Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

What to do with the annual Performance Review?

Performance review can be productive and even looked forward to.  The problem is that many do them poorly.

From the person-being-reviewed's perspective, it's a meaning exercise where the emphasis is on form, not process.  They are always late and supervisors just want to get through them.  There are always one or two negative areas and little about anything else.  It's never a two-way conversation and the basis of measurement is unclear.  Many bosses seem to have no real understanding of what the person-being-reviewed does every day.  And the subject of the review only wants to get to the money part of the discussion.

Even the best supervisor/employee relationships can get sticky when it comes to compensation.  This is especially true when a tight financial pool must be distributed among several highly deserving team members.

The Performance Review--a necessary evil?

The annual employee performance review can seem to be more important than it should be. Many employees consider their annual evaluation a necessary requirement for getting a pay raise. Employers often use the yearly employee review to determine promotions, justify raises and establish performance goals for the year. Unfortunately, the once a year performance review is often structured to give an employer all the power and put the employee on the defensive.

Many people say that their company's performance evaluation system is not particularly helpful in improving job performance or furthering organizational goals.  Annual performance reviews are often ignored by the recipient or used as the basis for argument, contention and controversy.  Managers see annual reviews as a necessary evil that takes time to complete and present to the employee--without resulting in significant changes or improvements.

Many HR professionals say they're frustrated that managers don't have the courage to give constructive feedback to employees, says David Insler, a senior vice president for Sibson Consulting Inc, a New York-based consulting firm.  About 58% of human resources executives graded their own performance management systems a C or below, according to a May and June survey of 750 HR professionals conducted by Sibson and WorldatWork, a professional association.

 

Don’t let Starting a New Job be the End of your Career

By Guest Author Therese Marie,  www.MeetTherese.com 

  

So you landed the job!  You’re the new VP – of Engineering...or Finance…or HR…or Sales…or…you get the drift. 

  

 How certain are you of your success?  

  

 How will your leadership style fit into the new culture? 

 

How quickly will you be able to deliver the results necessary to make you a success in the eyes of your peers and direct reports? 

 

How clear are you on your boss’ expectations?

These are questions that run through the minds of the many executives prior to starting a new position.  And when the highly evolved leader doesn’t have clear cut answers to these questions, she will tap into the resources of an onboard coach to successfully navigate this critical career transition. 

 

How does onboard coaching work?

It typically happens over the course of 3-6 months and involves private, one-on-one sessions with the coach giving the new executive the “space” to work on the business of assimilation while she is working within the new environment. 

 

Coaching usually begins with some type of assessment to help leaders understand their behavior/leadership style, and it often includes an initial meeting between the new executive and her boss facilitated by the coach that helps clearly outline expectations of both parties.

Studies show that 40% of newly hired or promoted leaders are GONE within 18 months, so the case for successfully onboarding is strong.   

How well prepared are you to be part of the 60% who make it?

What happens when attempt to take on a new position without a personal onboarding coach? 

May 6, 2010: When the U.S. Stock Market Lost It

On the afternoon of May 6, 2010 the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its biggest, fastest decline ever, and hundreds of stocks momentarily lost nearly all their value.  So many things went wrong, so quickly, that regulators haven't yet pieced together precisely what happened.

 

A close examination of the market's rapid-fire unraveling reveals some new details about what unfolded: Stock-price data from the New York Stock Exchange's electronic-trading arm, Arca, were so slow that at least three other exchanges simply cut it off from trading. Pricing information became so erratic that at one point shares of Apple Inc. traded at nearly $100,000 apiece. And computer-driven trading models used by many big investors, apparently responding to the same market signals, rushed for the exits at the same time.

Three months later, many market veterans have arrived at a disquieting conclusion: A flash crash could happen again because today's computer-driven stock market is much more fragile than many believed. Many investors, still gun-shy, have been pulling money out of stocks.

How to Find the Safest Banks

Stress test results for the biggest European banks were recently released, while the largest U.S. banks took their first stress tests in May 2009. But most people don't really care how much stress their banks are under; they are more worried about their own stress levels.

One thing that adds to personal stress is worrying about whether their deposits are in a safe place. Bob Prechter has encouraged people to find the safest banks for their money since he originally wrote his New York Times best-selling book, Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression in 2002. This excerpt explains why banks of all sizes are riskier than they used to be (think about portfolios stuffed with derivatives, emerging market debt and non-performing commercial loans).  You can also get a list of the Top 100 Safest U.S. Banks -- two banks per state -- that was just updated in late June with the latest available data by joining Club EWI and receiving EWI's Safe Banks report.