Category: PERFORMANCE – workforce conversations

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Connecting people to business performance!

From what is (now) to what can be (in the future)

What’s in it for me? (aka WIIFM). You may be asking yourself this right now. Do you think there has been a disconnect in communication, and strategy, in corporate America? I know there has!

When people are not communicating transparently and with empathy, the disconnect between what people do and what leaders expect (aka Strategy) grows larger.

Reconnecting people – at all levels – into performance management systems and to the performance of the company is critical. And it is do-able! 

The first step might be to shift from performance management to performance momentum! An Aligned Momentum program, powered by the A.M. software, just might be the transformative solution you are looking for. Feel free to reach out to me directly at lori[at]thepivotcatalyst[dot]com.

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Managing Performance includes Managing Risk

People matter most to the performance – and risk – of your business or organization. Their actions, and their in-actions, can make a good strategy, or a bad one, and can ensure that a good strategy is realized, or not. A great way to manage risk, then, is through keeping a pulse of what your people think and do. And the best and most practical way I’ve found for doing this is through gathering feedback through surveys, assessments, evaluations and reviews.

Whether for internal control, governance, security, privacy, other compliance or due diligence (to name a few), setting a positive environment for feedback, asking questions, and showing that you are ready to take action on the input can help leaders keep their organizations on track and out of trouble.

In future posts I will link you to samples of how to gather and manage information for risk mitigation and performance improvement!

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7 things that managers can do today to improve their hiring success rate

If you’ve read through this blog you will know that I’ve run into more than my fair share of schmucks. So let me see if I can make life a bit less troublesome for you by sharing my thoughts – and guidance from others – that will keep you clear of such schmucky-ness! The post below is from an excellent writer, and scholar, Marshall Goldman. Just hearing the title of one of his books, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” made me want to jump the snowdrifts in Bellingham, WA right now to the nearest bookstore! In the excerpt below from his recent post on the Harvard Business Publishing blog, Marshall provides practical guidance to improve hiring. Enjoy! – Lori

We distilled 13 years of consulting insights across hundreds of companies, performed exclusive interviews with over 20 billionaires and 60 other CEOs and investors to collect their best advice and stories on this topic, and completed a university-sponsored scientific study of 313 CEO careers.

What did we learn? We learned 7 things that managers can do today to improve their hiring success rate from 50% to 90%. We call this the “A Method For Hiring.” Continue reading “7 things that managers can do today to improve their hiring success rate”

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6 tips to engage your employees (especially during disruptive times)

As I work with companies on Abrige performance improvement, risk management engagements… and as I am now (over the past 10 months, actually) studying the bootstrapping, high profits information marketers… I keep reading, and saying, the word “engagement.” We can no longer just sell to customers. And we can no longer expect our new hires to put up with work “just because we do it that way” and feedback once per year.

So let’s talk about how to engage our employees, contractors and even outsourced workforce to ensure we get what we expect!

Here are a few ideas that have been successful:

1) Surveys, questionnaires, assessments, process checks – short, simple, and often
Continue reading “6 tips to engage your employees (especially during disruptive times)”

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How employees can improve their performance review success

I wanted to share with you what a consultant hired to work with employees is promoting. The consultant is Dr. Doris Helge of Joy at Work. While this is aimed at employees, I believe you will benefit from reading it:

ENSURE CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK FROM MANAGEMENT

Dana and Frank are discussing the results of Frank’s recent performance evaluation.

Dana: You sound like you were surprised by the boss’s negative comments.
Frank: Surprised? . . . Amazed! All year long I’ve thought things were fine!
Dana: You have to schedule informal appraisals all year long.

Continue reading “How employees can improve their performance review success”