Most workers do not feel that employee performance reviews are valuable. That’s what Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company discovered when he surveyed students in a business course he teaches at the University of San Diego.
The problem, according to Ridge, is that most performance systems are used for the wrong reasons. They are either arbitrary, only done out of habit, or they are used to document evidence to fire someone.
Instead, Ridge thinks that performance reviews should be used to develop people. It’s a philosophy he calls “Don’t mark my paper—help me get an “A” and it‘s a key concept in a new book he has coauthored together with Ken Blanchard called Helping People Win at Work.
Helping People Win at Work is the first in a new series of books written by real-life CEOs describing how they have put the concept of “leading at a higher level” into practice in their organizations.
For Garry Ridge that means having managers at WD-40 working together with their direct reports on Planning, Execution, Review and Learning.
Planning is all about setting goals and establishing the report card for the employee’s “final exam.” It’s making sure that every employee knows exactly what he or she is being asked to do.
Execution is where the manager has to keep up his or her end of the partnership relationship on a day-to-day basis, helping and coaching the employee to get an “A.”
Review and Learning is a quarterly evaluation designed to answer the questions, “What did we set out to do? What actually happened? What should we do differently?”
Join Blanchard associates AlanYoungblood and Randy Conley, right here on LeaderChat beginning at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time for a 30-minute Q&A session. Alan and Randy will be stopping by right after they finish their WebEx sponsored webinar on Virtual Classroom Solutions, a special look at how to create engaging learning experiences in an online environment. Over 400 people will be participating in the webinar and gathering here afterwards to ask follow-up questions.
To post a question now, click on the COMMENTS hyperlink near the title of this post. Type in your question in the space provided and hit SUBMIT COMMENT.
The new book Who Killed Change?, co-authored by Ken Blanchard, John Britt, Pat Zigarmi, and Judd Hoekstra, hits bookstore shelves on May 26. Written in a fun, who-done-it murder mystery style, the book follows the investigation of the death of Change in the large ACME organization. Readers follow along as a hard-boiled detective (known only as Agent) questions each of the suspects including Budget, Sponsorship, and Aligned Leadership.
Has a change initiative ever “died” in your organization? Who would you point to as the likely suspects? Take our poll below, and also leave a comment and let us know about the biggest killers of change you’ve experienced.
Join Dr. Pat Zigarmi, co-author of the new book, Who Killed Change? right here on LeaderChat beginning at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time for a 30-minute Q&A session.
Pat will be stopping by right after she finishes her WebEx sponsored webinar on Creating a Fast, Flexible, and Nimble Organization. Over 400 people will be participating in the webinar and many will be gathering here to ask follow-up questions.
If you have a question that you would like to ask Pat, just enter this thread or click on the COMMENTS hyperlink near the title of this post. Type in your question in the space provided and hit SUBMIT COMMENT. Pat will answer as many questions as possible until she has to leave at 10:30 a.m. Pacific.
And if you can’t stay, be sure to stop by later and see all the questions that were asked. Or better yet, hit the RSS FEED button on the right-hand column and receive updates on a weekly basis.
Leaders need to create fast, flexible, and nimble organizations to meet constantly changing market and customer demands. Otherwise they risk becoming obsolete, according to Dr. Patricia Zigarmi of The Ken Blanchard Companies. How can you tell if your company is in danger of losing its capacity to change? Zigarmi suggests that companies be on the lookout for some early warning signs.
Resting on your laurels. You see companies ignoring the numbers on their balance sheet, or in their employee turnover or customer satisfaction numbers. These companies treat bad numbers as a blip on the screen rather than as a trend over time.
Discounting customers’ expectations and competitors’ innovations. These companies stick their head in the sand and seem bent on protecting the way that they have always done things. They are more interested in defending their decisions and their approach than they are in exploring new ideas.
Discouraging new players and new voices within the company. A tendency to find ways to say that “the next generation doesn’t really understand the situation” or that some people with strong opinions based on experience elsewhere “haven’t been here long enough to really have a voice at the table” is a sure way to stay stagnant.
Pat’s recommendation for keeping your organization change-ready? Increase involvement and influence. To find out more about Pat’s thinking on improving your organization’s capacity to change, check out her interview in this month’s edition of Ignite—our free monthly eNewsletter.
