Make it go both ways. Culbert’s overriding problem with standard assessments is that they are written entirely from the boss’s point of view. The boss, or HR, or top management—or all of them in concert—have established performance standards for each job, and each person who holds a position in the organization is assessed at least once or twice a year on how well the boss thinks he or she has performed against the predetermined objectives in the job description.

Here’s a sample quote from Culbert, regarding bosses’ views of coaching and improving the performance of their subordinates: “You don’t tell someone to change something, and, presto, it’s corrected.” (And we have to agree with him here: It’s allegedly very simple to pinpoint an employee’s shortcomings and simply tell him or her to straighten up and fly right.) “How can you give someone advice they can trust,” Culbert continues, “when you don’t understand how they see situations and why? How can you give someone prescriptions for development when you don’t understand how they learn? You can’t.”

To achieve the best results for the organization, here’s what Culbert recommends that all managers and supervisors do:

1. Help subordinates see that the boss understands their perspective. Too many managers, helped along by rigid performance review processes, typically frame situations based on their own perspectives and interests.
2. Show subordinates that change is important for the organization. Too many employees are in the dark about how their jobs connect with corporate goals.
3. Be willing to make exceptions to the rules; Culbert says managers must do so because people are so different. Making exceptions reinforces the idea that the manager really can see situations through employees’ eyes.
4. Show subordinates how their making a behavior change can made a difference for their own future.
5. Consider subordinates’ entire lives, knowing that doing well in their lives is more important to them than doing well at work. Many employees are also caregivers or have other big responsibilities outside of the workplace.
6. In giving feedback, be specific and avoid generalizations.
7. Don’t compare employees with one another when giving feedback. Each team member is an individual with a different role.
8. Precede your statements and opinions with phrases like, “I feel that,” or “It seems to me that.” This avoids win-lose, right-wrong attitudes.
9. Add feedback about subordinates that doesn’t have anything to do with their work or the organization, but shows what you know about them as people. Don’t write down this feedback or include it in their personnel files, and share it only with them, one-on-one.

What are performance previews? Culbert accuses the typical performance review of idealizing a set of qualities that the perfect employee will have and putting them on a checklist. Instead, he urges managers and subordinates to develop empathy with one another, so that each knows why the other does things a particular way.

In their first preview together, a manager and subordinate get to know each other by taking turns asking such questions as, “What do you like to get in the way of supervision that helps you operate effectively?” and “What do you like to get from a subordinate that allows you to provide the level of oversight you need?” Both are encouraged to give examples to illustrate their answers, and neither should comment on the other’s answers.

The periodic preview is essentially a larger form of the group exercise that asks, (a) what are we doing that’s valuable so that we should continue it, (b) what are we not doing that we should start doing, and (c) what are we doing that’s not useful and should be stopped? The manager repeatedly asks the subordinate what the manager is doing that’s helpful and supportive, what he or she is doing that’s impeding the employee’s effectiveness, and what the employee needs that the manager is not providing. Only when there’s mutual trust can the team achieve what’s best for the organization. See Culbert’s book for more guidance.

This article is provided to members of the Northeast Human Resources Association
as a member benefit, compliments of Business and Legal Resources, Inc.