Hi Bryan!
Good to get a dialogue going on this juicy topic.
You are not the only one that disagrees with my assessment - here is what I shared with Patrick Altman:
I don't think you need a forced ranking system to determine levels of performance. That should be evident with close vigilence and dialogue about goals and objectives. After having met and worked with thousands of managers across the U.S. and Europe, I was stunned at how few of them had the basic skill of conducting an objective performance discussion with their employee. And if they couldn't have that discussion, how could they make nuanced decisions about relative performance, often comparing their employees with others they had never personally observed?
You may also be surprised to know that while most of us do enjoy working for money (otherwise we would be volunteers!), in many, many surveys I observed in large corporations it was not the deciding factor in job satisfaction. Good people were much more likely to leave a company if they had a poor relationship with their manager and few opportunities to learn and grow rather than leaving due to dissatisfaction with money. In today's economy, success is all about continued employability. If an employee is ranked as an A but is shortsighted about emergent skill needs in the marketplace, when the axe falls due to downsizing or outsourcing, they will be out of luck.
I respect and understand the arguments you put forth. All I speak from is my experience. If there is an organization that has implemented a ranking system well in today's job environment and has employees that are supportive of it, I would love to know about it.
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I respect the results that Jack Welch and his employees garnered for GE. AND I think that we need to closely examine what works today, in a very different job environment.
I enjoy being bold in my blog posts to get a good dialogue going, knowing that there are as many different perspectives on how to run a business than there are businesses. From my vantage point today, my focus in on the experience of employees, not the leadership team.
Keep up the good work and keep on writing. By challenging our beliefs, we all become richer.
All the best,
-Pam
Hey Bryan,
Nice article. Modeling is the best way to accomplish goals. Thankfully, I gravitated towards that when I was young and have stuck to it now that I'm older. Sometimes it's hard to find the right people that will actually talk to you, lol, but I am finding that now as I focus on my goals, the people seem to "fall" into my life.
Exceptional! I'm also a big believer in principles. Every few years, someone comes along who tells us the world is different now and the old rules don't apply. Meanwhile, the people that I see pulling ahead consistently are the ones applying the time-tested principles. There is nothing new under the sun.
It's the techniques that change... Principles never do!
- Bryan
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