A Better Me

Many of you are aware that the West Coast Ultrasound Institute has immersed their students in ‘professional values’ and the mind-sets associated with those values. See my post from Jan 28, 2013.

As part of the student’s learning they were asked to write a 1,800 word essay about professionalism and its impact—current and future. I’m told over 200 papers were produced. I have read over 50 of them, they were fascinating. Several students mentioned how the mind-sets had not only impacted their work-life, but their personal life as well.

Many students at West Coast are transitioning from their current vocation to another (e.g. medical imaging) —they work at their ‘day job’ and attend school at night and on the weekends. Jennifer Fruin is one such student. She’s currently a hair stylist. In her words, Jennifer was hired to, ‘wash, cut, style, repeat’. I was impressed with her paper and thought you would be too.

Jennifer has gone through some remarkable changes, the type that one would reasonably be called transformational. Here are a few snippets from Jennifer’s paper:

Catalyst For Self-Improvement: “…I sure didn’t feel the fulfillment. I felt as though I was just clocking in and cutting hair [as my] complacent role dragged on. I let it seep into my personal life and I did not notice a problem until I read The Power of Professionalism. Cover to cover, the book spoke to me. I made myself a cheat sheet, to show me what I learned in each chapter and how I would apply it to my own life.”

About Mind-Set #7: “This mind-set did away with my secret stash of anxiety, distrust and negativity. It gave me the comfort I so desperately sought out, and helped me lend my trust to other employees and helped me place trust in my family.”

Transformation: “Today my world is different. I’m listening to my clients like they require me to. I am spending quality time with my kids. I’ve released the anger I was holding on to …”

The Book: “The Power of Professionalism to me was more than a book teaching me how to act ‘professional’. This book showed me how to be a better me. It showed me how to succeed in any given area…..Bill Wiersma really broke the mold when he wrote this book.”

It was really gratifying to learn of Jennifer’s growth and how she became a ‘better me’. Gratefully, Jennifer has student colleagues who experienced similar outcomes.

To read Jennifer’s full paper, click here.

Enjoy.

Four Ways to Make Performance Reviews More Professional and Encourage Greater Professionalism in Our Employees

Sean Conrad is our guest blogger today. He is a senior product analyst and Certified Human Capital Strategist at Halogen Software in Ottawa, Canada. Sean is great at sharing his unique blend of technology expertise and understanding of HR-specific challenges.

Employee performance reviews are a much maligned, but important management process that, when done well, can provide significant benefits to the employee, the manager and the organization.

The problems come in when we fail to conduct them professionally. Here’s a look at how four of the seven mind-sets can help improve the quality, impact, value and professionalism of your employee performance reviews.

1.     Focus on Results (Mind-Set #1)

Both when setting goals, and when evaluating accomplishments and performance, managers and employees need to focus on results. What is the employee accountable for? What are the standards by which success will be measured? What is expected, and what would be considered going beyond expectation?

Recorded goals should clearly lay out all these expectations and form a kind of “performance agreement” between the manager and the employee. Then, when it’s time to review performance and accomplishments, you have clear guidelines for measuring success.

Any performance ratings should be based on the results accomplished, not on a general impression of the employee’s performance, or the manager’s relationship with them. If we want our employees to have a bias for results, we need to start by making sure they understand what results we’re looking for.

2.     Cultivate Core Values  (Mind-Set #4)

As important as focusing on the results accomplished, employee performance reviews also need to consider “how” these results were accomplished. This is where core and job specific competencies come in.

Competencies describe “how” work is done, and describe the qualities of exemplary performance. Every company should carefully select core, leadership and job-specific competencies that reflect its mission and values. Then, actively cultivate these competencies in their employees.

You should include a description of each competency and the different levels of performance on your performance review forms so managers and employees have a clear and shared understanding of expectations.

If we want our staff to have personal standards that transcend organizational ones, we need to lead the way by actively communicating and cultivating organizational values.

3.     Give a Larger Context (Mind-Set #2)

You can foster a more collaborative and accountable workforce by always giving employees a larger context for their work. With goals, it’s important to directly link the employee’s individual goals to the higher level organizational goals they are designed to support.

Likewise, the competencies they will be evaluated on should be linked to their role and to the organization’s mission, culture and values. And any time you assign an employee a development plan, you should also clearly link it to the competency it’s designed to develop, or to the goal it’s designed to support.

This context setting helps employees know they’re part of something bigger and drives accountability and engagement.

4.     Support Development (Mind-Set #7)

Continuous development is another hallmark of professionalism that you can and should foster through your employee performance review process.

One of the chief goals of giving feedback and coaching, evaluating demonstration of competencies, reviewing performance of goals and assigning goals for the coming period should be to encourage the employee’s development, performance and career progression.

If we’re not trying to help employees get better at what they do, what are we really doing? Development and career progression discussions should be part of every performance review. And feedback, coaching and recognition need to be ongoing, year-round activities that continually help the employee to learn and advance.

Driving High Performance and Professionalism

When done professionally, performance reviews help to drive employee engagement, accountability and high performance. Their goal should be to foster continuous development and career advancement and encourage the 7 mind-sets so necessary to professionalism. When they fail to do that, it’s often because of the way we design and conduct our processes.

Sean Conrad is senior product analyst and Certified Human Capital Strategist at Halogen Software and writes regularly about the importance and impact of performance management best-practices.

When Sacrifice Isn’t

A wide receiver throws a great block, springing his running back teammate around the corner for a 15 yard gain. The announcer in the booth (a former wide receiver himself) sings the wide-out’s praises–finally paying him the ultimate compliment by commending him for how he ‘sacrificed himself’.

Huh?  Last time I checked football was a team sport.  Suggesting that the wide receiver (a ‘skill’ player) was ‘sacrificing himself’ by performing a skill with less prestige (blocking)…or by suggesting that he did it begrudgingly (because he dislikes it)…or by suggesting it’s especially admirable because it’s out of his comfort zone is myopic. It’s a team sport. People are expected to do what’s required to achieve the desired result. He’s not sacrificing himself, he’s attempting to help his team win!

I’ve noticed that managers are sometimes like the announcer…they think that when one of their ‘skill players’ performs a ‘lesser skill’ (something ‘beneath them’) they consider the ‘skill player’ to be making a sacrifice. Regretfully, these managers haven’t caught the vision of mind-set #2 – being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Consider:

  • the busy rainmaker at the law firm who takes their precious time and shares their considerable influence to open an important door for a colleague.
  • the mechanical foreman who takes 20 minutes out their day to provide encouragement and technical advice to a second-year apprentice who has run into a particularly vexing problem.
  • the theme park GM who– one day a month–works ‘the front lines’.
  • the Marketing VP who willingly gives up 5% of their departmental budget to R&D as a result of an unexpected new research breakthrough.

Neither the rainmaker, the foreman, the GM, nor the VP, consider themselves to be ‘sacrificing’. They, like the wide-receiver, realize they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. They’re a part of a team – they do what is required for the team to succeed.

People on winning teams constantly do things that may be out of the norm or that stretches them but they are rarely seen as a ‘sacrifice’. It’s just not how they see things.