Hi guys, in my last post, I explained what a performance review is, and why it fails. In this post, I am going a bit further. I explain how performance reviews are incompatible with the new way of leading people.
In modern companies that embrace Agile mindset, it is expected to focus on team work, but in reality individual performance reviews focus on us as individuals not on the team itself. When we forget ourselves and focus on the team, problems such as the ones that were referred, here will arise. Another possibility is the other extreme that is referred in Abolishing Performance Appraisals refer: “Yes, work in teams, but remember, take credit for yourself, get recognised, watch your back because you are accountable for you, and that’s what goes in your file, not the team stuff”. I do not see value in any of the situations.
During the past years, several books were published about the importance of unleashing intrinsic motivation on people during their working time. Companies keep focusing on practices that reinforce the behaviour “do this and you get that”, and this is exactly what performance reviews mean. My friend Vasco Duarte says that performance reviews are a hidden whip from your boss, it transmits the idea of: “Do what I want or there is no bonus or career advancement for you”.
Another interesting characteristic of modern management is the fact that we want to respect diversities. Like Tom and Mary say: We want to manage for diversity and capitalising on the differences in people, instead with performance reviews we create an approach “one-size-fits-all”, treating everyone in the same way forcing using the same process over and over again.”
New managers understood they need to shift a focus away from inspecting people to examining and understanding processes, instead they rely on people inspection and Management by Objectives. Processes should focus on JIT (Just in Time) way of working. Performance reviews cause supervisors to stockpile and rework feedback, guidance and development triggered by calendar rather than offering help just on the right time.
Modern management already understood that a system is not the sum of its parts, it´s the sum of parts plus the interaction of all parts. So why companies care only with the parts (this is what performance review does) instead of focusing on improving the whole system.
Below there is a picture I took from the book Abolishing Performance Appraisals by Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins. This picture is a fantastic summary of why performance reviews are incompatible with new ways of management.
Hope you did like this post.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Luis
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