Check out the first section of this post here.

ANNUAL REVIEWS

• Annual Focal Reviews typically do not work.  There a lot of data to back this up. Instead of an annual or bi-annual event, feedback and discussing performance needs to happen with a regular cadence.  There are a lot of ways to do this that make feedback a part of the fabric of the company instead of an annual conversation. During your 1:1 meetings with your team, there should be open dialogue and reciprocal feedback.  Systems are way over engineered in this area.  It is all about the conversation.

ANNUAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS

In Daniel Pink’s book Drive, he discuss three key motivators; mastery, autonomy and purpose.  Mastery is a key driver for most high performing employees.  It is not effective to discuss development with a high performing only once per year.  Challenging work, learning and growing is essential to high performing employees.  Frequent feedback, support for learning and giving challenging work is essential in leading high performing employees.  Most development plans I have seen are in notebooks or files.  They are not referenced more than twice a year.  This tends to be a very empty process for employees.  Think about capitalizing on people’s strengths and open feedback.  This will get you much better results than a development plan sitting in a drawer.

ANNUAL COMP REVIEWS & ANNUAL RECOGNITION AWARDS

Rewards and Recognition should not be an annual process.  Proactively rewarding people for their accomplishments is an essential tool to make sure people feel valued.  Whether recognition is monetary of a simple thank you, it should be a part of how you lead.  If someone does a great job, they should know it and know the company recognizes it and appreciates it.

It is more effective to have these processes be a part of how you lead.  It will take up less time overall and be much more impactful to you and your team.   Leaders have the biggest impact on their team.  As Google’s Project Oxygen found, it is not about over engineering systems.  People want to have a great boss, get feedback, and feel valued.  Challenge yourself and the leaders that report to you to examine their leadership style, gather feedback and make adjustments.  A positive impact on the culture will positively impact the business results.