by Dr. Cecil Clements (17th January 2012)
I was glancing at the Economic Times last week and came across this front page article which said ‘Attitude Tops Performance in Appraisals’, meeting targets are not key anymore, that workers are being judged on risk-taking and willingness to learn and cooperate. This seemed interesting and I began to read the article by Shruti Sabharwal and Devina Sengupta. What they were saying was that at Microsoft Global Technical Support Center in Bangalore, engineers were not being judged on how fast they solved problems or how high they were rated in customer satisfaction surveys. Instead, performance rating was linked to much more qualitative parameters such as readiness to ask colleagues for help and the ability and willingness to learn from the problems they were solving. The willingness to share knowledge and the doggedness and persistence in solving problems were also high on the desirability charts at the company. The article went on to say that for companies now, behavior, rather than the ability to meet targets, was the root to a good increment during this appraisal system.
That was so interesting! No more were profits and bottom-lines and targets beginning to be the key factors, but behavior and attitude were coming up to the fore; what you brought to the company that was beyond some of these more tangible things that were used to gauge performance in the past.
Anandorup Ghosh, who is the Practice Head for Executive compensation at Aon Hewitt says, “Hard numbers do not show the whole picture and can be manipulated as well.” In fact, 2 years ago, Microsoft junked its performance review system doing away with targets for engineers. Instead they’re now judged on behavior and how they performed the task rather than what they did. The company changed their parameters after internal surveys showed employees were not happy with the way their performance was being reviewed.
If you’ve been on this call for the last couple of months you’ll know that I’ve been talking about Dov Seidman and his new book ‘How: Why How we do Anything means everything in business and in life’. Seidman seems to have his finger on the pulse here, because increasingly, more and more people are beginning to talk about the how rather than the what. When Microsoft made this change moving from targets to how engineers performed, there was a 20% increase in employee satisfaction within a year.
Jaleel Abdul, Director of HR, Adobe Systems says, “You can no longer be a super performer and climb up the ladder if you do not score high on behavior.” Behavior is becoming increasingly critical to companies. What we bring to a company in terms of these kinds of skills such as attitudes, emotions. Four years ago, there was an article in Knowledge@Wharton Business School entitled ‘Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?” the article said, “A bad mood frequently puts others in a bad mood. Negativity of employees can contaminate even good news.”
Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace, says, “We engage in emotional contagion. Emotions travel from person to person like a virus. Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, ‘Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?’ (‘Affect’ is another word for ‘emotion’ in organizational behavior studies.) “The answer: Employees’ moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership. Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work; you bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors.”
Barsade and Gibson consider 3 different types of feelings:
I was glancing at the Economic Times last week and came across this front page article which said ‘Attitude Tops Performance in Appraisals’, meeting targets are not key anymore, that workers are being judged on risk-taking and willingness to learn and cooperate. This seemed interesting and I began to read the article by Shruti Sabharwal and Devina Sengupta. What they were saying was that at Microsoft Global Technical Support Center in Bangalore, engineers were not being judged on how fast they solved problems or how high they were rated in customer satisfaction surveys. Instead, performance rating was linked to much more qualitative parameters such as readiness to ask colleagues for help and the ability and willingness to learn from the problems they were solving. The willingness to share knowledge and the doggedness and persistence in solving problems were also high on the desirability charts at the company. The article went on to say that for companies now, behavior, rather than the ability to meet targets, was the root to a good increment during this appraisal system.
That was so interesting! No more were profits and bottom-lines and targets beginning to be the key factors, but behavior and attitude were coming up to the fore; what you brought to the company that was beyond some of these more tangible things that were used to gauge performance in the past.
Anandorup Ghosh, who is the Practice Head for Executive compensation at Aon Hewitt says, “Hard numbers do not show the whole picture and can be manipulated as well.” In fact, 2 years ago, Microsoft junked its performance review system doing away with targets for engineers. Instead they’re now judged on behavior and how they performed the task rather than what they did. The company changed their parameters after internal surveys showed employees were not happy with the way their performance was being reviewed.
If you’ve been on this call for the last couple of months you’ll know that I’ve been talking about Dov Seidman and his new book ‘How: Why How we do Anything means everything in business and in life’. Seidman seems to have his finger on the pulse here, because increasingly, more and more people are beginning to talk about the how rather than the what. When Microsoft made this change moving from targets to how engineers performed, there was a 20% increase in employee satisfaction within a year.
Jaleel Abdul, Director of HR, Adobe Systems says, “You can no longer be a super performer and climb up the ladder if you do not score high on behavior.” Behavior is becoming increasingly critical to companies. What we bring to a company in terms of these kinds of skills such as attitudes, emotions. Four years ago, there was an article in Knowledge@Wharton Business School entitled ‘Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?” the article said, “A bad mood frequently puts others in a bad mood. Negativity of employees can contaminate even good news.”
Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace, says, “We engage in emotional contagion. Emotions travel from person to person like a virus. Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, ‘Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?’ (‘Affect’ is another word for ‘emotion’ in organizational behavior studies.) “The answer: Employees’ moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership. Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work; you bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors.”
Barsade and Gibson consider 3 different types of feelings:
- Discrete: short-lived emotions such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
- Moods: which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
- Dispositional or personality traits: which define a person’s overall approach to life. “She’s always so cheerful,” or “He’s always looking at the negative.”
All three types of feelings can be contagious and emotions don’t have to be grand and obvious to have an impact.
All of this determines the type of workplace that we can create because of the attitudes and emotions that we have. The article goes on to say that emotional intelligence which is already a familiar word in psychology and education, is now being talked about in business circles as well. Barsade says, “Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees. The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation.”
He goes on to give an example. “Let’s say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea – and his own excitement – he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss.”
“Research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn’t just because people like them more than naysayers. Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you’re in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you’re in a positive mood, you’re more open to taking in information and handling it effectively.”
It’s no surprise then, that more and more companies are realizing that when they do appraisals, it’s more than just the numbers that matter. It’s the how; how you work with your colleagues; it’s the qualitative parameters that are beginning to be more important.
Zig Ziglar once commented, “Your attitude is more important than your aptitude.”
So during this appraisal season, I wonder whether there are changes you may need to be thinking about – changes in what you are bringing to the workplace. Maybe it’s not just the bottom line or whether you’re meeting your targets that are important. Maybe it’s your mood, your attitude, your aptitude that you’re bringing in to the market place. What kind of emotions are your colleagues working with? Are they positive or are they negative?
Zig Ziglar also says, “You can complain that roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” It’s all about attitude.
So, this morning, are you complaining about the thorns or are you celebrating that there are roses among the thorns? A thought for you as we begin another week.
God Bless Us All
All of this determines the type of workplace that we can create because of the attitudes and emotions that we have. The article goes on to say that emotional intelligence which is already a familiar word in psychology and education, is now being talked about in business circles as well. Barsade says, “Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees. The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation.”
He goes on to give an example. “Let’s say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea – and his own excitement – he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss.”
“Research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn’t just because people like them more than naysayers. Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you’re in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you’re in a positive mood, you’re more open to taking in information and handling it effectively.”
It’s no surprise then, that more and more companies are realizing that when they do appraisals, it’s more than just the numbers that matter. It’s the how; how you work with your colleagues; it’s the qualitative parameters that are beginning to be more important.
Zig Ziglar once commented, “Your attitude is more important than your aptitude.”
So during this appraisal season, I wonder whether there are changes you may need to be thinking about – changes in what you are bringing to the workplace. Maybe it’s not just the bottom line or whether you’re meeting your targets that are important. Maybe it’s your mood, your attitude, your aptitude that you’re bringing in to the market place. What kind of emotions are your colleagues working with? Are they positive or are they negative?
Zig Ziglar also says, “You can complain that roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” It’s all about attitude.
So, this morning, are you complaining about the thorns or are you celebrating that there are roses among the thorns? A thought for you as we begin another week.
God Bless Us All
References / Links:
- ‘Attitude Tops Performance in Appraisals’ - Shruti Sabharwal and Devina Sengupta
- 'Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?' - Knowledge@Wharton
- ‘How: Why How we do Anything means everything in business and in life’ - Dov Seidman
- ‘Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?’ - Gibson & Barsade
- Zig Ziggler on Wikipedia
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