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Employee Development 101

Tuesday June 29, 2010 1pm Pacific

As a new manager, I never really worried if any of my employees liked me, I knew there were far more important things for me to focus my attention on, employee development or Performance Management being one of them.

As I started to work more with my direct supervisors, I noticed how much they seemed to work at avoiding conflict at any cost. This meant they didn’t really communicate candidly about the employee’s performance because it wasn’t always “comfortable” to do so. After all, how do you tell someone they aren’t meeting the standard, especially when they are a

really nice person? It’s not easy but strong supervisors and managers know one thing: Don’t put your own comfort above the employee’s development – EVER.

Doing so means you are focusing on yourself, not the employee. It only serves the supervisor or manager and is a short term fix at the cost of the employee’s long term development. One of the worse stories I heard from a manager I worked with several years ago still comes to mind whenever I think of this topic.

The manager knew this employee was not qualified but instead of giving the employee the feedback they needed and working with them, she continued to write the generic reviews with plenty of “does a good job” sprinkled in here and there.

Many years went by and the employee believed they were doing an OK job. Well, things got tight like they always do in business, and the manager needed to reduce her staff. This employee was let go. He had no warning signs and because he had been doing the same job the same way (badly) for more than 10 years, he had not developed much over the years.

 It went through me like a knife when I learned he had been laid off knowing what I had known about his performance. He pitched a fit when he was told as you could expect, people tend to do that when they aren’t treated like they are worthwhile. All I could think when I heard he had been let go was “How in the heck is he going to get a job?” He’s not marketable in today’s economy.

This one story is what I focus on when I feel tempted to ignore feeding performance issue back because they aren’t always willingly received or appreciated. It helps me remember that my job as a manager is to help people develop so that if they are ever laid off, they know exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are and they have been working on them.

If you look at the big picture and how we as leaders shape our employee’s future employment, it’s a lot easier to tell them what they need to know, instead of what you’re comfortable with.

Just my thoughts.

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