Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
We had just done our
first employee commitment survey, and one of the key pieces of
feedback that we got was that virtually everyone in the organization felt like
we didn't do a very good job of managing people performance. High performers felt like
they were being differentiated from poor performers and people felt like we weren't
helping to develop or coach or improve the performance of poor performers and it was just
pretty much universal, across the board. We were going through revelations.
We were like, wow, it has nothing to do with the year end performance
appraisal. It's something that we should be doing every single day. And in
retrospect, it's pretty odd to think that we couldn't grasp that concept without
a little bit of help. So we quickly moved from the notion of, it's all about the
performance appraisal, and if we can only give candidate feedback, life would be better, to
the notion of we need to build a system. And really, for the last thirteen
years, certainly the visions that I'm responsible for, it's been an ongoing process
of trying to build a system that ensures that people are getting performance
feedback all the time. And that's the key starting point to
probably the transformation in our organization.
We've consistently, since the year 2000, run employee commitment surveys,
and what we started to see, very clearly, was an incredible
correlation between those areas
that were well ahead of other areas as it relates in the behavioral
technology that ADI brings to the table. And the correlation between that level of commitment
to the science and levels of engagement.
So, it's always good to begin with your people
because if you've got a problem, it's probably
somehow, some way, and in some shape or form, related to the performance of the people in
your organization. But the biggest piece of advice I can give to any sort of executive level folks
that are looking to go down this road is, it's a long road, and you've got to be committed
to taking it all the way. When I talk about performance management in our organization,
I talk about it as a way. It's not a thing, it's not
like a fad. It's not something we're going to try. It's a way. It's a way
that we will operate. It's a set of expectations we will
put on anyone responsible for other people in the organization, and if you don't
see it as a way, an element of how the culture will
be managed on a go forward basis, you're never going to get there.
I can't imagine if there was an avenue by which
you could create an environment where the people you were responsible for were happier,
why wouldn't you embrace it? Why wouldn't you adopt it, and why wouldn't
you implement it. Because, with all else being equal, it feels a lot better,
sort of personally, to know that you have been able to influence people
in such a positive way over the years. You know, it's
probably the thing I'm most proud of in my career. And that all started
probably in 2000 at that first two day conference
But it feels awfully good for people to
look to you as someone who has
actually cares about who they are and what they do
and, when people look to you and know that, when I do a good job, he knows it.