Evaluations and Trust

This one is a stream of consciousness I had in the car on the way home from work yesterday. (July 30 2009) I’d been required by HR to execute several annual performance evaluations earlier that day. I say “required” because I don’t like doing them and my colleagues don’t like to be on the receiving end either. These performance evaluations make us all uncomfortable. I don’t think the discomfort comes from the way I handle the review, or what I say. I think the discomfort lies in the fact that my colleagues are being reviewed at all.

These are motivated hard-working professional folks who know their jobs and do them well. They see something that needs doing and they get it done. In most cases they know their jobs better than I know their jobs, and so evaluating them is demeaning to them, and presumptuous of me as the manager. They know exactly what they’ve done this year; and I know only what I’ve observed. Their self-knowledge is complete while my observations are incomplete; their own self-evaluations would be much harder on themselves than I would be.

As motivated professionals they are already striving for perfection. They don’t need, or want, me to point out their imperfections. They are already all too self-aware of their own imperfections, so these annual performance evaluations were an exercise of congratulations and acknowledgement. I deliver a few spoken words to acknowledge that I know who they are and what they have done; it’s an annual word of thanks for the hard work this year, and all the previous years, and the expectation that great deeds will be performed this coming year as well.

Having thought through all this in the car I realized we had Trust. A small eureka moment for me, but that is all I’ve ever had; small short moments of insight. By trusting each other we actually work harder and better. None of us wants to let the other down. I trust my colleagues to know their jobs and do their jobs. We hire good people and let them do what needs doing. That is waaaay more than “their job”. Leaving them alone doesn’t communicate trust; it IS trust. Having that trust is a badge of honor. People of integrity seek it and earn it. A person of integrity will move mountains before betraying the trust placed in them.

I would never attempt to do something as devious as managing or manipulating my colleagues. Any direction or managing by me is done through answering questions or offering an occasional suggestion. We all know who the boss is. If anything, we need to do a better job of forgetting who the boss is. We need to say what needs to be said, and do what needs to be done, and if we have the right kind of environment, my being the “boss” will allow those things to happen freely rather than being an obstacle. I like to think we have that trusting environment where my colleagues know they can say and do what needs to be done without fear of reprisal.

Sorry. Once again that turned into me patting myself on the back. Self-glorification must be what I do best. I really just meant to say that the office is a great group of folks.

July 31, 2009