Sonya Law and Ron talk about the Year End Performance Review.

You know, I used to tease people at the beginning of a class. We have night entertainers, Johnny Carson, Jack Parr. different people today that have a late night show. It starts after the news at 11 or 1130. And it used to be, I'd start the class saying, this is not the late night shows. This is intended to be a dialogue. This is not a monologue. This is not me talking at you. We're talking with each other. And dialogue happens to be a Greek word, which means flow of meaning. So, yeah, so there's there's there's all I have all manner of idiotic little things in the in the kit. Yeah, it's it really is. It's so it's it's a flow of meaning. About a month or two ago, you wrote a blog about year end reviews, which I found really touched me. And a lot of people made comments about it.

So I'd like to, you've got an interesting background, bunch of different companies, manufacturers, distributors, high intellect companies, hardworking companies, everything in between. What do you see or feel the needs are for employees and their bosses or HR? to review individual employees' performance. How critical is that in the life, in the work life?

It's rather remarkable. You know, what you just rattled off was like the index of a doctoral thesis. Yeah, no joke. And it started and ended with potential. So maybe we should break these things down a little bit more. Talk to me about, potential and each individual employee. You talked to that right at the very beginning of employee reviews. What were you meaning with that? What do you mean by trying to get to the employee's potential?

I'm going to call that bias.

And it's a very, I think, important point that we need to. go into the discussion with the employee as if we don't know them. Because our biases and assumptions and experiences overpower where that person is. The year-end review, mid-year review to me is all about the employee. It's not about the boss.

And many times, most times, I don't believe the boss, the person who is conducting that year-end review, knows how to do it.

true. And as a result of that, they don't want to do it. They find it intimidating. Have you experienced that or seen that?

Why do you think that is?

I couldn't agree with you more. We have to be vulnerable to each other. If I ask you what you think I could do to improve my relationship with you as a worker of mine, Yes. That employee has to trust me implicitly, explicitly, if they're going to tell me the truth.

And I don't know that there's many, I don't know that that kind of trust exists. I get a paycheck. I don't want to do anything, say anything that's going to jeopardize that paycheck.

I need that paycheck. 60 to 80% of the world. lives from paycheck to paycheck and they haven't got any room for error. So they're coming at this thing nervously, anxiously. The boss is kind of, what a pain in the butt. I got to check the box. I got to do this this afternoon at three o 'clock. I'm busy. Don't they know that? And we're on the wrong foot right from the get-go.

Leadership is at the root of this ultimately. And a lot of leaders in the industries around which I work are, and it's a very chauvinistic industry, as you well know. They're not known for being warm, cuddly people.

There's a lot of four-letter words. A conversation is laced with all kinds of interesting things. Yes. So what's this finding out with the person? But that's soft stuff. That doesn't have any place in my world. Is that tractor working or not? Are you going to fix it or not? How long is it going to take? Have you got that part or not? What's the matter with you?

Yeah. Well, the other side of that, though, is perhaps the way that we break this thing down a little bit better is to have somebody from HR conduct those year-end reviews with the leaders. Yeah. And, you know, if we look at the fourth quarter is when these things take place and it's it varies in different world jurisdictions and geographies and economies. But if we look at the fourth quarter, October 1st to January 1st is the period during which we have a formal discussion about what that employee wants to do differently. What's standing in the way from the employee doing a better job? What would the employee like to do if they want to try and do something different than they are doing? What are some of the hassles that they have with the job, the system, the people, the coworkers, the environment, whatever it is?

And establish that almost as critically as sales goals and objectives.

If we don't have the team members that are looking after our customers. in alignment with us, in harmony with us as to what we're trying to get done, nothing's going to happen.

I agree with you. The other side of that, you're right, in the industries that I've spent my life in, Everybody knows where they stand with the boss. It's pretty straightforward. Every now and again, there's a weirdo like me, but that's a different thing. I went into one of my bosses along the way and told him I needed more work because I didn't have enough to do. And if I didn't get enough work, I was going to start leaving at noon. And he said, you can't do that. Have I told you this story?

And so I started going home and he gave me more work. He called me and he gave me more work. And I did it a second time to him. And the thing that's interesting to me about that is I wonder how many employees feel that way.

So many. I know. So

No, and I agree, and I call it a waste of human capital. That's a man or a woman

would be married, have children, have a family. get involved in the community with churches or with schools or sports or with music and various things. They're, they're talented people and, and we're not tapping. We have no idea what they could do. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's unbelievable. One of the pen that I worked with a lot. Headcount seems to be the issue in a lot of cases, and it drives me crazy because the foundation is totally wrong. But he says, it's amazing to me. Every time I add a person in the parts department, my parts sales go up. I said, does that surprise you? He said, well, in a way it does. Well, you got more man hours for goodness sake. How can it surprise you? You've been at this a long time. He said, I know, but it constantly amazes me. He said, I added 20 people last year and my sales went up. $40 million. Well, isn't that wonderful? Why don't you hire another 20? Keep going. Why stop?

And the reason that I get cranky about it is in 1980, when interest rates went up and inflation was killed in America with Reagan and Paul Volcker, who headed the Federal Reserve.

All of the Western world, I'm going to say.

What happened was business adapted to the fact of interest costs going up in the quickest, easiest way that they could, which is to jettison a whole bunch of people.

And at that time, industry created a new business model that determined that headcount in that environment was the right headcount. So we take the worst case scenario and put that out as the platform of performance, which drives me crazy. And there's men and women that I work with that lead companies that still drive on those statistics.

And yet their current reality is a world apart from that. It could be as much as double what the sales for employee standards were. That's where they are now, and they're happier than clients because I'm. I'm really doing well. Yeah, you're messing up customer service right, left, and center.

And you would think that if we had employee reviews, that the employees would be commenting on that. Either I don't have enough to do or I've got way the hell too much to do or my teammates don't know what they're doing. You know, this tool doesn't work. We don't have those discussions.

Yeah, and the boss to some degree is fear also because this is how he's always done it and how he's used to it. Don't ask me to do something different. I don't know what that is.

I went

Yeah, in many cases. You know, it's some fundamentals. I don't know many businesses that have functional job descriptions. And take the term job descriptions away, function descriptions. What does a person who sells parts do? Unless you've done the job, people don't know. And even if you've done the job, it's kind of a funny training cycle. You get hired. You're going to work with me. I show you how to do the job. We go through the traditional thing. We do that for two or three days. You're watching me. Then you do it and I watch you. And, okay, keep doing that and I'll check back with you. And you just do it faster and more accurately and you're a star.

It's about quantity, not quality, isn't it? You did 72 orders last month. That's fantastic. Can you do that again? George over there, he only did 60. Well, George is 60. He added 50% to every transaction.

You know, there's so many. We get lost. So then the other part of the job function description. is performance criteria. What is expected of you? And, you know, go back to Jack Welch when he came in and was chairman of General Electric and he got rid of the bottom 10% of the people and everybody called him Neutron Jack and, oh, that's terrible. And he said, what's terrible is giving people positive performance reviews for 30 years and at 50 years old, letting them go when they have the most debt. in their lives. Kids are at college, they've got a mortgage, and they are too old to be rehired. That's nasty. That's not being honest along the way, is it?

There seems to be two tracks coming at us. The employees leaving school, go get a job, and they kind of say, well, that's it. I've had the learning. I've got a job. Now we get on to the real life. And companies hiring somebody who has skills for the particular job and, well, I don't need to do anything with that. And the world that those two groups live in is changing radically, almost an exponential curve. And to think that what you knew two years ago is going to do you well over the next two years is rather naive and innocent, isn't it?

I was doing a job in Moscow, and it's the only place that I ever experienced this. I have a standard question I ask people. If you could wave a wand, is there anything about your job that you could change that would make it easier for you?

It's just a standard question. The man I asked it to had a master's degree, had been with the company for 15,20 years, had a reasonably serious position in the company in leadership. And he looked up at me, says, don't ask me questions like that. Just tell me what you want me to do. And I thought to myself, I mean, that night, it didn't resonate right there, but that night it did. And I thought, yeah, how sad is that? You know, I'm parking my mind at the door and go to work. I'll do whatever the hell you tell me. Don't ask me. Rather than, you know, we got to do this. And I'd like you to think about that and come back. How would you like to do that? How would you like to perform that? task. And we got to be open to be able to do that.

You know, it's, it's, if we could unleash the untapped potential of management and workers, and I don't want to downsize the company, but we could do it with a whole heck of a lot less people at the current volume or keep the people and drive the hell out of the volume going up.

And that's where I'm critical of my generation, the 55 to 75-year-old, because they're more interested in self-gain and protection than they are in continuity and succession. I deal with so many businesses where 80% of the people are over the age of 60 years old and there's nobody in line to take their place. And that's stunning. So we have all these things. You know, we have assessments, Sonia, that dealers are using to... evaluate new hires. They're using it for annual reviews. They're using it for salary and wage and they're using it for career path. And I'm trying to get everybody to have a performance review using our assessments every year. And everybody says, well, you just want the money. It's 125 bucks an assessment. There's a hundred people that would take the assessment as 12 grand. That's a lot of money. Well, the $12,000 is nothing. Compared to what you unleash with those 100 people.

That's the real penalty.

I had a long chat today with somebody whose job is recruiting people. And he says, you wait till this. pandemic impact is gone.

You're going to see people changing companies like you have never seen before.

Yeah. I think the characterization that I heard once that really resonated with me is employees want people want to do something worthwhile. You mentioned it earlier. You want to make a mark in your life. You don't want to just get born and die and leave. And no, that's good. There's a bunch of dust. You know, remember George, boy, oh boy, it's true. It's true. This is a mission that is, I'm becoming quite passionate about getting this thing done, getting everybody a performance review. I never had one as an employee, not once.

Ron. And I asked every year. And my last boss was the vice president of finance. His name was Herb Mitchell. He's since passed, so I can talk about him. And every year I'd go in and say I wanted a review. And I was running. Data processing is what it was called in those days, IT today. And he said, did you get more money? I said, yeah. He said, well, that's your performance. You get out of here. That's the kind of guy he was. And I said, well, that doesn't do it for me. I need you to help me. What do I need to do to get better? He said, go away. Literally.

I quit and went to another company. It was in Quebec. Quebec government got elected that wanted to separate from Canada. So there was going to be disruption and challenges. We had a young baby and I decided my wife and I decided we're getting out of here for security and future. So I go into them and I tell them, well, here's your performance review. I'm leaving. I gave the biggest mistake I made in my life. I gave them 60 days. And in that period of time, and this is kind of cute. They offered me double the salary. a vehicle, and a country club membership to stay.

And I didn't. That really bothered them. And my wife, Marlene, said to me, Ron, all they're trying to do is buy your butt. I said, I agree. But think of that.

That's exactly right. There's a beginning, but there's also an end. That's that famous old song, right? All my songs. Sold to the company store,16 tons, and what do I get? Another day older and deeper in debt. So we end up having a bunch of people now that are enlightened, that know how to conduct a performance review. The stretch goals that you talk about, who should set those? Should the employee set those, or should the leader set those, or should that be a combination or what? Any idea?

So I'm going to push it up the hill a little bit further. The annual review needs to be a follow-up. to a statement by the corporation as to what we're doing, where we're going. Absolutely. And that's, okay, here's our goals in the next three to five years. Here's our thinking and plans over the next three to five years. It's going to require a lot of effort from a lot of you, and we seriously need your help and input as to how you think we should proceed to get that. all accomplished. And I would ask each of you in your performance review with your boss to seriously have a discussion about what you would like to see happen. Yeah. If we started that way, that changes the whole thing.

Imagine that. You know, it's so there's something very topical with one of the best football soccer players ever.

right?

And he, at the age of 13, left Argentina, went to Barcelona, and now he's going to Paris because his team is so far in debt, they can't afford to have his salary, even when he took a pay cut of 50%. Now, I will guarantee you something right now. The World Cup, the next time it is won, will be won by Paris Saint-Germain with Lionel Messi on that team. Now, that's the impact of an employee. Now, I'm using one illustration, and there's very few of him, but there's hims and hers in every damn organization that have untapped excellence

offer us, and they're just waiting for somebody to ask them to do it.

It ends up being a discussion about male and female or different races or different classes or whatever. It has nothing to do with that. It's an excuse not to tackle it, isn't it?

I had a bunch of coaches as a younger person, and one of them was a man from Scotland whose name was Dick Gall. And I was and still am a sensitive person, although that might be a shock to a lot of people to hear. But Dick didn't give a hoot what kind of people he had that he was coaching. He applied the same plan to everybody. And it didn't work with me. And he was on my case like you wouldn't believe. Well, fate has a funny way of twisting things. Dick ended up working for me about six, seven years later. And I put him through the wringer like you have no idea.

And he said, why are you doing this to me? I said, I need you to think about why I'm doing this to you. And he finally figured it out. And he came back to me and he says, I only had one way of doing things, Ron. I don't know how to do it any other way. And I said, well, at least you acknowledge the penalty, the problem that you have. But it's not about you, my friend. It's about the audience that you're working with. You have to be a chameleon. You have to be what that audience wants and needs you to be. If they want you to be hard, you have to be hard. If they want you to be soft, you need to be soft. It's not you. It's them. It's a funny circumstance.

We try and do that, though, isn't it? The one-size-fits-all. I'm on a real mission, and you and I have talked about it. I'd really love for your next blog to be about the year-end review. I'm going to write one. We're going to post this in another week or so. And I really want to put a big push on towards the fourth quarter of this calendar year to get more and more people sensitized to doing performance reviews. So anything and everything that you can think of on that. And if you need to go beyond our word limit, you know, we can have two or three steps or five steps or whatever. You've seen that out there. I believe this is one of the most critical elements that business has overlooked through my work life. Absolutely. And I agree with you. I think we're wasting a lot of human capital. People that could be really high impact performers that don't know it. You know, it's like in Africa, the number system is one too many, many.

If you can come up with somebody that knows number theory, get the guy a PhD. The fact that he doesn't have access to education shouldn't have anything to do with it. But the boss needs to lead the parade. has to set the tone. This is where we're trying to go this year, next year, whatever, and communicate that, I call it communication and cascading. So the boss makes the statement and all of the other leaders subsequent to that cascade that same message down through the organization and up through the organization backwards. If we could get that done, imagine the possibilities.

Hopefully the current... struggles to come out of the pandemic and the, let me call it the Western world again, most of the world is struggling to get the 5% vaccination rate because they haven't got enough money to pay for the vaccines. But for the Western world that has the capacity and the money to make those things happen, hopefully this 18 month period has forced a lot of people to reevaluate how they do things. And it might not be fresh eyes or old eyes, but it's a fresh circumstance. It's a fresh scenario that gives them the opportunity to, it's a brand new deal. So maybe that'll energize them and renovate them, rejuvenate them is the better word. Yeah. But we got to get leadership turned first. So anything and everything.

I believe that's true. I believe that's true.

What I've said to people is you get back to work, now it's over, there's a sigh of relief, and now I can go back to what I was doing before.

Never to happen. It's not going to happen. No. So let's round the turkle there and say that we've... provoked enough, I think, thinking.

Any closing comments or thoughts you want to put out there?

Well, thank you, Sonia. And thank those of you that have been listening to this candid conversation. Mahalo. Look forward to talking with you again soon on another subject. Thank you for listening to our podcast. We appreciate your support. Should you have any thoughts or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us at www. learningwithoutscars. com. The time is now. Mahalo!