The Reluctant Facilitator

That was me. I was coming out of graduate school, and knew that I wanted to focus my career on organizational development. But, I was fearful about one aspect of it; facilitation. I had well-meaning people share their fears for me (not exactly affirming), telling me how difficult it can be if analytical types didn’t want to learn. I had my own fears, too… how could a more reserved person like myself (for those playing at home, I’m a S on the DiSC profile), become a facilitator? What if people didn’t like what I had to say? What if I couldn’t manage the group? What if people didn’t get to speak their minds? Or, yikes…. what if they did?

What I started to begin to realize, while working with an incredible group of top-notch professionals (you know who you are) were two things: Facilitation is a skill. And, it’s not about me.

So, the good news is that facilitation is a skill and can be learned. It’s like anything else that you can develop. Sure, it helps if you are process-oriented. If you are confident in your knowledge. If you like people. If you are a good listener. But, ultimately, it’s a skill that can be learned, modeled and replicated. With feedback. And support. And, we can get better.

What perhaps was even more insightful was when I realized it’s not about me. I internalized the idea that I’m there for the sole purpose to help other people grow. To help other people develop. To help other people process information. To help other people be heard. That was the game changer. I stopped worrying so much if I was on pace with the timing, and instead focused more about asking the question that no one was being asked. I stopped worrying if I was on the right page of my manual, and shifted my attention instead to the shy person (who hadn’t spoken) to make sure they had a chance to voice their fears. And, I stopped worrying about whether I was getting my point across, and decided to focus on asking and listening to theirs.

When I adjusted my mindset, everything changed for me. I actually remember looking back to the exact moment when I wasn’t aware of myself anymore, and was truly present and focused with them. I moved from performing, to connecting. This can happen for you, too.

If you are interested in Facilitation Skills for the Reluctant Facilitator for yourself or your team, please contact jane at jane@hintzlearning.com.

Performance Management, Reimagined

It’s that dreaded season for many. It’s Performance. Review. Time. While performance management (btw, don’t we need a new name for that?) is much more comprehensive than just the appraisal, it doesn’t seem that way if it’s done poorly. We’ve all heard the stories about goals that were never set. Discussions that never happened. Leaders who want to do a great job, but don’t know where to start. And, for many, it’s the actual performance review that seems synonymous with performance management. In its worst state, a performance review is the once-a-year, top-down, one-way assessment that is quickly conducted by their managers in between their “real work”.

And, for the truly unlucky, there is a….wait-for-it…. big surprise that is revealed during the review. It might be the glaring omission of recognition for work done well, and goals accomplished. It could be the mention of negative comments from a peer that were never discussed before. It could be a rating that doesn’t seem accurate.

Receiving a performance review that doesn’t match up to what you believe about your own skills, efforts and development is not inspiring. Or fun. And, it’s not likely to engage employees for the long term.

Is that what we want to accomplish with performance management? Does it really have to be like that? Not if we reimagine it.

What if team members took an active role in performance management; by setting their own goals, working on development, and seeking feedback? What if they walked away from frequent performance discussions with genuine support and renewed motivation to do their best work? What if there were no surprises?

Is this too much to ask? I mean, really? I find myself thinking about this subject a lot (I know… weird). I believe this reimagined outcome is often what we are striving for as HR professionals and leaders, and I’m happy to say that many of my clients have done exceptional work in this area.

Some of the incredible organizations I had the pleasure of working with took deep dives into emphasizing People First in performance management. We always start with philosophy- what are they trying to accomplish? What is the meaning of PM? What goes wrong? We looked at different components such as the ratings (did the wording actually capture what each rating meant? Were they inclusive? Were they motivating?). We revised the training- emphasizing roles and intended outcomes, and support. We kept going back to the overall intent, making sure everything created (processes, forms, tools) aligned with it. These teams and leaders made huge positive changes in reimagining their performance management.

Interestingly, some companies have thrown out their annual performance reviews altogether because, well, they just don’t need them if they are doing all of the other things right.

If we truly believe that most employees want to do well and be successful in their jobs, we need to shift our focus toward building programs that create environments for motivation. And let’s give managers the tools they need to be able to help drive this process, and give feedback in a way that develops their teams to take on the stretch goals that are being asked of them. No one said it was easy. Let’s help them.

If leaders truly want engaged, productive and growth-focused employees, isn’t reimagining performance management a step in the right direction?

If you are interested in finding out more about how HLD can help you and your team reimagine PM, please contact us at jane@hintzlearning.com

Yes, feedback is a gift

I remember hearing that for the first time early in my career and thinking, really? Why doesn’t it always feel like a present?

For a lot of us, the idea of getting feedback can strike fear in our hearts. Our past experiences may have led to this… perhaps it wasn’t handled in the best way. Maybe because it was critical. Could be the intent of the person delivering it wasn’t supportive. Or, maybe the feedback was better than we thought it would be, but we were scared anyway.

I’ve come to realize that thinking of feedback as a gift can change our perspective. Our careers. Our personal lives. When we truly think of it as a gift, we are open to hearing what we are doing that works really well, or things that can be improved. Someone is (bravely) taking the time to share with us what they think. Granted, some people may not deliver feedback in the way that we can best hear it. Or maybe their intent isn’t exactly altruistic (and believe me, you can feel that). But, nevertheless, they are giving it to us. The good news? We can choose to apply or delete.

What if we were able to gratefully accept feedback, knowing that we have the opportunity to keep doing the things that work, and to stop or modify doing the things that get in the way of our own effectiveness? What if we could learn something that would help us make immediate changes today, instead of many years down the road?

So, instead of thinking of gifts only in terms of packages, gift cards, and fruitcakes, let’s add feedback to that list. It may be the best present that we will receive this season.