Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others

Your First Leadership Job

Mastery and Leadership Skills18Performance ManagementAn Ongoing Cycle, Not an Event

Pre:Think

Consider the following two questions. First: Do you want your boss to tell you how you're doing at work? And second: Do you enjoy doing performance appraisals? If you're like most people we've surveyed, the first answer is a resounding yes, and the second is an emphatic no. This is the paradox of performance management.

Beating the System

The simplest way to explain what good performance management should do is to help people—managers and individual contributors alike—understand how they're meeting their job's objectives and growing as professionals. And if you hover over its strategic purpose, performance management enables your company to execute on its business strategy by creating alignment of priorities up and down the organization and accountability toward these goals. So, if your company is like most, there's probably some sort of performance management system in place that you'll be asked to use. These systems are often computer based and provide consolidated reporting to senior management. You might need to use specific forms. The information you gather—the goals set, milestones achieved, and the like—is often used to generate a number or other rating that the company uses to evaluate each employee. The entire process can feel stressful and awkward ...