Some of the Life7 City2Surf team on the Beach at Bondi

Our original reason for entering a team was to give each of us a physical goal to work toward. Often the journey required to achieve a physical goal helps to incrementally raise one’s self awareness and self esteem, allowing other aspects of our lives to be improved in line with our health and fitness challenge.

A meeting with legendary Australian Cricket Captain, Steve Waugh, led to Life7 deciding to support the Steve Waugh Foundation and their efforts to help improve the quality of life for children and their families affected by rare illnesses.

Our first Life7 City2surf Team had 12 members made up of two Life7 coaches, clients, family and friends. Along the way we managed to raise a few thousand dollars in sponsorship for the Foundation.  This fundraising aspect added further reason for completing the challenge and gave some of us the extra push they needed in order to focus on their training and to get over the line on the day.

Life7 coach Chris Edwards discussing our support with Steve Waugh

All 12 of us reached our individual goals for the day and we had a wonderful time relaxing together on Bondi Beach after the event.

If you’d like to help us support the Steve Waugh Foundation’s efforts to help Australian children affected by a rare illnesses, we have decided to continue to offer a special bonus coaching offer for anyone who makes a donation of over $100 to the Steve Waugh Foundation.

(We are currently ranked no.8 on the Steve Waugh Foundation’s ‘Top Ten Fundraiser’ rankings for the 2010 SWF City2Surf initiative.)

Please ask your Life7 coach for more information on this offer.

For more information on the Steve Waugh Foundation http://www.stevewaughfoundation.com.au/

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One is a senior manager in charge of a team of high performers with millions at stake and the other, the owner of a small business that is gradually running into the ground. Each started their enterprise from scratch and each have been in their respective roles for over a decade.

One of these runs a business now owned by a multinational, and constantly clashes with the board, citing different philosophical ways of doing business as the main cause of tension. And the other is just plain sick of running their small business and wants out.

So what do they have in common?

For the manager in the multinational corporation, the dilemma is whether to invest time and effort in battling the views of the other directors, or whether to take another management role elsewhere (and there have been offers).

For the owner of the small business, the decision is whether to invest more into the business and build it up (because it has plenty of potential) or to close up shop and take a well earned retirement.

Your Leadership Coach can help you make the hard decisions

It would appear that each of these people would be better off on a personal level if they walked away. Certainly they are both suffering from tremendous levels of executive stress that would completely disappear the moment they make the decision to leave – but what is causing the stress?

The answer is that they are creating their own stress.

Each of these managers has a very strong sense of loyalty to their staff and their clients, and they have both demonstrated admirable levels of integrity in their business dealings.

So whilst both want to get out of their respective roles, they each feel trapped by their own sense of responsibility and their own beliefs about what is the ‘right thing’ to do for others.

If either of these people walked away from their roles, it would cause a great loss to many people. The small business would fold and be no more, and the large one would suffer with the loss of a key man and take a very long time to recover. (Yes, some businesses really should have ‘key man insurance’.) Staff in both businesses will lose their jobs.

So what is the best solution?

These managers are both trapped by their own beliefs. If they walk away, they will get immediate release from the stress and responsibility, but because of their strong emotional connection to staff they have worked with and supported for so long, they will both find themselves living with a sense of failure. If not consciously, they will definitely feel it at a subconscious level.

They both know that people who depended on them for a living, people they have grown to know personally, people who have supported them, will lose their jobs.

If they walk away, they will know that they have let others down, because when push came to shove, they didn’t take the leadership position and continue the fight.

So, what would you do?

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Quite often, the answer is no one!

Now, if you are thinking that the boss doesn’t need a staff appraisal, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. The owner or senior manager actually needs a performance appraisal just as much, if not more, than any other staff member.

From a performance point of view, the whole organisation could potentially benefit more from improvements to the leadership team than it might from improvements to general staff performance alone.

Particularly if the performance appraisal of management moves management to initiate better staff performance and measurement practices that flow on to all staff.

What is the boss missing out on?

The staff appraisal process ensures that each employee has the opportunity to be helped by their manager, with the backing of the organisation, to focus on improving their work performance and help them to establish a clear career path.

 No one should assume that the manager or the owner of the business should miss out on the benefit of a good staff appraisal. But who is the most appropriate person to do their staff appraisal?

For most small business owners and senior managers, the best solution is engage an external Executive Coach or Leadership Coach who specialises in leadership development and staff performance.

As a business owner or a senior manager, your Leadership Development Coach should then provide you with the mentorship role that would usually be done by a good manager to ensure that your personal development not only gives you the maximum benefit but that the business is better for it too.

Contact Chris Edwards to find out more about how working with a leadership coach can benefit you and your business.

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Each had their own version of a performance appraisal or a staff appraisal, and I believe each were genuine in their intention to manage the process; although there were many individuals whom I could single out being as somewhat against the idea!

Nonetheless, despite policy on staff appraisals, none of these organisations were successful in giving me nor any I worked with, a regular staff appraisal and none of them were particularly good post appraisal follow up.

So what went wrong?

It is very easy to sit around a table and make policy decisions about how and when to do staff appraisals, but at the end of the day it is the level of commitment that the managers and the staff have to the process that will ensure its success or failure.

An organisation’s staff is it’s greatest resource. Therefore, it stands to reason that the staff should be monitored and cared for constantly. Given this, the appraisal process should be as regular as possible in order to maximise the efficiency and profitability of the business.

Whilst in theory this may sound pretty obvious, most managers are so busy doing their own work that they don’t have time to be constantly evaluating staff…right? Wrong!

If you are a manager with people reporting to you, then it is your responsibility to make sure that your team are working as efficiently as possible. Now I know I’m stepping into the territory of leadership, and I believe rightfully so, for a good manager needs to be a leader if they want great results.

It is often easier to manage a process than it is to manage people, and so many managers, particularly male managers, default to focusing on their processes and procedures rather than risk getting involved in what could end up being an emotional or personal issue.

My recommendation is to do a formal staff appraisal annually and a semi formal appraisal every six months. But the real key to success continual improvement comes when leaders and managers have a genuine interest in the wellbeing and performance of their staff.

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For person being appraised, staff appraisal day can feel like judgement day. All of a sudden, someone you work with or work for gets an opportunity to sit in judgement on your performance. (At least that is how it can feel.) And who likes being judged?

On the other side of the table, many managers don’t like doing staff appraisals to the extent that they may put them off for long periods of time or avoid doing them altogether. This in itself can lead to disenchantment as the person waiting to be appraised may well be hoping for a pay raise as a result of a good appraisal!

Large organizations and government departments go to great lengths to de-personalise the process, which has resulted in an over complicated, bureaucratic process which creates avoidance behaviour and often produces a lacklustre result.

The real purpose of the staff appraisal

The real idea behind the staff appraisal is to provide a regular method of helping each staff member focus on development of their career and consolidating their place in the team over the long term.

What often goes wrong?

Often the big picture objective of the staff appraisal is lost because of personal beliefs or undue focus on minor details by either or both parties. This happens because we are all driven by our emotions, our beliefs and our feelings and it is extraordinarily difficult to remain completely objective when dealing with a colleague whom you work every day.

The other thing that often goes wrong is that after the staff evaluation process has been completed, it is very rare that many of the action items identified are actually carried out. In fact, in my experience, most people who get this far are usually so relieved at the process being over that they put the paperwork away until next time they are called up for a staff evaluation.

The benefits of a 3rd party staff appraisal?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is ‘how serious am I about my staff, their welfare and their performance?’ If the answer is that this is very important to your business, then you should consider utilising the assistance of a professional performance coach in your staff appraisal process.

An external performance coach is trained to help get the best from your staff and they can either sit in on your staff appraisal process or conduct the interviews on your behalf.

Because your coach has no emotional connection with the staff member or your organisation, they can more easily maintain an objective viewpoint. Furthermore, a performance coach is very experienced in consultation of this type.

In our experience, most staff members open up to their coach, revealing what are often buried interpersonal issues, thereby providing the coach and the organisation the opportunity of dealing with issues that could well be costing the organisation dearly.

To find out how this could help you

To discover how you can benefit by working with a performance coach, contact Chris at Life7 to discuss your unique circumstances.

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