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Title: Get Rid of the Performance Review! How
Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and
focus on What Really Matters
Author: Samuel A. Culbert with Lawrence Rout
Stars: ***
The book starts off with a call to action -- to kill the performance review. Why?
“This corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet
most ubiquitous of corporate activities. Everybody does it, and almost
everyone who’s evaluated hates it. It’s a pretentious, bogus practice that
produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a
corporate plus.”
Why are performance reviews so heinous? Culbert lists many reasons to
include…
The boss holds all the power without the accountability. As a result they are
“boss-dominated monologues” with the subordinate solely responsible for
any screw-ups.
They are focused on finding faults and placing blame.
They focusing on deviations from some ideal as weaknesses -- and ideal that
varies from person to person.
They are about comparing employees instead of helping them get better and
achieve improve results.
They create competition between boss and subordinate. There is no trust and
therefore no honest communication.
What’s the alternative? Culbert makes the case for performance previews.
Performance previews recognize that all people are different. They focus on
results that are the responsibility of both the boss and the subordinate.
Performance previews are not about comparing and ranking employees on a
curve. Rather, their goal is to make everyone a top performer so that mutually
accountable goals can be reached.
In performance previews the boss and subordinate should ask the following
questions…
What are you getting from me that you find helpful?
What are you getting from me (and/or the system) that impedes your
effectiveness?
What are you not getting from me (and/or the system) that you think would
enhance your effectiveness?
No matter your feelings on performance reviews, Culbert offers up some
compelling arguments for their dismissal. He appears to be developing a
following as more and more literature is being published on the topic.
Unfortunately, moving to the performance preview is not an easy thing to do. It
requires a reversal of ingrained thinking, stripping the HR machine of its ill-
gotten powers, and a significant time commitment on the part of
management. Of course Culbert would argue that simply killing off the
performance review without putting anything in its place would do a world of
good.
Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and
focus on What Really Matters
Author: Samuel A. Culbert with Lawrence Rout
Stars: ***
The book starts off with a call to action -- to kill the performance review. Why?
“This corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet
most ubiquitous of corporate activities. Everybody does it, and almost
everyone who’s evaluated hates it. It’s a pretentious, bogus practice that
produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a
corporate plus.”
Why are performance reviews so heinous? Culbert lists many reasons to
include…
The boss holds all the power without the accountability. As a result they are
“boss-dominated monologues” with the subordinate solely responsible for
any screw-ups.
They are focused on finding faults and placing blame.
They focusing on deviations from some ideal as weaknesses -- and ideal that
varies from person to person.
They are about comparing employees instead of helping them get better and
achieve improve results.
They create competition between boss and subordinate. There is no trust and
therefore no honest communication.
What’s the alternative? Culbert makes the case for performance previews.
Performance previews recognize that all people are different. They focus on
results that are the responsibility of both the boss and the subordinate.
Performance previews are not about comparing and ranking employees on a
curve. Rather, their goal is to make everyone a top performer so that mutually
accountable goals can be reached.
In performance previews the boss and subordinate should ask the following
questions…
What are you getting from me that you find helpful?
What are you getting from me (and/or the system) that impedes your
effectiveness?
What are you not getting from me (and/or the system) that you think would
enhance your effectiveness?
No matter your feelings on performance reviews, Culbert offers up some
compelling arguments for their dismissal. He appears to be developing a
following as more and more literature is being published on the topic.
Unfortunately, moving to the performance preview is not an easy thing to do. It
requires a reversal of ingrained thinking, stripping the HR machine of its ill-
gotten powers, and a significant time commitment on the part of
management. Of course Culbert would argue that simply killing off the
performance review without putting anything in its place would do a world of
good.
V E N T U R E S , L L C