We mostly hear how hard it is to give negative feedback and fire people. I have been wondering about this. Yes giving negative feedback is hard and firing people is harder. However come to think of it, actually this is a easiest thing. We are all critical of others and so giving negative feedback comes naturally. We more often than not, find it easier to find mistakes rather than appreciate what's going on well. And if a subordinate isn't working out, firing is an easy way out. The work pressures are high and we can't afford a non-performer on the team, right. Actually, that is the easy way out. What's really hard is to make the non-performers succeed. That is the true challenge of leadership.
Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts
I recently read this in one of the blogs that I follow (which unfortunately I can’t remember, apologies).
Great work is not recognized by managers, exceptional work is. Great work is expected from you anyway.
This is so true. I have heard many people complain that they got no recognition for the work they did. In some cases they said they got no recognition for the great work they did.
So how can we do exceptional work that will be noticed and recognized? Well, to start with stop focusing on getting recognition and start focusing on doing an exceptional job. So many of us spend hours worrying about not being recognized for our great work. I suggest we start worrying about doing an exceptional job. Recognition WILL follow. Exceptional work never goes unnoticed and consistent exceptional work is ALWAYS recognized. True, there may be projects where you felt you did an exceptional job but didn’t get recognized for it. However if you spend time worrying about it, you will take your focus off the next project and end up doing, well, a great job but not an exceptional job. So stay focused and don’t let small disappointments come in your way of doing an exceptional job all the time.
Photo by: bowbrick / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I am starting a case study series. I present a case and hope that we can learn from each other’s responses.
Sanjay walked into Priya office agitated. Without waiting for Priya to get off the phone completely he started,
“Boss, Nitin hasn’t come to office again today, and he is not taking any calls either. How can I complete the project like this?”
Priya tried to calm him down. “Slow down. What happened?”
“You know how Nitin is. He wasn’t in office most of last week and today again he hasn’t turned up. He promised he would come in today. And what’s worst he isn’t picking up his phone either.”
“What happened last week?” Priya asked, again trying to calm Sanjay down.
“He said he was unwell or something. I mean he is so unreliable. I just can’t plan any tasks with him. He is always unwell.”
“But he is good at what he does isn’t it” Priya said. “I mean the customers love him, he is able to convince them so easily. And he can handle tough customers too you know.”
“Ya I know but he can do that IF and WHEN is around. What use are his skills if he is so unreliable. I just can’t deal with him anymore.” Sanjay continued to be agitated.
“So how will we complete this project? You know he is a critical person on this project. He’s been on the project since the beginning. The client also insists that Nitin stays on the project, you know how it is.” Priya tried to reason with Sanjay.
“All that is fine but that doesn’t mean that we will continue to be blackmailed by his behaviour. I mean we have a deliverable today. The whole team worked so hard over the weekend and now he just isn’t to be found. Not even the courtesy to call and let us know.” Sanjay said unrelenting.
Nitin is very skilled. When given a task, he completes it with ease and to utmost client satisfaction. However he is unreliable with his availability to the team and meeting internal deadlines. He is also not contactable at times without any notice. What do you think Sanjay, a project manager, should do to work better with Nitin? Priya is Sanjay and Nitin’s supervisor. She knows that Nitin can be a key contributor to the team’s success. She has spoken with Nitin in the past about his unreliability. What should Priya do now?
Is there a correlation between academic results and workplace performance? Any research or pointers to this subject?
I am faced with a situation to try and solve the talent acquisition challenge for large IT organizations in India. One of the challenges is that for hiring fresh graduates, large IT organization work with a certain cut off marks (60%) in graduation. However I believe that this cut off is hampering their ability to tap into a large pool of talent who might do the job equally well. I would interested in hearing views on this subject and get pointers any research that might exist that compares academic results with workplace performance.
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