Engage, evaluate

“It’s time for your annual evaluation.”

I don’t know about you, but that phrase sounds suspiciously like, “Please come to the principle’s office.”

It’s not a request, it’s a summons. You know that nothing good is going to come from it. In fact, you suspect that something very, very bad could be sneaking up on you in the form of “annual eval time.”

Interesting, Gallup’s #11 item on the list of 12 key expectations that measure employee engagement is this: “In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?”

Note that an annual evaluation only yields a “yes” answer for 6 months out of the year. So is the answer another evaluation meeting? Yuck!

Here’s what I’ve been trying, in my on-going effort to become a boss who fully engages every person on the team: I schedule a monthly “job review” meetings individually with each person on my team. Usually I schedule these for Friday afternoons at the start of each month. By Friday afternoon, we’re all ready for a more relaxed pace to wind down from the week. At the beginning of the month we can talk about last month’s accomplishments and plan for this month’s tasks.

Together, we’ve come up with a clear description of each person’s tasks, including goals and how we know when they’ve achieved their goals. It took a few months for us to get there, starting, as we often do with a list of goals that include, “Doing work assigned to me.”

Gradually, we started to see patterns. Desiree answers the phones and helps solve people’s problems. Wendy and Sara work with new and potential new clients to make sure we meet – and exceed – their expectations. Other team members have their own areas of work. In each of these jobs there are ways we measure success – how quickly we solve people’s problems; how happy our existing clients are with service. As we realize our big goals, we can start setting little goals, too; goals that help us grow in depth and breadth as individuals and as a company.

It’s been fun for me, and I think even the staff members look forward to it. We get a few minutes of one-on-one time to focus on expectations; to give feedback and to say a simple, “thanks for your efforts.”

I remember telling someone early in my career that any time an employee failed at their work, it reflected negatively on me, too. Over the years I’ve come to accept that some people are simply not a match for the job they’re placed into, and that has no negative reflection on them or me. I’ve also learned, though, that helping guide each person to success means taking the time, on a regular basis, to give them feedback on goals and expectations.

It means, in a nutshell, taking the time to talk to each person, regularly, about their progress.