March 2007
Spring is in the air and here in Tennessee the daffodils are blooming and we are getting ready for the most beautiful time of the year. Many of us are anxiously waiting to see where our favorite college basketball team is going for the first round of the NCAA men and women's tournament. And it is at this time that I see the comparison between coaching a sports team and coaching employees.
For many companies this is also a time for annual performance development discussions. Individuals find out whether or not their performance is "final four" caliber or not. This is often a time of stress because for the unfortunate few, their manager or coach does not regularly discuss these issues. However a good team leader I work builds performance development into his or her best practices and the annual performance appraisal process is merely a recap of the many discussions that have taken place over the course of the year.
A participant in a workshop recently said that discussing her performance with her manager was one of the most "personal" things she does. And I agree. Almost everyone believes that he or she is doing his or her best and it's hard to hear otherwise. Therefore it's important to realize that each of us has our own strengths and improvement areas. However we often become defensive when others point out these issues. It's important to provide an environment fosters openness. This includes an interruption-free meeting space, one in which the employee is encouraged to participate in the discussion, and one in which the manager is open to listening to the employee's opinions.
Both employee and manager should be prepared to discuss positive as well as negative aspects of performance and should also create a solid action plan for the successful resolution to problem areas. I have found that often the employee has more items in the improvement category than I have and I sometimes dismiss these items as trivial, but that is a mistake. If it's important to the employee than it should also be equally important to the manager.
Lastly the manager should regularly follow-up with the employee to ensure he or she is working toward a positive outcome. It is only human nature to work on those things that seem to be important to the manager. If the manager ignores any goals set during the performance discussion, then the employee quite naturally may think that they are not important and use his or her time to complete those tasks and objectives that the manager does follow-up on. Remember to think of yourself as a coach and you job is to help your team become the best individual contributor possible, so that your entire team can succeed.
For many companies this is also a time for annual performance development discussions. Individuals find out whether or not their performance is "final four" caliber or not. This is often a time of stress because for the unfortunate few, their manager or coach does not regularly discuss these issues. However a good team leader I work builds performance development into his or her best practices and the annual performance appraisal process is merely a recap of the many discussions that have taken place over the course of the year.
A participant in a workshop recently said that discussing her performance with her manager was one of the most "personal" things she does. And I agree. Almost everyone believes that he or she is doing his or her best and it's hard to hear otherwise. Therefore it's important to realize that each of us has our own strengths and improvement areas. However we often become defensive when others point out these issues. It's important to provide an environment fosters openness. This includes an interruption-free meeting space, one in which the employee is encouraged to participate in the discussion, and one in which the manager is open to listening to the employee's opinions.
Both employee and manager should be prepared to discuss positive as well as negative aspects of performance and should also create a solid action plan for the successful resolution to problem areas. I have found that often the employee has more items in the improvement category than I have and I sometimes dismiss these items as trivial, but that is a mistake. If it's important to the employee than it should also be equally important to the manager.
Lastly the manager should regularly follow-up with the employee to ensure he or she is working toward a positive outcome. It is only human nature to work on those things that seem to be important to the manager. If the manager ignores any goals set during the performance discussion, then the employee quite naturally may think that they are not important and use his or her time to complete those tasks and objectives that the manager does follow-up on. Remember to think of yourself as a coach and you job is to help your team become the best individual contributor possible, so that your entire team can succeed.
January 2007
In Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech he started out by stating that one hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation Negros still were not free. His exact words included: “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
I realize that Blacks of today still fight institutional racism and individual bias on a regular basis. However it’s important to recognize that many individual Americans made conscious decisions to live their lives differently as result of their experiences and the aquaintences they made because of the Civil Rights movement. In 1963 I was eight years old. My parents were both teachers. My mother went to West Vigirgia State, a Negro college, my father received his college degree courtesy of the G.I. Bill. Both let me know on a regular basis that I could be anything I wanted to be. I believed Dr. King when he said that the “Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.”
If this was not the case, Condoleeza Rice may never have made it to a leadership position at Stanford University, Peyton T. Hairston, Jr. would not be a member of the TVA Board of Directors, and I would not have had the opportunity to start my own business.
In each of these cases, it took the courage and self confidence of the individual as well as the encouragement of other Blacks as well as Whites. I had the benefit of many positive Black role models which provided me the freedom to believe that little children could live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and that little children could live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
My husband, who recently passed away, was one of those people. To look at him, you would have belived that he was just another Southern white man who either resented Blacks or simply felt superior. However, he too believed the dream. He judged people soley by their willingness to be honest, to work hard. Fortunately for me Buddy worried little about the opinions of others and followed his intuition. When asked by others about how we were treated, he would say, “It’s all in how you carry yourself.” And we carried ourselves as the proud and loving couple that we were and we never encountered any public resistence.
I am not denying that there are still problems between the races. But today as we remember my late husband, I think its imperative to acknowledge individuals who .also believed in the dreams of Dr. King.
I realize that Blacks of today still fight institutional racism and individual bias on a regular basis. However it’s important to recognize that many individual Americans made conscious decisions to live their lives differently as result of their experiences and the aquaintences they made because of the Civil Rights movement. In 1963 I was eight years old. My parents were both teachers. My mother went to West Vigirgia State, a Negro college, my father received his college degree courtesy of the G.I. Bill. Both let me know on a regular basis that I could be anything I wanted to be. I believed Dr. King when he said that the “Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.”
If this was not the case, Condoleeza Rice may never have made it to a leadership position at Stanford University, Peyton T. Hairston, Jr. would not be a member of the TVA Board of Directors, and I would not have had the opportunity to start my own business.
In each of these cases, it took the courage and self confidence of the individual as well as the encouragement of other Blacks as well as Whites. I had the benefit of many positive Black role models which provided me the freedom to believe that little children could live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and that little children could live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
My husband, who recently passed away, was one of those people. To look at him, you would have belived that he was just another Southern white man who either resented Blacks or simply felt superior. However, he too believed the dream. He judged people soley by their willingness to be honest, to work hard. Fortunately for me Buddy worried little about the opinions of others and followed his intuition. When asked by others about how we were treated, he would say, “It’s all in how you carry yourself.” And we carried ourselves as the proud and loving couple that we were and we never encountered any public resistence.
I am not denying that there are still problems between the races. But today as we remember my late husband, I think its imperative to acknowledge individuals who .also believed in the dreams of Dr. King.
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