop expecting to learn how to bring out the best in people. He told me that what he actually learned was “how to manage poor performance”.
This story stopped me in my tracks. I had never thought of it before but the term ‘performance management’ does have connotations of managing poor performance. At best it smacks of getting people to do what they are supposed to do, But it doesn’t conjure up in my mind what it conjured up in my friend’s mind.
Shouldn’t performance management really be about helping people to realise their full potential by playing to their strengths, supporting them and motivating them? Of course it should. I think that deficit thinking and ‘good enough’ thinking dominates the management mind set. Even high-potential programmes are dogged by a focus on fixing weaknesses and deficits. People would do far better if managers went around thinking what my friend thinks – “how can I help my people be the best they can be”, and helping people to play to their strengths – which is after all what the best performers do. And HR professionals would do well to rethink what they mean by performance management and the expectations and culture that that label creates.
Sally
by admin on February 3, 2009
At Davos this week there has been a lot of talk about Philanthrocapitalism – a mouthful of a word which basically refers to the good companies can do whilst still turning a profit. Bill Gates has led the way in this by setting up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This year he has increased the annual giving to 10% to a massive $3.8billion.
Business leaders could certainly do with improving their image – according to the 2009 Edelman Annual Trust Barometer only 17% of those surveyed said they trust information from a company’s CEO. Trust in business has been sliding since the collapse of Enron. Back in 2004 when I researched and co-wrote ‘A Question of Trust’ it felt like we were at crisis point then. It is now much worse. And I don’t see leaders’ behaviour changing very much. We all appreciate honesty and transparency and get very cross when leaders don’t come clean and take personal responsibility. I liked the suggestion that Matthew Bishop made in his recent blog post:
… I made a modest proposal at Davos: that the chief executives of the world’s 500 biggest firms demonstrate their contrition for their role in the crisis, and their commitment to help society recover, by each giving $2m (or, better still, one year’s base salary) to a new fund to support social entrepreneurs. This sort of billion-dollar collective sacrificial leadership could transform public attitudes towards business and business-thinking, and get the age of philanthrocapitalism off to a great start.
I can’t see it happening but the fact that there is more and more call for CEOs to take more accountability has to be good. Great leaders have values and they live them out. Bill Gate’s foundation is an obvious example of values in action. When I first graduated I looked up to my bosses and expected them to have values and integrity. Young people today still have the same expectations but sadly, and understandably, they are more cynical about those running businesses. This global economic crisis, is in some ways an opportunity for business leaders to show they care and to demonstrate excellent leadership. They need to go back to the basics of good human relationships – honesty, trust and integrity. And, as Matthew says, a bit of sacrificial leadership right now wouldn’t go amiss.
Sally
I have had quite a few conversations with clients recently about Twitter. As you can imagine, lots of questions and concerns come up. “What’s the point of it?”, “Isn’t it just a stupid waste of time?”, “How can it help our business?” etc etc.
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