After 90 days or so on a new job, I pointedly asked my not-so-new boss, “I’ve been here for just about three months, how am I doing?”
My question caught him by surprise. It was well after 6 p.m. and we were both tired after a long day. He realized that I needed some feedback on what and how I was doing, so he set down his pen, got up and closed his office door and for the next half an hour, we had a conversation about what he liked, and didn’t like, about my performance since coming on board – and, what he wanted me to do for the next quarter.
I left that short meeting feeling relieved and more comfortable about what was expected of me and how I was doing. I’d like to believe that my boss learned something as well: Providing feedback to your employees on a regular basis is essential for the well-being of both parties.
Since that January night more than 20 years ago, I have often wondered that if I hadn’t displayed the initiative to start that conversation, whether the next discussion the boss and I might have had would have been a terse, unexpected display of anger or frustration at me over something that I was supposed to be doing that I hadn’t done because I didn’t know I was supposed to do it.
Or, that I was in some sort of trouble because I did something I wasn’t supposed to.
Unfortunately, far too many conversations between manager and subordinate are handled in this manner because giving candid feedback is difficult. It is made more difficult because most managers don’t feel the need to make expectations clear to those that report to them. And in many cases, no system of accountability exists to make certain things get done how and when they are supposed to.
Why is that? Most managers feel that when someone is hired, “They should know what to do because that is why I hired them.”
I have heard stories about people who are employed in positions of trust and responsibility that have essentially “quit on the job” but failed to notify anyone. These individuals have not resigned, have not been terminated but continue to show up at work, collect a paycheck but fail to perform. Not just for a few days, a few weeks or even months; in some cases for years.
How is this possible? How can this happen? How much money is being wasted by keeping people on the payroll when they are not doing the job they are being paid to do?
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