To New Beginnings!

Table of Contents

• Happy New Year!

• On delivering performance evaluations

  • On equity and inclusion

• 1% Solutions

• Things I’m Reading

• What I’m Working On

• Feedback?

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I hope you all had a chance to rest and restore the past week or so. I unfortunately was under the weather for a good part of it, but it may have been my body simply telling me to go slower- not a bad thing. Perhaps that is what also led me to accidentally take nighttime Robitussin right before going to my dad’s house for the Feast of the Seven Fishes with about 13 adults, 3 kids and a very excited dog…definitely a memorable Christmas Eve.

Being under the weather also forced me to set aside time to do real reflection and set my strategic goals for the next year. Three days later, I have well-branded and color-coded spreadsheet with quarterly KPIs. A few of mine? This year, I loved being able to strategically advice and coach leaders, and want to focus more of my energy there. I’m also aiming to close my move ring on my Apple watch 90% of every month and get to 18k minutes on my Peloton app, because I’ve realized I’ve become so much more sedentary since working from home. What’s on your list?

On delivering performance evaluations

It’s that time of year!

In the same way many of us take stock of our personal or professional lives now, we should be continuously looking at the talent and capacity of our team. There has been a lot written recently on how continuous feedback is critical. And I agree! But- contrary to some of these articles- I also still believe that the performance evaluation is valuable, because creates a dedicated time to step back from all of the feedback given to identify trends, set next steps, and hear what your teammate may want or need to stay fulfilled and productive. We do that when it comes to profit, student achievement, or any other metric. We should give our people the same respect and attention.

I think of people planning in the same way that I used to think about curriculum planning- every part should build on the previous part, and there should be regular benchmarks where you assess data to determine targeted next steps. and while I don’t solely work with schools that have a more set talent calendar, the processes remain similar.

As I’m creating a playbook for a client, I’d share some top of mind reminders for managers. Even if you’ve done these before and know the general arc, I think it’s helpful to refresh (or reflect on whether you’ve communicated the below to the managers that report to you!)

• Authentically include the teammate’s voice in sharing their successes and challenges. If this is done through a self evaluation, be sure to frame the importance of it and be sure to read it and reference it

• Stamp the successes and challenges of the year- these should not be a surprise (though I have sometimes found that leader and teammate are not always aligned on prioritization here). Also? Be precise. In what context or in what situations does this strength or challenge area present itself? If you don’t know but notice that something isn’t consistently a strength or challenge, ask why they think that is.

• To the degree possible, encourage folks to leverage strengths to shore up gaps. This makes development feel more managable.

• If the feedback (or the severity of the challenge areas) for some reason is a surprise, or there’s been a real lack of growth, plan to save action planning for another time, Stamping what is will likely be hard to hear and you need to stamp this for the person. It’s not easy but being clear is the kindest thing you can do.

• Be sure to create space to ask your teammate about their future aspirations and what they need to be successful.

On equity and inclusion

If you signed up for this newsletter there is a high likelihood that you care about equity. Unfortunately, evaluations carry a significant risk of promoting inequity in part because of the use of personality feedback. Are you or your managers using words like professional, nice, ambitious, or aggressive? These words can sneak into performance evaluations in part because that’s how we were given performance evaluations. But not only is this type of feedback subjective, it is overwhelmingly given to women and people of color. And because it often doesn’t come with actionable steps, it hurts these groups’ chances for promotions, which in turn leads to attrition. It is one of the reasons we see the broken rung, an idea discussed in Lean In’s Women in the Workplace Report. There are several articles on this topic but Textio did a study in 2022 on this topic. If you are interested or want to use this as a shared reading for your leadership team, you can find it here.

Remember- the more accurate your reviews, the easier it will be to do the necessary talent planning, determine promotions or think through succession planning.

Also? If you are managing managers, make sure to dedicate either 1:1 or team meetings to review the above and norm on scoring and review language for clarity and kindness. When I did this, I would have managers bring an evaluation for someone that was a top performer and one for someone they were struggling to coach. They would explain the rationale behind scores and feedback while I simply asked clarifying questions: What do you mean by that? Are there other examples? Is that true in other contexts? This helped prep them to deliver feedback while also auditing for bias and clarity. We’d also discuss the scores for the entire team as a way to mitigate bias and ensure everyone was being held to similar standards. Use that agenda if you find it helpful!

1% Solutions

Busy leaders sometimes need actionable advice they can implement now. Because my mind is on schools, I’m thinking a lot about succession planning and recruitment- though these tips apply across industry.

• Succession Planning/Prepping your next leaders- You likely have folks that you will be promoting- individual contributors to managers, managers to directors, etc. As capable as these folks are, they are entering a new role and will need onboarding to help them succeed. How to focus your energy? I’d have them self-evaluate (with your input) using the evaluation of their future role. Then think through with them 1-2 high-leverage adaptive or tactical leadership skills for them to start focusing on and ways to support them in that development.(Also? While I provide leadership coaching, I am also fortunate to know so many coaches and entrepreneurs focused on leadership development. If you need a rec on trainings or coaches, feel free to email me!)

• Recruit from past candidates- Schools, districts and charter management organizations are busy gearing up for recruitment season. For other orgs, it’s always recruitment season. As you think about where you source, don’t forget one resource at your fingertips- past candidates. As this LinkedIn Talent blog article notes, recruiting your “silver medal” candidates from past searches can help save time and money

• Audit your digital footprint to determine your employer brand- Employer brand is what attracts folks to your organization in the first place. What is yours saying about you? Think about your values, strategy and the people you’re going to need to make both a reality. Now look at your website, social media pages and Glassdoor- do you see your organization in the words and visuals you’re looking at? If not, it’s time for a refresh. Need some help on next steps? I found this article super helpful since each suggestion is manageable even for orgs without an external affairs or comms teammate.

Things I’m Reading

• Setting folks up for self-evaluations- This may be too late for this round but I found this HBR article helpful in framing how to write an effective self-evaluation.

• Keeping up with compliance in 2024- Keeping up with the compliance landscape can be challenge, especially if you are small and growing. This HR Brew article highlights a few trends that leaders would be wise to be aware of. The top three? Legislation regarding union organizing, the rights and accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding persons and pay transparency. As for the latter, this article point out that conducting pay audits and doing comp analysis now can better prepare you and your org for increased pay transparency laws

• Strategic Recruiting- This deck was shared at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect on being a more strategic recruitment talent partner. HOWEVER, leaders without dedicated HR folks should review- I especially loved the point of hiring managers helping to create a fun and how to democratize access to interviewing to equal the playing field and bring out the best in candidates. And if you do have a talent or HR teammate- particularly if they are not yet as strategic as you need- pass this along to them and ask them what their takeaways are and what they might like to try.

• Right Kind of Wrong- I’ve just started Amy Edmondson’s new book on failing well (Edmondson is the pioneering researcher who discovered psychological safety). If you’re going to take some big swings, there re going to be some failures along the way. I’ve just started so no thoughts just yet— though hearing how the study that uncovered psychological safety was actually initially a failure is fascinating to think about!

What I’m Working On

Do you have capable team members but are lacking bandwidth to set strategic vision or action planning around recruitment, talent development, culture or engagement? I’ve designed a few packages that allow busy leaders to get focused strategic support that their teams can then run and implement. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, email me at [email protected] or set up a time to talk here.

Feedback?

I’d love if you could take 2 minutes to share what else you’d like me to cover in future newsletters here. My goal is that this is actually useful to busy leaders trying to do right by their people and achieve audacious outcomes.

Next newsletter’s focus is on leadership development and the importance of managers!