Employees Who Say vs. Employees Who Show(karllhughes.com)
karllhughes.com
Employees Who Say vs. Employees Who Show
https://www.karllhughes.com/posts/sayers-vs-showers
3 comments
>I take notes every week on every employee I manage to track specific instances of positive and negative things they’re doing. This is really helpful for tracking behaviors in one-on-one reviews.
This seems to be on the micromanaging level of things. If you have to operate at this level, you're trying to "control" the all of the elements of the team dynamics, instead of letting the dynamics work for you.
A team is a team because it operates together. It isn't just about the manager-employee relationship.
>Give specific expectations and behaviors that you want the employee to execute. Don’t be vague or use words like, “better” or “more”. Be specific by saying, “You need to complete all stories within 25% of your estimates this month.”
This seems a bit metric-driven and metrics with a distribution of disproportionate work is going to drive bad culture and bad habits. The low-hanging fruit will drive metrics high for one individual and, if they're gaming the system, it will be obvious; but if it's all down to metrics, they're getting the job done, right?
This seems to be on the micromanaging level of things. If you have to operate at this level, you're trying to "control" the all of the elements of the team dynamics, instead of letting the dynamics work for you.
A team is a team because it operates together. It isn't just about the manager-employee relationship.
>Give specific expectations and behaviors that you want the employee to execute. Don’t be vague or use words like, “better” or “more”. Be specific by saying, “You need to complete all stories within 25% of your estimates this month.”
This seems a bit metric-driven and metrics with a distribution of disproportionate work is going to drive bad culture and bad habits. The low-hanging fruit will drive metrics high for one individual and, if they're gaming the system, it will be obvious; but if it's all down to metrics, they're getting the job done, right?
I don't look at taking detailed feedback notes as micro-managing, but rather as a way to make sure employees get valuable, specific feedback.
As an example, if my boss said, "hey, you're not really doing that great," but didn't offer specific examples of how I underperformed, I'd be frustrated and not likely to improve. If she said, "Last week at the product meeting, I noticed you were staring off into space and then had to have a question repeated. Are you okay?" I'd be a lot more apt to open up a conversation about things that are bugging me.
I guess I take notes so that my feedback can be specific and not general, not so I can tell employees exactly how to do their jobs.
As an example, if my boss said, "hey, you're not really doing that great," but didn't offer specific examples of how I underperformed, I'd be frustrated and not likely to improve. If she said, "Last week at the product meeting, I noticed you were staring off into space and then had to have a question repeated. Are you okay?" I'd be a lot more apt to open up a conversation about things that are bugging me.
I guess I take notes so that my feedback can be specific and not general, not so I can tell employees exactly how to do their jobs.
I've also seen countless of young engineers starting to welcome managers' feedback and "showing" their will to improve. Then, gradually,noticing their management incompetence (technical and/or managerial) and start "saying" stuff to avoid confrontation.
Self reexamination and accepting feeback is great to improve but what if the feedback is just plain wrong or contradictory ?
A lot a "sayers" in your team can be a red flag for your management skills.