Who Says Talk
Is Cheap Managers who are trying to get the most out of their employees, may find that talk isn’t cheap — it’s priceless! In this case, the “talk” is feedback, a management tool that is woefully under-utilized, according to Robert E. Lefton, Ph.D., and Victor R. Buzzotta, Ph.D., co-founders of a St. Louis consulting firm. Without adequate feedback, employees are lost in a vacuum, uncertain about what the organization wants them to accomplish and incapable of improving their own performance or helping the company drive towards its business objectives. A recent survey by Psychological Associates corroborates earlier findings of a 15-year study conducted by the company suggesting that timely feedback from managers may be the linchpin that holds together an organization’s entire performance management system. In the past, such “systems” actually consisted of a solitary event known as the dreaded “year-end review,” an annual postmortem that produced anxiety on both sides of the table. Employees wriggled in quiet frustration, ready to confront any unexpected criticism. Uneasy managers, on guard for behavior that might vary from submissive to hostile, found that suggestions intended to be helpful could also offend or demoralize the worker. Now, in more enlightened organizations, the ideal performance management system is a year-round cycle that includes a performance evaluation, individual goal-setting, and periodic progress reviews. Informal, day-to-day feedback is also used to keep performance on track. The objective is to raise an employee’s level of performance before the next cycle begins, thus eliminating any unpleasant, year-end surprises. But results are often disappointing. “Performance management systems are like simple electrical circuits,” says Lefton. “When a breakdown occurs anywhere along the line, the whole circuit becomes inoperative.” According to the study, more often than not, that circuit is disconnected by managers who offer little correction or guidance throughout the year. The 1998 survey asked 165 executives to evaluate the effectiveness of their last performance appraisal cycle by rating eight key factors of performance management. Similar studies were completed by the firm in 1983 and 1986. While various problems exist throughout the cycle, the study indicates that breakdowns may occur most frequently after the goal-setting phase, when employees look to their bosses for direction during periodic progress reviews. These important follow-up meetings help to verify that the worker is on schedule with regard to performance goals. Without this “course-correcting” feedback, employees have no reliable way of knowing how well they are doing or how they could do better. Improved per-formance under such circumstances is unlikely. “We find that workers are extremely committed to their performance goals,” adds Buzzotta, “but they don’t get enough feedback to move forward.” Survey results confirm that organizations have made little progress improving their progress reviews. With a 72 percent negative rating in 1998, progress reviews maintained their position near the bottom of the rankings, a spot they’ve held consistently in identical surveys conducted over the past 15 years. Not all the news is bad. An overwhelming majority — 76 percent of the executives polled in 1998 — say they are willing to work hard to achieve the goals spelled out during their last formal performance review. In the two prior surveys, “commitment to goals” was also rated higher than any other factor and the only element of the per-formance cycle to receive a majority of positive responses in all three surveys. There are other bright spots in the 1998 survey, too. The number of employees who feel positive about their last appraisal meeting has doubled since 1986, from 19 percent to 45 percent. Likewise, managers are doing a better job of defining goals. Satisfaction with their managers’ explicitness or the “clarity of goals” has increased twofold, jumping from 25 percent in 1986 to 52 percent. Nevertheless, despite the apparent improvement, the numbers also confirm that nearly half the executives polled remain dissatisfied with their managers’ proficiency in these areas. Clearly, however, employee willingness to pursue agreed-upon goals is being undermined most by the lack of timely, constructive feedback. “It’s ironic that in the sophisticated information age, so many people lack the simple information they need to do a better job,” notes Buzzotta. “But this is consistent with other data we’ve collected over the years.” Two additional studies conducted by the company, using entirely different methodologies, underscore the feedback problem. Participants in monthly leadership seminars are routinely surveyed by the company to determine how they rate their managers on nine key areas deemed critical to good leadership. Feedback-related skills have finished second-to-last for four years running. When asked about specific performance management practices, those polled registered their greatest dissatisfaction with progress reviews. Psychological Associates also administers a multi-rater evaluation of executive performance by collecting data from the executive’s peers, direct reports, and supervisors. After tallying the scores of 208 managers who have participated in such evaluations, the consultants determined that use of “coaching and feedback” was ranked by coworkers as the most ineffective of 12 specific executive skills. The current survey points to a number of other performance management issues in need of improvement. One out of two executives indicated they were unhappy with the manner in which goals were set. Two out of three were dissatisfied with “the payoff” from appraisals; that is, the benefits produced for the employee, the manager, and the company. Respondents were most disappointed with preparation efforts made prior to appraisal meetings. Ideally, performance data should be collected throughout the year, and a manager should help the employee anticipate the topics to be discussed, so that both are prepared when the meeting begins. Three out of four employees disapproved of their managers’ performance in this area, the lowest rating of any perform-ance management element assessed in the survey. “There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Lefton concluded, “but any manager can make a difference starting tomorrow by using feedback more often and practicing good feedback technique.” Lefton went on to say that feedback is important because it can teach, motivate, generate ideas, enhance performance, and support business goals. All that, for just the price of a little conversation. |
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