The performance appraisal – the annual exercise managers and employees endure, where employees are rated and given grades in critical areas including performance, productivity and attitude.

Wikipedia defines performance appraisals as a systematic and periodic process that assesses an individual employee’s job performance and productivity in relation to certain pre-established criteria and organizational objectives. Other aspects of individual employees are considered as well, such as organizational citizenship behavior, accomplishments, potential for future improvement, strengths and weaknesses, etc. To collect PA data, there are three main methods: objective production, personnel, and judgmental evaluation. Judgmental evaluations are the most commonly used with a large variety of evaluation methods.

As many companies strive to brand themselves as being “innovate” and concentrate on building a reputation of being “a great place to work” to attract top talent, some fail to think of how traditional performance appraisals may prompt more destructive, than constructive conversation.

Some companies are coming to realize that there are better, and more productive ways to communicate with employees. Performance appraisals are slowly becoming the internal metric of the past, being replaced with a better alternative, the Periodic Planning Conference.

Through periodic planning conferences, employees and their leaders concentrate on the future, constructively discussing ways the employee can improve his or her performance and productivity, acquire new skills and grow both personally and professionally. Periodic planning conferences focus on future behaviors versus discussing the past, which tends to be a much more positive and motivational conversation. This approach also gives the employee an opportunity to tell his leader how she can help facilitate suggested growth. It’s a two-way conversation vs. a one-way review – which isn’t nearly as productive.

Leaders typically dread writing traditional performance reviews, and employees typically become nervous thinking about them, which creates tension in the leader/employee relationship. With periodic planning conferences, with an emphasis on the word “planning,” employees are much more likely to enter the conference with enthusiasm, and perhaps fresh ideas to present to his or her leader. Employees may also discuss those areas where they need to improve without any prompt from the leader. From the leaders perspective, he can share his perspectives of the employee’s strengths and how they could benefit the company in other areas. By focusing on the future, the conversation can lead into opportunities for growth and promotion where short-term and long-term goals will be established. The key benefit here is that the employee leaves the conversation with a fresh sense of purpose, renewed excitement about opportunities and a plan of action for the next six to twelve months.

The key benefit for the leader is that he is able to identify and tap into what the employee is passionate about and what motivates him. He will surely witness an immediate change or improvement in behavior and performance which will further everyone’s cause, including that of the company.

Now, compare this approach to the scoring system of traditional employee reviews where strengths are highlighted, and weaknesses are also exposed. Such conversations place employees on defense, and they may walk away with a bruised self-esteem.

It’s focusing on the positive. It’s about coming together as a team. And it’s also about moving forward with purpose. There’s a reason you hired the employee you hired. Take advantage of the skills and the potential within each one of them.

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Consider the case of an employee who is given a large-scale research project with a strict deadline by one of her supervisors, the vice president of the company, and then the president subsequently assigns her a high-priority project to complete ASAP. From the employee’s perspective, the direction from the president supersedes direction from the Vice President even though the president is aware of the situation and reaffirms that his project takes priority. As any employee would, she forges ahead, assuming the vice president and the president already talked through the conflict of priorities. In many respects, this is similar to parenting – the child needs to decide which parent to listen to, and is usually the one perceived with more authority and the one who will inflict the greater punishment for non-performance. A very unfair position to be placed in.

This is a rather common scenario, and equally common is the failure of the two managers to communicate the actions and directives given to the employee. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, employees may be forced to defend their decisions in the middle of a feud between the two managers. And the situation could be worse if the two masters are equal in authority and title.

Employees should never be placed in the middle of such hornet’s nests.

Not only do two-master hierarchies confuse employees, when arguments over rank and importance ensue in front of the staff, it demonstrates signs of weakness and poor leadership. And, if the two masters are in a perpetual, never-ending contest of proving who is more powerful and important, employees not only find it comical, they quickly lose respect for the entire leadership team.

So what’s the solution? Enrolling in a strong leadership training program would be a good start. Partners, leaders and managers who find themselves tripping over each other will learn how to define roles, establish boundaries and effectively communicate with employees to boost morale and improve production. Each will learn critical communications skills such as Active Listening, conflict resolution; I-Message versus You-Message skills and most importantly, each manager will learn an effective way of getting their own, individual needs met where win-win outcomes are the norm.

But, of course, this can only happen if, and when both managers agree to check their ego’s at the door every morning and learn how to respect one another. The alternative? Resignation letters from employees who are exhausted and want to work for leaders who have their acts together.

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Y.E.T. in Lithuania

We have updated P.E.T. (2006), T.E.T. (2006), Be Your Best (2008), the Conflict Resolution Workshop (2008) and most recently, L.E.T.  (2012). We’ve also developed a one-day refresher for L.E.T. graduates which is being well-received.

I am glad to announce that the Youth Effectiveness Training (Y.E.T.) program is once again available! We did a complete revision of it in 2011. So far young people in South Korea, China, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Canada and here in the U.S. have participated.

We’ve recently developed a 30-hour T.E.T. course outline. As those of you who offer T.E.T. know, the standard course is 45 hours in length. It was originally created this way to meet a U.S. requirement for teachers who wanted to obtain university credit and needed 45 hours of instruction to get it. Since this is not the case in other countries, we’ve created an outline for a 30-hour version of the T.E.T. course. It is our hope that this new shortened version will make it possible for more Representatives to offer T.E.T.

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A very good friend of mine finds himself in a most ideal situation. He has worked on the floor of a specialty manufacturing company for nearly thirty years, and he wakes up early every morning eager to get to work a little early and often times stays a little late when the shop is running on all cylinders. He loves what he does and feels a deep sense of purpose in his position. The only problem is, he doesn’t want to retire despite his families’ very strong wishes. Since I’ve known him, he’s had nothing but the greatest things to say about his employer.

Think about what you are about to read:

1. “My co-workers are family. I know all of them personally, we cover for each other when someone is going through a crisis or is very ill. One time, each one of us sacrificed two vacation days so that one of our co-workers could spend two weeks with his very sick grandson. We each worked two days for no pay so that he could get paid.”

2. “The president of the company comes to the shop floor every week and eats lunch with us. He talks to us like we are equals and we always laugh and have a great time. He’s tough on us, but always very fair. He never reminds us who he is. We all respect each other.”

3. “Three years ago I made a mistake that cost the company about $30,000. I was scared to death telling my boss, but after I explained myself and apologized, he simply smiled at me and said, ‘You’re human, and I can tell you’ll never make that mistake again. Let’s chalk this one up in the tuition column and call it a day.’ I couldn’t believe it!”

4. “My boss always takes care of me, so I make sure to always take care of him. If he needs something, he knows he can count on me.”

5. “I’ve never seen the president of my company in a bad mood. He always addresses me by name; he remembers Sarah’s name and the names of the kids. He remembers the important things and always asks how they are doing. He’s very genuine.”

6. “My manager trusts me, and he tells me that all the time. I don’t work in a place where someone is always breathing down my back.”

7. “Our company doesn’t tolerate people who don’t pull their own weight. We know that when a new guy comes on the floor that he’ll work hard and get the work done.”

8. “Our president listens to us. If there is a problem, he takes care of it. If we have a problem, he always asks us our opinion on how to handle it and he trusts our judgment.”

Ideal bosses have ideal employees. And it’s not a coincidence. When leaders wonder how to motivate and inspire their employees to deliver their best every day in every way, the answer can be found in one’s leadership style – a style that is based largely on E.Q. And from there, it’s a mixture of respect, empathy and excellent Active Listening skills learned from leadership training programs. Give employees what they want, and they will happily give you want you want – their very best.

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It features how-to articles, quizzes, videos and more which can be used to hone and refresh the skills of all P.E.T. and L.E.T. graduates. This site is designed to be accessed by using any smartphone or tablet.

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P.E.T. Instructor Workshop in Latvia

Our worldwide network has expanded over the past few years and now includes Representatives and Licensees in Greece, Poland, China, Mexico, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Lebanon, the Maldives, Turkey, Sweden, Chile and Venezuela.

In many countries, the new Representatives first launch the P.E.T. program. Then, once it is firmly established, they want to expand the Gordon Model in schools through T.E.T. This is the same sequence in which Dr. Gordon developed and first began offering the model over 50 years ago. He realized, as many of our Representatives have, that influencing school administrators and teachers to adopt T.E.T. is more challenging than offering P.E.T. to parents. T.E.T.’s successful implementation also requires different strategies depending on the country. Recently, several Representatives have reported that they are working with the Ministry of Education to obtain governmental approval of T.E.T. after which it will available to teachers throughout the country.

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• A long-time P.E.T. Instructor in New York, Judy Pardo, did a podcast in which she discussed the benefits of the program. You can listen to the podcast here: http://twobeerswithsteve.libsyn.com/the-basics-of-p-e-t
• Thanks to a massive promotional campaign aimed at boosting our website ranking, Gordon Training now appears on page one of Google search results for “leadership training” and we’ve appeared on the first page every week so far this year!
• We are working with prospective new Representatives in Israel and India.
• We will be training new P.E.T., T.E.T., Y.E.T. and L.E.T. Instructors in Poland, Bulgaria, China and Turkey.

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The former manager was released because his department, which is now yours, was underperforming, unprofitable and unaccountable He didn’t set expectations and didn’t hold many of them accountable because they were friends first and employees fourth or fifth. Coming in late and leaving early for -non-business related reasons was common. Employee reviews were done over a burger and a Budweiser. In other words, the staff pretty much did what they wanted. You think you’re screwed. The staff barely knows you, you’re charged with turning things around and they lost their best friend who supplied them with a free ride and a fat paycheck.

You have several options:

1. Go in as the new sheriff in town and lay down martial law. Knowing that the department is of employees who have not worked for a strong leader that sets expectations and holds everyone accountable, you re-interview everyone for their position and place each on probation. From that point forward, you corporate rules, making sure everyone is there promptly at eight and puts in an honest day’s work.
2. On your first day, you take the entire department off site, get to know each one of them and work on building relationships with them. You start to build trust and win their respect as the new manager. Next, you’ll ask them about their roles and have an open dialogue about why they think the department wasn’t productive or profitable. You become an Active Listener and an observer of how everyone interacts with one another and how they feel about their role and the company.
3. You place blind ads on monster.com, re-staff the whole department behind closed doors, bring out the broom and start from square one.

Which option sounds the best?

You may be pleasantly surprised that when you talk to the team, you learn that they crave leadership and probably didn’t enjoy the lack of structure and direction. You may also learn that the employees didn’t have much respect for their former manager who didn’t feel the need to run a tight ship. There is always the chance that you inherited a large group of people who resist your good intentions to do what’s best for the company by setting expectations and holding everyone accountable. And in that case you may have no other option but to start replacing those team members who choose not to cooperate, creating an “Us” versus “Them” culture.

However, the fact is, people who enjoy working for, and respect their leader are much happier at work, and thus, much more productive which adds to the bottom line.

Active Listening, conflict resolution, I-Messages and other strong communication skills will come in handy to salvage morale and re-motivate people to do what they were hired to do. Practicing these skills consistently will help you bond with all employees, quickly earn their respect, and motivate everyone on your team to give 110 percent every day in every way.

It will make your life so much easier.

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