{"id":89,"date":"2022-08-25T15:50:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T15:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonayre.uk\/blog\/?p=89"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:52:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:52:35","slug":"stop-managing-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonayre.uk\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/stop-managing-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop managing performance – it’s destroying your business!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Essential tool or dangerous weapon?<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Performance management; you simply have to have performance management if you want high performing teams\u2026 don\u2019t you? After all, it’s how you know who’s best, and who needs improvement, and without that you can’t run a successful business. These are powerful beliefs, and it would be unwise to challenge them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formal performance management is a fundamental part of the culture that pervades most organisations. It involves \u201cregular\u201d one-to-ones where we discuss successes and then focus on weaknesses, and if you’re one of the lucky few you get a hearty pat on the back and a top rating. Quite often this comes with a bonus as well, so it really matters. For an unfortunate few, there’s the bottom rating and the dreaded \u201cperformance improvement plan\u201d, a wonderful piece of 1984 new-speak if ever there was one. For the rest (the vast majority) there is simply the mediocrity of a \u201cyou weren\u2019t great but you weren\u2019t awful either\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s consider what effect that has had on the motivation of your employees? Has the top elusive rating spurred the shunned majority into greater things, and has that highly supportive \u201cget better or you\u2019re out\u201d given the perceived under-performers the help and support they need to become the best that they can? In my opinion, the answers to those questions are \u201cno\u201d, and \u201chell, no\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the middle majority (many of whom may have performed well in all areas apart from self-publicity) have been demotivated by the lack of recognition for the things they achieved during the year. They may have had some great moments backed up by a solid performance, but at the end of it all they get nothing but a \u201cnot bad, but you could have done better\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as for the under-performers, they are now working under the looming threat of dismissal and although a rare few might scrape back into a middle rating the majority, who are already struggling, will simply buckle under the stress of continuous scrutiny. Don\u2019t think so? Try standing over someone who’s typing and see how well they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there’s a more destructive side to performance management. Let’s assume you find a way to do it that is truly fair and universally motivating. An approach that rewards the highest performers and lifts everyone else up to their level. I’ve never seen such and approach, but even if one existed, you’re putting trust in the people in your organisation to act in good faith. Let’s say one bad actor slips through the net and is given access to your assessment system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance management, like any tool, is great in the right hands but dangerous in the wrong ones. While the majority of your people are following the process, and working diligently to ensure fairness, that one bad actor is using it to put pressure on those they see as threats and reward those who do their bidding. They’ll use your process to build their power base and bring in more like minded people. Before long you have a toxic culture and a broken company. This is a pattern that repeats itself again and again in large companies, and all of them have performance management. Correlation is not causation, but who knows. Why risk it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There can be only one<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is of course another issue here; what exactly are you measuring these people against? For the system to be \u201cfair\u201d there has to be a benchmark; a standard to which all should aspire and against which all can be measured. If not, how can I justify the rating I give to people? I can\u2019t just say \u201cyou did really well this year\u201d without a definition of \u201creally well\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many would suggest that it\u2019s good to have a standard to aspire to. I disagree, and I disagree strongly. The implication of any standard is that there is one version of good. That would also imply that you need everyone in your organisation to do the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all accept that artists have different skills to accountants. We would laugh at the idea of measuring these people against the same standard, and yet, when we place a group of people in an office and dress them in work attire, we suddenly forget about the differences, and assume because they look alike they should all perform alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they only look alike because we make them look alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, different jobs require very different skills and quite often these skills come in very different packages. What is more, the idea that you should look at a person\u2019s weaknesses and strengthen them ignores one very important point. Weaknesses are often the flip side of strengths. That’s why you employ lots of different people – to fill your company with a wide range of strengths. It’s all just a matter of perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This becomes all too clear when you consider athletes. We all understand immediately that the strengths that make for a great weightlifter great might be terrible weaknesses for a long distance runner, and expecting an archer to measure up to the same performance standards as an equestrian would be ridiculous. An Olympic team is strong, not because of uniformity but because of diversity. It needs a wide variety of athletes if it is to come home with a large haul of medals. Turning up with a team consisting only of great 100m sprinters would result in two medals (don\u2019t forget the relay).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is like a box of chocolates<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In athletics, physical diversity is the key to creating a successful team. In the office where the work is cerebral in nature, the most important thing is cognitive diversity and this is far harder to select for. Why? Because you’re looking for people who think differently; who don\u2019t think like you. You’re looking for people who disagree with you. As a species, we’re not very good at getting along with people who disagree with us. In fact, we positively reject those who disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many times have you sat in an interview waiting for the right answer only to be frustrated by the candidate\u2019s insistence on the opposite? How many times have you sat in a performance review only to be told that your approach to work isn’t the right one? That despite delivering results, the way you delivered those results didn’t match the required \u201cbehaviours\u201d or \u201ccompetencies\u201d. Creative people are told they’re not organised enough and should brush up on their planning skills. That their ways of working are too chaotic. Meanwhile, structured project managers are chastised for not demonstrating enough \u201cinnovative thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance management regimes and competency based interviews, the mainstays of professional life, stifle diversity. But diversity is the key, and whenever you come across a new interview candidate or team member, remember what Mrs Gump said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you’re gonna get.”<\/em><\/p>Mrs Gump<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And that’s exactly the point. You never know what value you will get from a person, but the best way of maximising the value you get from a team is by ensuring that the members of that team are diverse; that their skills are varied and their strengths complementary rather than duplicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embracing diversity<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you’re interviewing, or when you’re assessing a person\u2019s performance, remember that they may have something to offer that you don\u2019t even recognise yet. I often think that the best answer to an interview question is the one I disagree with. This person might have something to teach me. They definitely have something to bring to the team that I don’t; a different perspective. As Morpheus said to Neo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou take the blue pill\u2014the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill\u2014you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Morpheus<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Your way is not the only way and you aren’t the perfect model of high performance. To think you are is to allow ego to trump effectiveness. If you truly embrace diversity you may find that the world of possibilities expands enormously. You may find that the team you build is stronger and more capable than the one consisting only of those that match the \u201cstandard\u201d. You may even learn something yourself and benefit from your very own performance improvement plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you reward teams rather than individuals and praise shared successes instead of pointing out individual weaknesses, maybe then you’ll get the collaborative behaviours that will make your company thrive. If you remove internal competition, perhaps you’ll be better placed to focus on your external competitors. If you’re still not sure, just give it a try in one area. See how it goes. You might be pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re doing performance management it’s costing you a lot of time and money, so if it’s not adding measurable value, maybe performance management is the real under-performer in your organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Performance management pervades industry and, barring a few tweaks, the model is always the same. One to ones, ratings, individual objectives and rewards. Often disliked but essential to a successful business. Or is it? What if performance management is the problem and not the solution?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[27,26,24,25],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-culture","tag-business","tag-diversity","tag-performance","tag-reward"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t