Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

by Patty McCord

IN BRIEF ▶ Employees need to be able to see whether their talents and passions are a good match for the future you are heading to, in order to determine whether they may be a better fit at another firm. ▶ People should hear frequently about how well they’re performing. Even if doing away with the annual performance process is not feasible for you, institute much more frequent meetings to discuss performance. ▶ If doing away with the annual review process is an option for you, try it! The process is a big waste of time and can become a stand-in for real-time information about performance. ▶ Either make performance improvement plans genuine efforts to help people improve performance or get rid of them. ▶ The chances you’ll get sued by an employee who is let go are vanishingly slim, especially if you have been responsibly and regularly sharing with that person the problems you perceive with their performance. ▶ The focus on employee engagement is misplaced; there is not necessarily a correlation between high engagement and high performance. There is also not necessarily a correlation between high performance in a current job and high performance in the job of the future. ▶ Use my algorithm in making personnel decisions: Is what this person loves to do, that they’re extraordinarily good at doing, something we need someone to be great at? ▶ All managers can actively help their exiting team members find great new opportunities; goodbyes can be very good. ▶ Managers who adopt thi...