As shop owners and service managers in the automotive repair or tire industries, we love to compete and are willing to take on the world in our efforts to attract and service customers. But we seem to lose that aggressive attitude when it comes to our own people, particularly when it comes to performance reviews and evaluations.
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I am strongly of the opinion that excellence — just like mediocrity — is a choice, and in our hiring, in our standards and in our shop process, we have the opportunity to be extraordinary or to be something else. If we truly want to be among the very best shops in our market, then we not only have to talk about it, but we also have to hire the right people, set standards for service and performance and be willing to lead our people in directions that will set us and our shop above the competition.
People are funny, and though there is no doubt they can upset us and leave us high and dry, they also can surprise us in very good ways and exceed our expectations if we let them. If we are asking them for nothing, nothing is generally what we will get but by that very same token. If we ask them for something better and support them in the effort, they are very likely to give us all that we would ask of them and maybe much more. All of that is truly up to us and buried in what we are asking or not asking for.
The Right Approach
Rather than approaching those biannual or annual reviews in the same way we approach a colonoscopy or those dental appointments we have every five or six years whether we need them or not, I suggest going into them aware of where we are, aware of where we want to be and prepared to talk about what it is going to take for us, both as individuals and as a team, to get to where we need to be.
If we truly have a process in place (you are in a distinct minority) and our people have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, then these annual or biannual reviews are truly nothing more than a recap (good or bad) of what our staff members have done since their last evaluation. If they have done well (met or exceeded our expectations) tell them so and in the most descriptive, specific terms we can come up with. In your last go round ,you took the opportunity to define success for them and if they were in fact successful, this review and evaluation needs to be nothing short of a celebration. If in that last go round you laid out clearly defined goals and expectations and they were not met, we have the opportunity to redirect the efforts of our staff member and understand what is holding him or her back.
This is not a time to waffle or back off on reasonable expectations, but it is a time to show our support for somebody who is struggling to do the things that need to be done. With a strong process in place with clearly defined expectations built into it, we have the opportunity to measure and manage the performance of our staff members and more importantly, our staff members understand each and every day what is expected of them and how they need to be spelling success. Everyone is aware and there are no surprises when it comes time for that evaluation and never forget, honesty is by far the best policy.
If, on the other hand, our process up to now has been haphazard and poorly defined and we are unclear as to how successful our staff members have been, we have done them and ourselves a disservice and need to take immediate steps to define our expectations and success so that our staff members have some chance toward achieving what we want and the opportunity to move the shop in better directions. Remember, if we are not asking our people for something better as we sit down with them, they are not going to give it to us. However, if we make each one of these evaluations an honest and open discussion of where we are and where we need to be, we might find ourselves inching toward something better and approaching those goals we had set for our self and our shop those many years ago.
We are not going to get there without our people, I can promise you that, but with just a little effort toward defining our expectations and developing a process that we and our staff members can believe in, we just might find that success we have been looking for. This whole process is nothing more or less than us defining where we want to go, sharing it with our people, managing the process and leading our people in the right direction.
Susan M. Heathfield of the Society for Human Resource Management says, “An effective performance management system sets new employees up to succeed, so they can help your organization succeed. An effective performance management system provides enough guidance so people understand what is expected of them. It provides enough flexibility and wiggle room so that individual creativity and strengths are nurtured. It provides enough control so that people understand what the organization is trying to accomplish.”
The heart of any performance management system is our people understanding what we expect of them and our stubborn insistence that they perform.
Remember, We are all Human
Nobody, and I mean nobody, likes performance evaluations, and that is for the simple reason that over the years, businesses (both big and small) have made them more confrontational than objective and more a means of thwarting pay increases or promotions than the review of an individual's performance that they could and should be.
Another reason they are universally hated is because the process behind them tended to be fractured and prone to bias. If my objective, as laid out in my performance plan, is to sell 100 widgets in a year and though I sell 130 widgets, my annual review says I was somehow less than successful or highlights that I was late three times and dismisses those widget sales, how am I supposed to spell success and more importantly why would I put myself out and try harder if I am only going to get shot down anyway. We have the opportunity to define success and our responsibility is to praise it and reward it. If you define success and your staff members are accomplishing the things you ask of them then they are successful and our shop should be as well.
That is unless we are not asking for enough. It is up to us to define success. When we sit down to evaluate our people and to set goals for the coming year, we should do something different and ask them for something better. They might surprise us.
Harold S. Geneen, a giant and leader of the business world, said, “It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.”
What reality is coming out of your biannual and annual evaluations? The truth might just set us free.
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