Welcome to the new Manager podcast.
I'm your host, Kim Nickel. Hello and welcome.
I'm glad you're here and I hope you're doing well.
This week. I have attended a couple of very
interesting events around AI. That's not going to be the focus
of our conversation today. But the reason I mention it is
because as I'm continuing to learn about what it means for
the workplace and what it means for different industries,
there's a lot. Like, there's so much.
There's so much to learn. There's so much happening, and I
feel like I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to understand
the language with which people talk about it and how to
structure my own thinking because I find it to be a topic
that, you know, the language around it is still very
imprecise. Like people will say, do you use
AI at work? And my initial thought is, no, I
don't, I very, I, I really don't, I don't intentionally say
I will use AI for this. But when I think about it, I
think, well, actually that's not correct.
Because for example, I use Zoom for, you know, for all of my
video calls with my clients and also with my classes that I
teach. And in Zoom, there is a tool
that allows you to generate an AI summary of the conversation
or the meeting. And I don't use this very often
right now, but in the past I have because sometimes my
clients will ask, hey, can we use that?
NA, that AI enabled tool to generate a summary.
And even though you know it's not 100% precise, it's still, it
can still be a helpful tool to document some of the high level
topics that we talked about. So there have been times when I
have used this tool that is AI enabled, but because of the way
that it's integrated into a tool that I'm already using, I
sometimes don't even realize or think about it.
And interestingly enough, I was at my nephew's birthday party
over the weekend. He just turned 8.
So it was a really big deal and a great reason to get together
with family. And the topic of AI came up.
And in my family, there are, you know, I have family members who
are teachers. So the conversation around what
does that mean for education and especially for kids, you know,
elementary school kids and middle school kids.
And also, I was very surprised to learn that my mom uses AI
quite regularly. And she uses a summary tool in
the course of her work to, you know, go through all of the
notes and all of the transcripts of the the work that she does.
And then it generates a summary of here are all of the things
that were discussed. And I thought that was quite
interesting. So I'm continuing to learn and
just kind of keep my eyes and ears open.
I found a really interesting conversation at the intersection
of entrepreneurialism, AI and climate and sustainability.
And we had SF Climate Week not that long ago.
So there were lots of conversations around, you know,
around climate and sustainability.
And that in and of itself is a really big, big topic.
But I went to this meet up the other night because I was
curious to find out what is the conversation that's happening,
especially in the workplace and what that means.
And, you know, I ended up having some really great conversations
with, you know, someone who really cares about soil and the
soil Biome and regenerative agriculture and different
implications around like, what does AI mean for that?
And I talked with somebody else who knows a lot about
bioplastics and different sources of materials through
which we can create, you know, plastics, but not using
petroleum based materials. But I was like, oh, like, like
the fork I'm using right now that is like a, you know,
compostable fork. So I mean, just to say that it
is such a a big topic and it seems to be a little bit
everywhere right now. So if you are also feeling kind
of overwhelmed, I think you're in good company and it's OK.
I'm, you know, we're going to kind of learn and find our way
through this all at our own pace.
And I think that's, you know, that's just the best way to go
about it. So I wanted to share an update
on my, you know, my AI learning journey.
And then today, the topic I wanted to really focus on with
you is the conversation around feedback and performance
reviews. And in your course of being a
manager, you're going to do both.
But I wanted to pause and really talk about these two separately
because I think sometimes the language around feedback and
performance reviews can be imprecise and very blurry.
And I, you know, I recently taught my class, you know, this
module and it made me think that, oh, I should bring some
move this to you as well because it's, it's really helpful in
the, in both the day-to-day, but also when you think about the
course of the year in your role as a manager, what does it mean
for you to be thinking about feedback and to be thinking
about performance reviews, how those two things are separate
and how they go together. So let's get into it.
So with feedback, think of it as the overall category and then
performance reviews happen as one part of that.
With feedback, you're going to give feedback in a wide range of
situations and relationships. You can give feedback, of
course, to the people that report up to you.
You might be giving feedback up the chain to your manager or
even to your skip level. You might be giving feedback to
your colleagues or other managers, directors and leaders,
other people that you know, they don't report to you, but you
still have a working relationship with them.
So there are very wide range of situations where you will use
feedback as a, you know, kind of specific category of
communication. You're also going to use
feedback generally for different purposes.
You might use it to influence or to shape a relationship.
You might use it to influence or shape up like a product, a
process or an outcome. There are different reasons why
you might want to give feedback. Sometimes you'll give feedback
just to establish a record of having reviewed something you
know, participated in the conversation.
Like there are different reasons, different purposes for
why you would give feedback. And you can think of it as a
tool for influencing behavior, shaping relationships,
facilitating change, and also for learning and for getting
better. So feedback, you might be, it
might be something that you request in order for you to
learn and to get better at something.
Or it might be something that you offer as a, you know, a way
of, of learning like, OK, we learned this, this is the
feedback we received. So as you know, a team or as an
organization, we want to work to get better in this way.
And importantly, no matter what your title is, you can give
feedback. The way you give it might differ
depending on the power dynamic and the relationship that's in
place. But you can give your feedback,
you know, no matter what, what your title or position, you can
give feedback, request it. You can also receive feedback
from all kinds of directions no matter what.
So that's feedback. Now, over here, we have
performance reviews, which is sort of a very specific purpose
in an organization. And #1 realize that every
organization handles performance reviews a little bit
differently. In some organizations, it's
going to be a very formal process.
In others, it might be a little bit more ad hoc.
And honestly, every organization is different.
So you want to be curious and understand how does this
organization do performance reviews?
Like are there specific platforms or tools for that?
Is there a specific timeline or timing for that?
So get curious about that part. Your performance review is
something that will happen between a manager and a direct
report. The purpose of the performance
review is to evaluate the performance of the person
against a known standard or expectation.
This part is really important because it can be overlooked or
it can get a little bit fuzzy as the course of the year goes by.
Because if we're not clear about what is the standard to which
someone will be evaluated, then it can feel very arbitrary or
very unfair about, you know, you're giving me this feedback
and saying I'm, you know, not performing well, but according
to my standard, I am. And if there was no agreed upon
standard or expectation in place, then it is really tricky
to give useful feedback. So at some point you want to be
clear that, you know, are we on the same page and are we in
agreement about what is the known standard to which someone
will be evaluated? Is there clarity and agreement
about what the expectations are for what this person will be
performing at? With performance reviews also,
you know, they shouldn't be a surprise and they shouldn't be a
surprise because feedback has been happening along the way.
It shouldn't be a surprise if someone gets reviewed and marked
at, you know, performing below expectations.
They should have a good sense of the ballpark of where they're
going to land because you've been giving feedback along the
way. And that means both telling them
what they're doing well, helping them to course correct.
Or if they think they're doing great and you're thinking, oh,
this is not what we expected, have that conversation early so
they have a chance to correct. We don't want to ambush or
surprise people with their performance reviews.
Now, importantly, performance reviews are very often tied to
compensation and advancement. So that's raises, bonuses,
promotions. Those are very personal and real
consequences. Anytime we're talking about
someone's livelihood, what they're getting paid, whether
they're going to get a bonus or get a promotion to the next
level. That's where performance reviews
carry a lot more weight and have a lot more importance, where
feedback doesn't necessarily tie directly to that.
With performance reviews, because we are specifically
evaluating the performance that someone is giving, they'll tie
into these more financial consequences.
And if someone has been struggling or they haven't been
performing to the level that's been agreed upon and expected,
that's where it could also turn into or be connected to a
performance improvement plan or a PIP as it's often called in
the HR space. And I, you know, that might vary
a little bit country to country or industry to industry.
In the US, I've heard it primarily referred to as a PIP
and that's, you know, a performance improvement plan
when someone is not performing well.
And as an organization, the thought maybe we might need to
manage this person out, but we can't simply fire them without
having documented that they are aware that their performance is
below standard. We have to give them a chance.
We have to help support them in raising their performance.
A PIP is a formal tool or process where HR, your human
resources team will typically be involved in structuring that and
there's usually timelines and set goals or milestones in order
to see can this person raise their performance level.
So again, that's something that falls under the category with
our performance reviews, that's really important.
And also with performance reviews, these are typically
going to be a formal process that everyone in the
organization goes through at the same time.
So there's very often a performance review season where
everyone in the organization is going to be doing the
performance reviews, you know, for their team and maybe for
yourself. With a lot of organizations,
there is a self-assessment as well where you would say, OK,
this is what I said I would accomplish within this time
period. Here's how I was successful or
not, this is what happened. And then that self review might
get compared to the managers assessment and say, Yep, like
agree or no, like this is what I observed or this is the evidence
that I saw and I've come to a different conclusion.
So there's typically a formal process that everyone in the
organization goes through around the same time.
And also with that formality, with performance reviews, your
organization will typically have a policy regarding
documentation, what is documented, how is it
documented, where is it documented?
And this may stay kind of with that employee's, you know,
personnel record over the time that they've been with that
organization. So there's something that's a
little bit more lasting and around the documentation aspect
that can then of course come into play around promotions.
Or if someone says, look, I've had this long record of
performing at a very high level and yet I continue to not be
promoted or I continue to not receive a pay that's
commensurate with the documented performance that I have been
been doing over the last couple of years.
And, you know, every organization is different here.
And it's reminding me, you know, this can get really tricky for a
couple of reasons. One is you might work in an
organization where you have someone who has been performing
at a very high level consistently, but because the
organization might be very flat, there's nowhere for them to go.
They might not have a clear path of advancement and in that
situation, a couple things might happen.
You might actually have the conversation with them and say
you're amazing. I wish there was a role that I
could promote you into, but there isn't.
So how can I support you and your professional growth in
another way? Or you might be able to go to
the leadership and say, look, I've got this incredibly high
performing person, here's a record of their achievement over
time. My concern is that if we don't
have a role for them to grow into, they might leave.
They might look for something elsewhere.
And that might either, you know, create the conversation of is
there another role that we can either create for them?
Does that? Is that something that makes
sense for us to do, or is it more like, yeah, we might have
to live with the fact that they might end up leaving?
Having those kinds of conversations are part of what
performance reviews can do. And again, like some
organizations have very clear leveling and very clear
definitions and expectations of what's required at each level.
Some organizations, especially if you are in startup mode where
things are very fluid and there's not as much rigidity or
formal declaration about levels, there might be more
opportunities in that case to say, yeah, let's actually create
a new role for this person because it makes sense given
their track record, given what the organization needs.
We can now establish this new role of this new level.
So something to think about, You know, as we're recording this,
we're now coming into the month of May.
For a lot of your organization's, your fiscal year
is going to change in July. So you might be moving towards
performance reviews if that's something that happens in your
organization kind of mid year or even for some organizations they
do, you know, a formal performance review at mid year
and at year end. So be thinking about some of
these these elements, right? The difference between feedback,
which happens more frequently and then performance reviews
that happen within a more formal timeline and a more formal
process. You want to be aware of how
those things work together so that you can also be keeping
notes and keeping track of, you know, how people are doing so
that when you get to that formal performance review stage, you're
not trying to remember like, oh, what did they do this year?
I don't remember. I'm sure it was good, but I
actually can't remember anything specific.
We want to start creating some ways for it to be easy for you
to fill out those performance reviews.
So be curious about the process. Be curious about the timing, the
timeline, the tools, and think in terms of what is the feedback
you want to be giving overtime so that it doesn't become a huge
surprise when people are getting their performance reviews.
This is it as a topic that is honestly, it's one of the most
challenging ones for me to compress into my class because
there's actually a lot that can be said to that.
But hopefully this will give you some clarity of thought just as
you're, you know, starting to organize your own thinking about
what kinds of things are in your awareness and on your landscape
as you're thinking about what is the feedback that you need to be
giving? What, what is the feedback
you're avoiding giving is also a really good question.
What is the feedback you want to be receiving?
Maybe the feedback that you're not asking for.
And then thinking about performance review.
You know, when you're a manager and you're kind of stepping into
that leadership role, it's such a different kind of experience
when you're the one initiating and making decisions about
people's compensation, which sometimes happens too in the
process of doing performance reviews.
So use this to start thinking, to get curious, to kind of take
a step back and ask like, is there anything that I need to
put in place now that will help me when I get to that stage and
that process? So that's what I wanted to share
with you today. And if you want to learn more
than I encourage you to sign up for my next course on
communication strategies for managers.
You'll find links for that in the show notes.
It's a six week course and we have different specific topics
each week. All of them are related to
foundational skills that you will need to be more effective
working with different people, working with, you know, change
and uncertainty in your organization.
And what I found is when you have more clarity about those
things, about those fundamentals, it actually allows
the stress to come down because now you feel like you've got a
plan. And one of the things I love is
I really love supporting managers because I feel like,
you know, there's a lot on your shoulders and often not a lot of
help. So come and you know, you can
get help and support in that way.
Or if you want to work with me one-on-one, that's an option to
go to my website, kimnickel.com and we can set up time to talk
about your specific goals and situation and how coaching can
help. I will also add that I love it
when my clients and students are able to get their organization
to cover the cost of their learning and development.
So if that's something that you want to learn more about, I've
got a couple episodes already about that topic, but that's
something I can also work with you individually on.
It's usually just a very quick call and it doesn't take a lot
to actually get the wheels turning and realize, oh, this is
how I can present it in a compelling way to get my work to
say, yes, that's a great idea. We'd love to cover the cost of
that professional development for you.
So all to say, I'm really glad you're here.
Being a manager, it's a really important job and it's not
always easy. So thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening. And oh, if you like this
podcast, please leave a rating or a review.
It means a lot to me and it actually helps the show.
So again, thank you so much for listening.
I'm glad that you're here and I will talk to you next time.
When you're more effective at work, you're happier in your
life, and when you're happier in your life, you're more effective
at work. I can help.
Go to my website, kimnickel.com and sign up for a coaching
consult. It can get better.