Stop 360° Performance Feedback Now

For those not familiar with 360° Performance Feedback, here's how it works in a nutshell: 360° Performance Feedback is feedback that comes from all around an employee. "360" refers to the 360 degrees in a circle, with an individual figuratively in the center of the circle. Feedback is provided by subordinates, peers, and supervisors. It also includes a self-assessment and, in some cases, feedback from external sources such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders. The results from 360-degree feedback are often used by the person receiving the feedback to plan training and development. (Source: Wikipedia)

But here's my problem with it: if a co-worker is too afraid to send back a salty bowl of soup in a restaurant because they don't want to seem like a complainer, they can't just all-of-a-sudden be able to grow a pair and be able to offer honest, no-holds-barred feedback for a co-worker. No way. They'd be scared to death of creating animosity.

The 360° Performance Feedback model is based on the premise that people will tell the truth. But you know you don't. You don't address someone who parks like an ass and takes up part of a second space. You don't speak up when you get poor service - you whine about it to your friends though - lot of good that does. You won't even talk to the guy with really bad body odor because you don't want to hurt his feelings.

You're so afraid to hurt someone else's feelings that you swallow your own. That's cowardly and cowards are liars. They will say only that which makes people like them. They will not be honest for fear of being confrontational. Worst of all, they don't want people to criticize them so they say everything is fine. A co-worker's performance is fine. Not getting the promotion is fine. Annoyed by disruptive behavior? Nope it's fine too. Everything is fine (unless you get a one-on-one with the boss and then you secretly tell her that you're annoyed). But you go home and whine to your spouse and friends about how bad it is.

So now do you really believe your co-workers when they say that you're doing a great job?

Stop the 360° Performance Feedback now. It fosters lying, deceit and withholding the truth - and it's killing your corporate culture.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

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Relationships That Work

Do you have a customer that you speak ill of behind their backs? Do you have a co-worker who you make sure you say things about out of earshot because the things you say are not very complimentary? How about your spouse - do you complain a little about them when they're not around?

How long do you think a marriage would last if both partners spoke ill of the other behind their backs constantly? That kind of relationship is doomed to fail.

A customer that you can't speak well of should not be your customer. I mean, if you're prepared to accept his money while he looks you in the face but you bad-mouth him and his business when he turns his back means you're, in effect, ruining his business - the same one whose money you gladly accept.

How about that co-worker who is just a pain in your butt and, for the sake of not creating workplace conflict, you swallow your barbs to her face but when she's out of the room, you put her down to your other co-workers. How long is that relationship bound to last? Until you get caught?

Relationships that last are built on a foundation of mutual respect - not disrespect, backstabbing and conflict. If that's what your relationships look like then you're really missing the Attitude of Connectedness in your day to day life. The Attitude of Connectedness simply is the mindset that everyone is connected to everyone else - by business, family, marriage or network. You can't badmouth one person and not expect it to come around. Everyone is connected.

You can't just swallow your words and instead continue to think ill of others. What you're thinking is all over your face. People can see it. A fake smile won't make you successful. You have to feel it. You have to live it. People will think and speak well of you if you think and speak well of others - genuinely. But if you complain about your co-workers, your customers AND your spouse, then it's not everyone else. You are the common denominator in every one of those poor relationships.  

You'll never get to "greatness" by putting others down. Tearing others down does not elevate you.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Hope I Didn't Complain Too Much

I spent a little time with Bill recently. He’s in his eighties now and lives alone. He spends most of his days in front of the TV as he needs a walker to get around. He has a boarder who lives downstairs and she is supposed to fix his meals and keep him company in exchange for a substantial reduction on her rent. Meals are mostly frozen prepared dinners from the grocery store. She never spends more than five minutes at a time with Bill and he complains about it. And I understand that. For a man in his eighties, he’s being taken advantage of.

Our conversation lasted about an hour. We covered a lot of things including some regrets he has in his life, his loneliness, his estranged family and his quality of life. There’s no one to talk to. His meals come out of a microwave. He can’t drive anymore. He’s bound to his house. It’s kind of tough to be upbeat about life when those are the results you have near the end of it.

As I was walking down the front walk after our visit, he simply yelled out, “Hope I didn’t complain too much.”

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Perhaps Bill’s last words to me that day should be the last words you leave people with. Instead of saying, “goodbye” or “so long” perhaps you should close with, “hope I didn’t complain too much.”

What different conversations you’d end up having with others if you knew you were going to end the conversation with, “hope I didn’t complain too much.”

In fact, I think ending a conversation with “hope I didn’t complain too much” would actually cement the conversation you had with someone else. Both of the talk partners would be forced to reflect on the conversation to see if one or the other did complain too much.

But it will never fly. People just don’t want to be accountable for their conversations. People just want to complain. They want to whine and moan about how tough their lives are and use it as an excuse for not doing better. They don’t want to get out of their ruts and routines and enjoy something better. They don’t want to improve their circumstances or their lives because, well, it’s hard work and they already work hard enough. No. You’ll never hear those words at the end of a conversation because no one really would mean it.

So I guess life will just go on the same way, getting the same results and complaining about the same things. It’s easier to be lazy and complain than it is to fix a sorry life. So feel free to make your choice. It probably won’t be any different anyway.

Hope I didn’t complain too much.

Boss Tip #6 - Keep Your Mouth Shut

Over the Christmas holidays, I ran across an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that claimed that 27% of employees said that their bosses made negative comments about them to other employees and other managers.

Now just picture this: lining up 100 bosses in a row, having 27 of them step forward and accusing them of talking about their employees to other employees behind their backs. How incredibly juvenile and malicious is this, really?

I couldn’t believe what I read. It was sourced from the College of Business at Florida Sate University who surveyed some 700 people in a variety of jobs. This was only one of their findings. But this is the one that surprised me the most. Bosses? Talking badly about employees to other employees? Jeez are we still in high school?

It’s time for these bosses to start growing up. What possible good can come from talking to employees about the performance of other employees? You can only hope, as a boss, that the person you’re telling doesn’t clue in that in five minutes you may be talking to someone else about him or her. Gossip is one of the most demoralizing factors in any office. And when that gossiper is in a supervisory position, the company is in big trouble.

Employee morale drops. Performance numbers fall. Attrition rises dramatically. Training budgets become stretched to the max from having to hire so many new people. The company will have a bad reputation with its employees. And once it becomes part of the corporate culture, good luck finding qualified people willing to work there.

If this gossiper sounds like your boss, risk the loss of your job by going over their heads and demanding a change. The boss that talks about their people to other employees needs to be fired today. If their immediate supervisors are reluctant to do something about it, they should be fired too.

And if you can’t find a way to make senior management do something about the problem, then plan your exit strategy and perhaps consider doing what they do: talk to others behind their backs – others like the media.

Nothing solves a problem quicker than the watchful eye of the general public and a subsequent drop in business. No business can afford to keep loose-lipped bosses in their ranks. Business, be prepared to take your lumps if you choose to keep these poor excuses for mentors on-board. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior from anyone in a supervisory capacity. Doing nothing condones the behavior and actually fosters more.

Make sure your supervisors are skilled in the art of tact, confidentiality and diplomacy. If you don’t, you’ll pay – one way or another.