On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest. (emphasis added)

I am not going to deny that progress is important when it comes to motivation. Any person would become frustrated if they continued to work hard, put in a full effort, and still not make any headway. Unfortunately, when that happens, it isn’t due to anything that the employee has done, it is a fault of the system and processes that the employee operates in.

I think the bigger key is the part highlighted in bold – it isn’t just making the progress that is important, it is that they are receiving the support needed to do so, and most likely, recognition for making progress. An individual can toil away in an organization, making progress but receiving no recognition or benefits from their hard work and success. In my opinion, progress will be motivating if the individual receives some type of gain from the progress, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. Numerous studies have shown the important of giving and receiving simple recognition can improve attitude and performance. Employees want to be recognized for their effort and success. It feels great to know that you have accomplished something; in an organizational setting, it is even better for someone else to notice the progress and hard working you are achieving.

HT: Dan Pink

In double-loop learning, the individual must question the assumptions he is operating under when making decisions.

When studying organizational culture, the change agent must question and discover the assumptions underlying the culture to really understand what is going on.

In order to really learn, to really understand the world around us, we must continually question the assumptions that we operate under. Often they are outdated, incorrect, and just plain wrong. So if that is the case, then how can you make correct decisions, especially those of critical importance? One must understand, question, and validate their operating assumptions when making decisions within the organization. Even the organization as a whole, when looking at its operations and strategy, must question their assumptions concerning the economy and marketplace in order to make a wise decision.

There’s a reason that old saying has become a part of our language.

First, getting a review on how you are doing once a year doesn’t cut it. How are you supposed to improve during the year? How do you know what you are doing wrong if you are only told once a year? Managers too often rely on the annual review to actual work with their subordinates on improvement and what they are doing wrong. It is the incorrect way to approach the situation. A manager should tell their employee immediately if they are doing something wrong, so they can fix it and work on their improvement. And what are the chances the manager is going to remember from the past year all of the bad and good things a person has done? They won’t. Reviewing performance should be a constant thing. Work with the employees to let them know what they are doing wrong, and work with them to fix it. Use the annual review to look at the things that need to be corrected, and what the employee has done to fix them.

Second, performance reviews all too often focus on the negative. I wrote recently about focusing on the positive. I think performance reviews should look at what the employee is good at – what their strengths are, and use those sessions to helping the individual improve those strengths. How many times in a performance review have you been told what you’ve done right, or what you are good at? And how much of the time focused on the positives instead of the negatives? Everyone has strengths. It is up to the manager to discover their subordinates strengths and put them to work. Obviously, you can’t focus just on the positives. If an employee has a behavioral issue, that needs to be dealt with right away. Or if they are lacking a skill needed to do their job effectively – that needs to be addressed through training. But also look at the positives, and what the employee is good at, even if you discover their strengths aren’t suited for their current position. It will improve them – and yourself and your organization – in the long run.

Third, use performance reviews as a session for planning your development. It is in your benefit as a manager, and to the benefit of the employee, if you work together to develop a plan for developing a person and helping them achieve their career goals. Talk about what interests the employee, what their strengths are and what they should focus on, and talk about the additional training necessary to help them reach their goals. Set goals for the upcoming year, and make those goals meaningful. Don’t set worthless goals such as “generate 50 more TPS reports each quarter”. That isn’t improvement. Improvement is personal and focuses on your strengths. Set up a plan of what to focus on the upcoming year.

Poor management and stifling corporate policy gets in the way of making the performance review process useful. Make it a continuous process that focuses on the employees strengths, behavioral modification needs, and planning for their development.

Like city-dwellers who no longer notice the polluted air, we breathe in the atmosphere of grace unawares. As early as preschool and kindergarten we are tested and evaluated before being slotted into an “advanced”, “normal”, or “slow” track. From then on we receive grades denoting performance in math, science, reading, and even “social skills” and “citizenship”. Test papers come back with errors – not correct answers – highlighted. All this helps prepare us for the real world with its relentless ranking, a grown-up version of the playground game “king of the hill”.

Why is it that the focus is always on the wrong, or the bad, or the incorrect? Why not focus on the good? Why not focus on the strengths? I am a big believer in developing your strengths, and working to complement your weaknesses. Yet society forces upon us a mindset that we have to focus on the bad, and not think about the good. Wouldn’t a student feel better about themselves, especially those who are struggling to learn, if the paper came back with the correct answers highlighted? Wouldn’t that change their mindset to work on getting more right answers, and in the process, learning in a positive manner?

The same goes for individuals within organizations, and even for the organization themselves. I have been thinking the last few days about how to write a meaningful post on strengths, and how organizations and individuals should focus on the strengths and emphasize the good. During your last performance review, how much time was spent on what you do well, on your strengths, and how much time was spent talking about your weaknesses and what you did wrong? I am guessing the conversation focused on the negative.

It shouldn’t be this way. Let’s focus on the positives. Let’s look at the good that we do as individuals and organizations. Let’s develop a renewed focus on strengths. The world may try to stick us in pegs based on our weaknesses, but it is critical to fight back and not be put in pegs, or at least if we are lets base it on something positive. Focus on the good, work on your strengths, and let the goodness flow and positive effectiveness develop.

My goal is to post three times a week, depending on my schedule and thought process. Thank you for joining me and I look foward to your comments and thoughts.

Travis