Raw Courage Drives Workplace Performance

“What’s wrong with everyone nowadays? What is it that makes everyone seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?” – Prince Charles, heir to the throne of 16 Commonwealth nations.

Many years ago when I was in grade-school, we used to hate getting our report cards.  Mostly because they were perceived as a testament to our inadequacies.  More recently, we stopped telling children they needed to improve at anything, so every child is wonderful at everything.  It apparently helps their self-esteem.  We’ll just ignore the fact for now, that the reality of a big, bad world is going to clip these poor kids in the head like a drunk Edward Scissor-Hands at the beauty parlor.

When I progressed on to post-secondary education, I was introduced to the rather Darwinian concept of the grading curve – the quality of your work didn’t matter as much as how it compared to others.  Such methods of evaluation were brutal in their own way.  They were also very instructional.  I got used to the idea early that I was very average at just about everything I did.  It also meant the one or two things (and not many more) I was truly good at, I could leverage to my advantage.

I don’t think kids coming up today will have that same advantage.  They expect to be told they great at everything, which they are not.

Of course, this is already wreaking havoc in the workplace.

Performance Appraisals have become a ridiculous exercise to keep the HR folks off our backs, rather than something that will drive the performance of an organization.  Every employee survey tells us that people want more feedback.  In reality, they want more positive feedback.  Corrective feedback is about as welcome as Ike at the Tina Turner fan club meeting.

Yet, one thing that the few truly great organizations do consistently is provide honest and regular feedback both informally, and in the form of Performance Appraisals.  The one truly great manager I had when I had a real job, was also the guy who was brutal in his assessment of me.  He could have taken the easy way out, and given me a rosy review that would have changed nothing.

It’s a courage that is as rare as steak tartar; but is also the only thing that will drive improved performance.

Performance appraisals don’t have to be a painful, time-wasting exercise done simply to satisfy HR.  We show you how exactly how to conduct a performance appraisal so its more than just a report card, and leads to the behavior changes you want to see in your employees.  Become a member and get instant access.