Ensuring Employee Success
"What do you mean my rating was 'Does not meet expectations’?"
“What do you mean my rating was 'Does not meet expectations’? I have been receiving excellent reviews for several years now.” It was clear the employee didn’t understand why I had given him the performance rating of which I had just informed him and why the rating was so drastically different than ratings he had enjoyed in previous years from other managers.
As I reviewed the specific categories of evaluation and the standards by which his performance had been measured, it was clear the employee was perplexed and was becoming increasingly distraught. My heart sank as I came to terms with the reality that this meeting was going to be far from a typical annual performance review. It was rather an annual review that, in some ways, was a reset of the reviews he had received in the past.
Fast forward a few months to what I could have predicted at the time of the performance review meeting. The employee eventually left the company, a time-consuming, costly and, most regrettably, avoidable loss for both the employee and the company.
The company and employee could have been better served by deploying four time-tested approaches to employee success that balance an organization's need to achieve its goals and purposes with an employee's need to fulfill their God-given potential.
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Help employees connect their day-to-day work to your organizations’ mission.
We all need to be part of something bigger than we are.
We all need to be part of something bigger than we are. It is invigorating to play a role in the success of an initiative, project, organization, etc., in whose mission you believe. Help your employees see the linkage between their role and the overall mission of the organization. Clarify the ways in which your department/area of responsibility supports the overall strategy of the organization. Tying their work to the broader context of your organization fosters a sense of purpose that engages employees.
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Set clear employee expectations.
Set employees up for success by letting them know exactly what is expected of them. Let them know what measurable goals they are expected to achieve in a given performance year. Communicate the manner in which those goals are to be achieved. In addition to the quantitative, measurable aspects of their roles, the “What,” employees also need to know the “How” of what they are expected to achieve.
It shouldn’t be lost that clear expectations help to inform an organization’s culture. Most organizations have a set of expressed values that serve as a counterbalance to achieving stellar quantitative results to the exclusion of all else and, thus, set the tone for culture. The behaviors that are reinforced on the one hand and tolerated on the other do more to express an organization’s true values and, therefore, define a culture than any well-articulated slogans ever could.
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Reinforce these employee expectations with frequent, honest feedback.
Once employees know the quantitative and qualitative aspects of their expectations, continue to support employees with timely feedback. Have a conversation with the employee as close as possible to the moment you observe any behavior you want to reinforce and/or correct.
Feedback is much more meaningful when delivered before memories fade and other priorities interfere. Getting into a cadence of timely feedback normalizes the process of real-time development, gives employees an opportunity to accelerate their growth, and fosters true partnership in achieving employee success.
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Honor the individual God created them to be.
Take note of that to which your employees are naturally inclined and, to the greatest extent possible, align their responsibilities to their natural wiring. We all have innate gifts, talents, and personality traits in which we operate more efficiently and effectively than when we are operating outside those gifts.
In addition to what you observe about your employees, there are a variety of helpful tools, processes, and programs. For example, interns here at Dallas Theological Seminary have an opportunity to participate in a full-day Giftedness workshop administered through the Hendricks Center to help them gain more clarity on their areas of giftedness and motivation.
Collaborate with your employees to understand their career goals and aspirations. Support the pursuit of their own development and, yes, even encourage them to seek promotions, stretch assignments, and projects outside your area of responsibility. You will reap a harvest of the investment you have sown in your employees as other talented individuals seek out an opportunity to work with you.
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Karen D. McDonald is Board Chair of the American Bible Society and Executive Director of Employee Success at Dallas Theological Seminary. Karen is an expert in organizational development and transformation and a certified executive coach. She holds a B.S.I.E from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She is also a member of Christian Leadership Alliance’s national Advisory Council. Contact Karen at kmcdonald@dts.edu.
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