It’s about us not everyone else!

Even worse, some co-workers who had figured out the system in the past would not share information, believing that if they figured it out, so could you. I was never sure if this was hazing, or if it was an effort to stay above others on the regular rankings that were part of the performance evaluation process. Of course, one of the company’s core values was “making others great.”

There was also vagueness about cross-team interaction, even when roles and responsibilities were agreed to at the start of a project. Often, I found myself having to go way outside my own scope in order to drive my projects to completion.

Needless to say, it was not a culture that created a great deal of trust. That’s part of the reason I don’t work there anymore. Their loss, not mine.

The process of creating such murals is called Graphic Recording– it’s amazing to watch and a privilege to practice. More info is available on my website, http://www.visual-logic.net

Thanks again!

Thanks.

Another issue which comes to mind is the habit of some employees to refrain from saying anything which indicates disagreement with the goals or how to go about approaching them. Many employees will accept a virtually impossible project without ever pointing out the issues which stand in the way of achieving success. There is obviously a communication problem, and this may require an in-depth discussion of the expectations and likelihood of meeting them.

Maybe the times require a different kind of leadership than we had in the past – strong person imposing his/her will on the world – and more a collaborative, thoughtful individual who leads by insight and persuasion. I lean toward the latter style as the best style for a complex, interactive world.

This is such a great place.
And it is not like other money orientating site, the message here is super important.

I am definitely bookmarking it as well as sharing it with my friends.

Thanks for pointing this out. While I was writing the post, I was working on the presumption that the request is “reasonable” and therefore the probability of the employee successfully completing the task is very good. Thank you for reminding me that I should not make assumptions like this when writing a post.

You also raise a great point regarding the existence of external factors that could be impacting the employee’s ability deliver. This is why a climate of open communication is so important because the employee needs to feel safe to share any issues that might be impacting their ability to succeed. I have seen family and health issues impact delivery rather significantly.

Thank you very much for your comment and providing this additional insight.

Gavin

Re: your last post (life or death), while I agree on you first case, I am not sure I agree on the second one-

If a trainer asks a trainee to do 100 pushups in one minute, and the trainee fails to do it, clearly the trainee does not have the skills to do the task, but was the request feasible? Have other trainees of similar size and fitness done it? Just one exceptional individual or several others? Is the trainer able to do it, so he/she expects others to do it as well? is that reasonable for the level of skills/experience/age/…?

So the manager confronted with a great employee not delivering needs to evaluate a variety of facets:
• current vs past performance and performance vs peers, but also
• goal’s increased difficulty at current time vs at the time assigned, and
• other hitherto unknown issues affecting the results of an appropriately skilled employee.

So going back to your bullets:
• if they are able to deliver the results: – then there is a motivation issue
• if they are still not able to deliver the results, then:
• the employee lacks some skills, or
• the employee has the skills, but
• he/she is impeded by factors I am not aware, or
• the difficulty of the task was incorrectly assessed or
• the difficulty of the task has increased and I did not realize it

I agree it is critical to provide a safe environment were the employee can share the increased challenges he/she is facing, so the manager can provide more directions and/or help removing the factors impeding the employee’s performance.

Often we have limited ability to change goals once established, but we can help employees achieve them but keeping them motivated and helping them overcome the unforeseen problems that might have made the goals more challenging than intended.

Gabriele
love all your pics by the way, and most of all love the seagull analogy…