In the book “Dreams to Details – Reinventing Your Business” by Jim Hagemann Snabe and Mikael Trolle, they write: “Do we still believe the future can be planned? … Many traditional management models focus on targets, plans and measurements … in our view business plans often limit performance to what was planned.”
Moreover, the focus on setting goals and numerous KPIs to gain control over whether they are achieved is like wearing blinders in a world that is so changeable that we should suffice with having a (meaningful and regenerative) purpose.
Instead of creating control by placing tasks in a meaningful context, engagement drops, and sick leaves pour in. Something is clearly amiss.
Performance
A significant part of a leader’s time today is spent monitoring employees’ performance. A mindset also borrowed from industry and machine thinking. How well a machine performs depends on whether it is well-oiled, set up correctly and how fast it can produce – in other words, perform. This is still how we evaluate the value of an employee. Leaders must conduct annual or semi-annual performance reviews, identify those who perform best for a pipeline of talent and ensure that those who score lowest are either developed or phased out.
This entire ideology will not affect a machine. But it does affect people. It affects teamwork and collaboration between teams. The replacement is not a new performance set-up with so-called soft goals, a ‘slider’ instead of numbers or categories like ‘successful’, ‘achiever’ or ‘challenged’. All of this is more of the same. We talk about evaluating another person.
Performance remains a terminology tied to control and if we want adults to act like adults, we must once and for all dismantle schoolroom systems and grades. Instead, we need a genuine and clear purpose and define the organisation’s domains. The purpose sets the direction and the domains ensure that decisions are made by professionally competent individuals rather than titles.
And you can confidently let go of numbers and evaluations and replace them with interest, support and positive expectations. Pygmalion – or the Rosenthal Effect – is an evidence-based psychological phenomenon. Through studies, Robert Rosenthal demonstrated that when one believes in and positively expects something from another person, they perform better. In other words, what you nurture grows. Unfortunately, the effect also works in reverse. Thus, lack of trust that your employees can perform a task or lack of expectation that they will fulfill their responsibilities becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The leader’s task, however, is not to take responsibility for the employee’s motivation, but to create conditions for it to flourish. The leader’s ability to convey the meaning of the purpose, support professional exchange, ensure freedom through flexibility and autonomy and create connection through belonging and inclusive practices is essential for future leaders.
BILLEDE INDSÆT
What we propose instead of controlling and planning individual performance could be the perception and adaptation of the organisation or team. It sounds good, but of course, it’s not something you ‘just do’ – because what does it actually mean to ‘perceive’ the organisation’s state?
In the book, I have attempted to outline an approach that can help the leader evaluate these small markers.
The Art of Perception
How to genuinely become better at sensing and reacting could involve increasing attention to things that, as a leader, you already have an intuitive sense of.
It may be that you need to increase your awareness of the organisation’s collective intelligence and ask questions about trends and market movements. And you can increase your attention to psychological safety. Do employees feel secure enough to act on changing conditions or a new direction?
These are just some areas where, as a leader, you can sharpen your focus as openness, decision speed and knowledge sharing are strong indicators of whether the organisation is sufficiently perceptive to self-regulate towards its overarching purpose. Replace performance assessments and instead spend time sensing your organisation’s resilience.
If it happens that a person or team doesn’t quite have the prerequisites to handle a task, you as a leader or perhaps the team itself, will know. The prerequisite for succeeding in discussing this is the degree of built psychological safety and a good deal of maturity.
Curious for more?
If you want to hear even more about all of this from Majken, you can now order her (danish version) book at Praksiz.dk.
