How Do A, B, Q, and O's Approaches to Tasks Reflect on Your Work Performance?

How is Your Work Performance?

Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked, "What is my job for the day?"
• The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.
• "A" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said, "GOOD JOB."

The next day, Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him for the job of the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.
• Employee "B," before starting the task, saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank. He realized "C" had the same task.
• Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross the river.
• "B" reported back to the manager, and the manager smiled and said, "VERY GOOD JOB."

The following day, Employee "Q" reported to the same manager and asked him for the job of the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
• Employee "Q," before starting the work, did some homework and realized "A," "B," and "C" had all done this task before. He met them and understood how they performed.
• He realized that there was a need for a guide and training for doing this task.
• He sat down first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river. He documented the common mistakes people made and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly.
• Using the methodology he had written down, he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with the documented procedure and training material.
• The manager said, "Q, you have done an EXCELLENT JOB."

The following day, Employee "O" reported to the manager and asked him for the job of the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
• "O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole task.
• He realized the company was spending a lot of money on getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to anyone."
• The manager smiled and said, "Outstanding job, 'O.' I am very proud of you."

What is the Difference Between A, B, Q & O?

Many times in life, we get tasks to be done at home, at the office, or at play. Most of us end up doing what is expected of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably, yes. We are often disappointed when the recognition does not meet our expectations.

Let us compare ourselves with "B." Helping someone else with the problem often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author): "Learn to teach and teach to learn." From a company point of view, "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.

"Q" created a knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from others' mistakes is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces costs, thereby increasing the productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills.

Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset for the team. If you notice, B, Q, and O all have demonstrated "team performance" over and above individual performance; they have also demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE."

Initiative pays off everywhere, whether at work or in personal life. If you have initiative, you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process, and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year.

The story provides an instance of performance, whereas measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently, performance should be consistent and evenly spread.

Out-of-the-box thinkers are always at a premium, and that is what everyone constantly looks out for. Initiative, out-of-the-box thinking, and commitment are the stepping stones to success. Initiative should be lifelong. Think out of the box.

Thank you, Mr. Ankit, for sharing such a nice and simple example of work performance. With this example, anyone unaware of work performance can easily understand. Once again, thank you for explaining work performance at the grassroots level.

It's very nice, but let's look deeper. For example, you approach your boss with your innovative idea, but he is not open-minded or prefers traditional methods and doesn't want to change. What can you do to make the company work better? I see two ways: either you can prove your opinion and succeed, or the boss will not listen to you.

As an HR professional who is just starting out, I see a lot of conflicts like this, where people want to show initiative, but sometimes bosses don't value their ideas. Let's discuss that. How can we make communication more effective? How can we start listening to each other and create an environment where everyone listens and recognizes each other's talents?

For example, when Walt Disney started his career, his first boss said that his ideas were bad. He then used those ideas to create his famous companies. So, there is actually a topic for discussion. How do we solve these problems? I mean the problem of recognizing talents and different opinions. Please don't speak in clichés. Be creative and use your brain when discussing everything.

Initiative is important and separates mediocre workers from excellent ones, and high achievers from the also-rans. Helping others, documenting the process, or figuring out an elegant way to accomplish the same tasks are examples of initiative that are context-specific. For example, if an urgent customer issue arises, you'd be expected to resolve it quickly instead of documenting the process or figuring out other methods. The point is, forms of initiative may change depending on the situation (and we must not fall into the trap of assuming that I will document the process of every task assigned to me), but initiative is always in high demand.

Regards

Understanding these issues in advance and taking remedial steps will ensure that performance appraisal is both meaningful and fruitful for the organization.

Problem with Performance Appraisal

The Halo Effect

The halo effect is introduced when an overall impression of an individual is judged based on a single trait. A high rating on one trait leads automatically to a high rating on all other traits. Also, a very high rating may be given to protect an employee for whom there may be personal sympathy.

Poorly Trained Managers

Effective performance appraisal doesn't just happen, and organizations shouldn't assume that managers know how to conduct them effectively, even if they have many years of experience as managers. In fact, since the process can differ from organization to organization, it is important that training is provided to introduce managers to the philosophy of performance appraisal at the organization, including a review of the forms, the rating system, and how the data gathered is used.

The Central Tendency

It is the most commonly found error. It is the tendency of most raters to give average ratings to all or the center of the scale. This may be due to the fact that a very high rating or a very low rating could invite questions, criticisms, or explanations. Accordingly, an average rating is safer. It could also be due to the fact that the rater lacks sufficient knowledge about the applicant and hence does not want to commit himself one way or another.

Errors of Variable Standards

It is quite possible that organizations follow different standards of performance. Some divisional heads may require a much higher quality of performance than others.

Inconsistent Ratings

Inter-rater reliability is generally very low between managers at any organization. What one manager considers to be "acceptable" performance, another may consider "not meeting expectations." This can be a challenge for any organization and is made more challenging in situations where the criteria used are subjective and not based on any measurable performance outcomes.

Lack of Outcome-Based Measures

Performance appraisals that ask managers to rate employees on subjective criteria such as "customer service skills" or "leadership ability" lack specific outcomes that can be tied to measurable results. The best performance appraisals provide the ability for both managers and employees to judge performance based on measurable outcomes that are objective; the level of sales, safety records, and evaluations from customers are all measurable ways of providing insight into an employee's performance.

Other Miscellaneous Biases

There may be some built-in biases in the minds of the rater, based on his perception of things, people, and performances. A person may be rated higher because he is a "nice" person or because of his seniority.

A very good share, I must say. I would like to share a thought that just came to my mind.

Errors in Appraisal Process

Often, we talk about the errors made by our managers or supervisors while appraising us: Halo Effect, Central Tendency, Untrained/Poorly trained Managers, Rater having no knowledge of the actual job role of the person being appraised, etc. However, are we taking the appraisal process in the right sense?

Common Misconceptions About Appraisals

Most of us, as employees, believe that the appraisal is all about the following:

1. Managers and Supervisors will rate us and give us some score.
2. The HR will manipulate those records and ratings to bring in something called the bell curve effect.
3. There would be results not meeting expectations.
4. Managers will decide on salary increments depending on the ratings we finally receive.
5. If we are poorly rated (for whatever reasons), we would either be sent to a training period or would be (directly or indirectly) terminated.

But is the performance measurement all about only the above work?

Understanding Performance Measurement

In order to measure something, we must know how to measure it. In simple words, if we are measuring the length of the road, we will use the meter scale. If we are measuring the quantity of liquid, we would use the liter scale. If we are to measure the solid, we would use the kilo scale. What scale are we to use while measuring performance? How would our performance be measured? What criteria would be taken into consideration?

Taking Responsibility for Performance

We take the process so lightly and so much for granted that we never feel obligated to do something to improve our performance. Do we ever try to find out what our roles and responsibilities are? What our managers expect from us? What are our KRAs and KPIs on which we would be judged? Did we ask the HR about how performance is converted into numbers? How is performance tracked and measured?

It is very convenient to say that we are not rated properly and that some adjustments were made, but we would never consider the option of first knowing what is expected from us and then asking where we lagged so that we can improve next time. It is a very general practice that if someone is rated very low, he or she would look for a new job and change jobs instead of going to the supervisor and asking what the gap is between the performance and their expectation. Always ensure you get the expectation out of your manager so that you know what you will be judged on.

Regards

This is a good story, but my question is whenever our boss or senior assigns any work to us, we just do the assigned job without raising any query about why this job/work and what value our work will hold once we complete the task. We are working without knowing the objective of the assigned job/work. In my opinion, we should raise queries whenever we are assigned any job/work.

Regards,
Rao Rajbir
Sr. Executive HR