All articles by Nathaniel RottenbergBlog Index

What did you think of your performance this year? Probably the toughest question you’re likely to face during your review. Here’s how you should respond:

• Start by highlighting the areas that you’ve improved since your last performance review. Especially the skills that were previously identified as weaker. Use an example of a successful project you worked on to highlight how you’ve improved those skills. This shows that you’re tracking the areas you need to improve and actively working on them.
• Explain what areas you are still struggling with, and how you’re working to improve. This demonstrates that you are aware of your abilities and actions and that you’re serious about your performance at work. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• Never say there’s nothing that you could improve. It’s like answering the old “What’s your biggest weakness?” question by claiming to be a perfectionist. No one’s buying it — and you’re lying. Even the most talented people have some area that they could improve.
• Finish your response by highlighting a success story. Explain how a project went really well that subtly highlights how your improvements helped it succeed.

A good way to structure all your responses: good, less good, good. You want to finish your performance review on a high note.

Check out tip #1: Be Prepared

Tags: performance review, Performance Review Tip

Performance reviews are a dreaded part of the working life. To help make them a little less stressful, and help you have a more successful performance review, here’s a helpful tip:

Be Prepared: It’s like the saying “Know thy enemy”. Maybe that’s a little dramatic, but you get the idea. Know what you’re facing so you can do everything in your power to ensure a successful outcome.

Here’s how to prepare:

• Ask HR or your manager exactly what the process will be. Knowing how it’s going to go down will help make sure there are no unexpected surprises. Be sure to ask in advance, not the morning of.
• Prepare responses. When your boss asks “So, how did you think you preformed this year?” don’t start stammering and babbling about. Have a solid response and practice saying it out loud. It’s an interview. Even though you don’t know the exact question you’ll face, prepare the message the you want to convey.
• Review what you did over the past year. It’s been a year so you might be hazy on some details. You don’t want your boss to know more about something you spent a lot of time on then you do. Take some time to review your notebook or to do list and check through your email folders. This will also help you remember the challenges you faced, which is great material to highlight in your review.
• Prepare some questions to ask during you performance review: Asking questions is a great way to show that your serious about improving. Ask for some first steps to take to improvement. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification if something is unclear. Here’s a list of questions to ask during your performance review.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s tip.

Tags: Feedback, performance review, performance review tips, Performance Reviews, Rypple

It’s time for a little stereotyping. I’ve noticed something about myself, so I am going to use this observation to describe a whole generation. (A perfect sample size for unbiased and objective results: one).

In the spirit of transparency, here’s how I came to my conclusion:

Hypothesis: Gen Y lacks the motivation and determination to solve problems, because of our dependence on the Internet. (Nice way to say we’re lazy)

By no means do I think we are less intelligent or suffer from some genetic flaw that makes us less capable of solving a problem. I think we’re a little lazy. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. We’re lazy.

Gen Ys: don’t worry! It’s not your fault. I blame Google and the iPhone. Think about it: how many times have you been faced with a question or a problem that you didn’t know the answer to? I’m sure more times than you can possibly count. My generation doesn’t do what people for millenia have done before us, namely stopping at this point to try and figure it out for ourselves. Before a Gen X could even have started down that path, we’ve got iPhones in hand, Google query half-written. All of the questions that can’t be answered with a quick search get dumped in the “it wasn’t really that important” category.

Conclusion: As a result of having grown up with the internet, where answers are found within seconds, our generation has become overly dependent on the Internet to do our thinking for us.

Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” If Descartes was around today he would have said “I Google, therefore I am.”

Tags: descartes, gen y, internet dependency, lazy, stereotyping

In my last post I talked about how leaders lead by example. Here’s a great story of leadership from Geoffery Webb’s post, Take a Stand.

By December 23rd, 1944 entire US Divisions were still retreating as the German Army continued to advance through the Ardennes Forest in a last-ditch effort to win World War II. On that frigid morning 65 years ago, a sergeant in a retreating tank destroyer spotted a bedraggled paratrooper chipping a foxhole out of the frozen ground.

The unshaven soldier looked up as the vehicle approached and yelled, “Are you looking for a safe place?”

“Yeah,” answered the tanker.

“Well, buddy, just pull your tank behind me,” he replied, “I’m the 82nd Airborne and this is as far as the bastards are going.”

Check out Geoffrey’s blog, Leading on Purpose for more great stories on leadership.

Tags: Leadership, Leading by example

Recently we’ve shared some tips on how to become an effective leader. An important aspect of leadership is knowing how not to act. Here are some great tips from Are You Committing Leadership Malpractice?:

Overloading the star performer. Stars make it look easy. So easy, that it’s tempting to keep on throwing balls in their direction, assuming that they will push back when they have too many in the air. Problem is, many times, overachievers don’t know their limits.

It’s natural to want your best people on your most important projects. But you have to remember that everyone has their limits. Overload your stars and they’ll burn out. Being an effective manager is knowing which projects are crucial. Prioritizing your projects will help you assign you star performers and ensure you don’t overload them.

Refusing to address performance issues. It’s a fact that some people are better at their jobs than others. If one of your people is struggling, something is wrong. And, if you know it, so do they.

Talk to your people! Sit down with them for fifteen minutes and ask them how they’re doing. “How are you as an individual (not an employee) doing?” Then highlight some projects where they did a great job, and some areas they can improve.

As we saw in Beth Steinberg’s recent series, Greatness Through Culture, this will help develop stronger relationships between managers and direct reports, an important step in creating a culture of accountability and responsibility.

It’s business, it always comes down to the bottom line. But remember, firing and then hiring someone new is expensive. Helping your people succeed, helps your business.

Always remember:

A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.” – John Q Adams

Tags: accountability, beth steinberg, lead by example, leader, Leadership, leads, responsibility

What do all those generic performance review phrases really mean? Probably one of life’s more important questions to answer. Courtesy of Blog Tactic, HR language translated into plain old Queen’s English:

HR: Active Socially translate English: Drinks A lot

HR: Independent Worker translate English: Nobody knows what he/she does

HR: Has Leadership Qualities translate English: Is tall or has louder voice

Read the rest of the translations in What yearly performance reviews words really mean

Tags: HR, Performance Reviews, Queen's English

Come join us for a discussion on the role of social media in the enterprise, focused on the transformative nature of technology. Is social media a savior or a sinner? Will it radically reshape the organization of the future? Is it more signal or noise?

Where?
Rypple HQ
20 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 1900

When?
Feb 4th, 2010
2pm – 4pm

There’s only space for 25 people so hurry up and sign up!

Earlier I wrote about being a bold leader. Here’s a collection of 5 great articles and posts on leadership:

• Eight Leadership Lessons From Martin Luther King, Jr. is great post by Michael Hyatt. Michael breaks down MLK’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech into 8 qualities a leader must have. Not only does this post teach you something about leadership, it also has a video of the speech.
• The Time 100: Leaders and Revolutionaries, is a look at 20 leaders that had a huge impact in the last century.
• Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln: Great insight regardless of whether you’re a manager, CEO, or the leader of a country.
• Leadership Lessons from Google: a review of the book Googled and a look at the appointment of Eric Schmidt to CEO.
• Now for something completely different. Leadership Lessons from Brett Favre: great lessons from football applicable to business. My favorite: throw a block down field

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women.

Groucho Marx

Tags: leader, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Lessons

Boldness may not always have genius, power and magic in it — but passivity never does. – Diane Buckner

Leadership is making a decision and acting. If you don’t act, you’ll never succeed. As a leader you must inspire, guide, and act boldly.

Here’s some tips from CIO on how to be a bold leader.

Fight for your vision

You’ve done your research, and you have a great business model for you idea. Fight for it! Your drive will rub off on the the people you work with making them stronger too.

Pick your battles

The best fighters know when to hang back and wait for the opportunity to strike. It’s the same in business or life. As a leader, not everything will go your way. Accept the things that you can live with or without, fight for what you believe is crucial to success. Fight when you can win.

Read the rest of 8 tips for Bold Leadership

What leadership tips do you have?

Tags: being a leader, bold, boldness, CIO, Diane Buckner, Leaders, Leadership

Conflict between a manager and an employee will affect the bottom line. According to How to silence 7 common employees gripes, an article on HR Specialist:

A Gallup poll says organizations are 50% less productive—and 44% less profitable— when serious boss-employee conflicts exist.

Managers, here’s a book for you: 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers. It outlines common employee complaints about management, and offers solutions.

Here’s a complaint and a solution we weren’t surprised by:

“My performance reviews are useless.”

• Provide continuous feedback. Nothing in the review should come as a surprise.
• Involve employees in setting goals, and adapt a development mind-set.
• Focus on specific employee behaviors (and cite documented examples). Don’t criticize the person’s character traits.
• Conduct reviews on time.

As a manager, what complaints do you face most often? What do you complain about most often?

Tags: execution, HR Specialist, management, performance, Performance Reviews, Rypple