Management question...

[simplydamon]

Does everyone's boss set reasonable expectations for performance? Are these goals clearly defined to you? Does your boss let you know what it will take to get ahead?

I am interested to hear what perspectives there are on a person's respective employer.

[QuestorTheElf]

It's really interesting to both work and manage in the Information Age. In the Industrial Age, some made names for themselves with time-and-motion studies proclaiming "N widgets per hour means you're good!" For case-by-case modern-day customer service departments, however, cranking out 25 calls per hour may not really be "reasonable performance," especially when accuracy gets sacrificed for speed.

So much of management relies on the idea of "if it can't be measured, it can't be managed." Yet we then hear so much the triumphant CxO's who succeed with "gut feeling" or play by intuition. (That's especially true when it comes to hiring decisions.)

I find it useful and necessary to press for metrics whenever possible. This can be done with benchmarks, deadlines, goals, etc. However, certain things just defy measurement, especially where knowledge is concerned. Add teamwork to that mix. Just how do you define a good team player, and then suggest to someone that their performance can be improved by becoming one? (Remember too that today's manager unlike yesterday's whipcracker must not only push the numbers, he too must be this New Age personal coach, so the story goes.)

The reality is some managers do not set performance expectations because they really don't know what they want. Some managers became managers because they wrote the best code, made the most sales, etc. They've gotten no training on leading a team and setting "reasonable expectations." They then figure their top performance got them the reward of manager, so they'll copy that as everyone else's target. So they develop and hire clones.

Or we may get the "super-delegators." They tell you that you are free to do whatever you want. Unfortunately, when the self-starter sets out to give his new meaning of the ever effectiveless "empowerment," the boss may complain. To combat this, I usually ask direct reports to generate at least 3 solutions to a problem, rate the pro's and con's of each, and we'll exchange at least once a week of their decision(s). (The other trap of the boss doing the work through upward delegation has to be avoided too.)

One last thing that really helped me with this was a previous mentor's guidance. He said it helps a lot to "separate fact from opinion." (A statement like "this report is too long" is an opinion. So is "I don't think she's a good hire, she's too arrogant.") This helps avoid imposing one's way on direct reports, and really letting them blossom to be their best. It also can get one to politely get the supervisor to spell things in concrete terms, and kindly point out those moments when it can't.

I think my manager was ahead of his time because this "fact vs. opinion" comes more to light each day as I encounter varieties of approaches and solutions from the "diversity" of global teams. Locally speaking, though, you'll get a more vivid glimpse of the range of definitions for "reasonable expectations" when management changes, when you meet the new boss who is NOT the same as the old boss.