The Radical Shift in Performance Management - My Journey to the Marcus Buckingham Company

I was sitting at the airport yesterday waiting to board my flight to LA gearing up for my first day at my new job when I overheard a woman sitting beside me was lamenting to her friend how she had to go in for her annual performance review next week. She said she hadn’t gotten any feedback from her manager for a whole year and was dreading hearing whether she had improved on her 2.9/5 rating “just below Meets Expectations” or whether she was still too defensive despite being told to speak up. Her solution – go in dressed up, sit quietly and try not to cry. My heart broke. This is what performance management has become – dress up and shut up.

Wow – the human in me couldn’t help but feel pained for her. We are not only failing to deliver value to the enterprise, but we are truly damaging well-intentioned people who’s livelihood and self esteem are dependent on a broken performance management paradigm and on managers who lack the skills and tools to manage them.

I’m inspired and challenged – because I finally have a legitimate shot at helping women like her and millions of others by solving an issue I’ve been passionate about for a really long time – crazy long – like 20 years long.

Here’s the thing - today I join a team of -, to paraphrase Steve Jobs - “hungry and foolish” visionaries at The Marcus Buckingham Company. I joined this team because this is the ONLY choice I could have made. I know – it sounds dramatic, but it’s true – I’m actually wired to do this. I promise, I’ll explain, but first a little about how I got here.

I’ve spent the last two decades building and deploying centralized talent processes and technologies and guiding business leaders as they’ve struggled to support evolving talent strategies in the hopes of improving workforce engagement and performance. I’ve witnessed some amazing customer wins and celebrated a few peaks of optimism because technology really has come a very long way; but I’ve also witnessed frustration and disillusionment as implementation after implementation failed to deliver radical change at the level where the real work gets done. I swear, sometimes it feels like we’re chasing a unicorn.

I’ve always believed there’s a better way to truly drive performance and not leave human beings dejected in an airport. But - in the last 5 years, my personal urgency is spiking as reality sets in - I might not be able to help these business leaders course correct and make a real impact if we continue to do same thing over and over again expecting different results – according to Albert Einstein, that’s insanity. So, it’s time for a radical shift. Performance management as we know it is beyond broken - it looks backwards, relies on shady data and certainly isn’t based on anything meaningful to the next generation of the workforce. Seriously, no amount of technology can help that.

I’m reminded every day as I watch my two teenage boys play out data-driven scenarios on their PS4s and learn, laugh, and build relationships via video, social media and SMS. Data is engrained in them – rich, contextual access to information at their fingertips. They’re less than 10 years from joining the teams who will be responsible for solving the world’s biggest problems. They ARE the next generation of the workforce and we have to do better by them.

I’m watching how they interact with each other – it’s constant. I’m listening to what’s really important to them – it’s personalized. I’m witnessing how they consume technology and information – as a means to enrich an experience. But it’s not just the teen-watching that has me convinced that it’s now or never – it’s my own experiences, at the team level, that is compelling my need for a change.

During my time at PeopleSoft, Knowledge Infusion and Appirio, my leadership approach was fueled by the belief that my role was to understand the talent of the team, know the innate qualities of the individuals on that team, and find the work that unleashed each of their strengths.

Remember earlier, when I said I’m wired to do this? I wasn’t kidding. Let me explain…

When I took the TMBC StandOut assessment the results revealed ‘how I show up to others at work’ and it’s based on my primary strength roles (aka – how I’m wired). As I read my results, I thought about the conversations I’ve had with my immediate teams. Spot on. Of the nine different strength roles, here are my two strongest: Pioneer & Provider.

PIONEER: I see the world as a friendly place where, around every corner, good things will happen. Your distinctive power starts with your optimism in the face of uncertainty.

PROVIDER: I sense other people's feelings, and I feel compelled to recognize these feelings, give them a voice and act on them.

When combined, this is how I serve my team:

You champion our values as the measure of our success.

You serve by leading and lead by serving. You charge ahead, encouraging us to take the journey with you, and yet the journey is never about you. It's about the mission that we are all on to make a difference. You are quite willing to be at the center of the action, but mainly to be our shield -- you will withstand the slings and arrows, and still act with our best interests at heart. And if we do achieve our mission, or even make progress toward it, you are the kind of leader who makes it about all of us. We made it happen. We made the difference. When success is measured in terms of values, not merely profit and loss, you will thrive.

See? I really am wired to pioneer the shift that will help team leaders understand that engagement is made (or broken) at the team level, and that’s what will have the biggest impact on performance. I’m wired to help the millions of people like the woman at the airport whose self-esteem and livelihood are heavily dependent on a broken performance management paradigm.

Through research-based technology, consulting and coaching, TMBC is empowering the team leader to measure the engagement of now and offer technology based one-one coaching through the lens of a person’s strengths. It’s so cool – and it makes perfect sense; respect how work is getting done, understand the uniqueness of the individual and deliver user-focused tools right to the people who keep the team engaged – the team leader.