Page 106 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

96 HBR Leader’s Handbook

intensive debates on individual performance evaluations. To get better re-
turn from that time, GE is working toward creating digital tools to make
this process more streamlined and flexible so that these discussions can
happen when they are needed, not just at certain times of the year. Profes-
sional services firm Deloitte also is reinventing its performance manage-
ment process and reducing the time involved by focusing more on quarterly
performance snapshots than on yearly evaluations. Marcus Buckingham
and Ashley Goodall describe this transformation in more detail in their
HBR article “Reinventing Performance Management.”
The result of an intense, candid, and transparent feedback process
during the course of the year is that staff throughout the organization, and
your team specifically, know where they stand and how they have to im-
prove. It also weeds out weak performers or those that no longer fit with
your team, department, or the organization. Equally important, it gives
you a solid basis for assigning people to new opportunities or roles.

Fostering learning and development

Giving your direct reports feedback and creating a system for feedback
throughout the organization is one way to foster the employee growth you
need to meet your strategic goals. More formal learning and development
is another way. By giving your direct reports and aspiring leaders resources
for personal and career improvement so that they can better meet the orga-
nization’s needs, you are also giving your people the ability to adjust, grow,
and thrive to meet their own goals—an important part of fulfilling the so-
cial contract. For example, look again at the Ford Foundation: Walker was
able to help his program managers learn to understand the digital world
by hiring technology fellows. Thus, he was able to keep many of these em-
ployees on board, while they equipped themselves to perform well in other
future roles.
Your human resource function likely focuses on this kind of develop-
ment specifically, but you have a role as a leader as well. By putting some
of your own time into the talent development of your team and creating
stretch opportunities for your best performers, you can drive your vision