As you identify the people in your “organization” (those who influence you or your goals), it’s useful to understand their alignment with your initiative. Their level of alignment can give you an understanding of their potential to meaningfully impact your initiative (for the better or for the worse). Arguably, the best way to assess their alignment is with a performance evaluation.
How to Perform a Performance Evaluation
- In her book, Radical Focus (more information linked below), Christina Wodtke suggests using 3 criteria (engagement, performance, and alignment) to assess team members.
- She further recommends using a 3 point assessment (High, Medium, Low) on each of these criteria.
- Let’s look at these in more detail, understand why they’re important, and put them to use.
Part 1: Engagement
Paraphrasing a leader in the area of engagement:
“An engaged participant is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers the initiative’s interests. An engaged stakeholder is aware of organizational context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. It is a positive attitude held by the stakeholders towards the organization and its values.”
–by Eliza Paul, EMP Trust HR
Performance Evaluation Practice 1
Consider these questions for each of your people:
- Does s/he participate:
- Fully?
- Enthusiastically?
- With an awareness of organizational context?
- Proactively in continuous improvement initiatives?
- Is s/he actively unsupportive?
Based on your answers to these questions, assess each stakeholder according to their level of Engagement with your initiative (High, Medium, or Low).
Example 1
| Measure | Rating (H/M/L) |
| Full Participation | |
| Enthusiastic Participation | |
| Awareness of Context | |
| Proactive Improvement | |
| AVERAGE |
Part 2: Performance
Performance is about meeting goals in an effective and efficient manner.
Performance Evaluation Practice 2
Ask yourself these questions about each of your people:
- Is s/he meeting goals?
- Does s/he have a track record of meeting goals over the recent 3-6 months?
- Is s/he capable of meeting goals, given appropriate resources?
Based on the answers to these questions, assess each of your people as High, Medium, and Low for Performance.
Example 2
| Measure | Rating (H/M/L) |
| Currently meeting goals? | |
| Recent history of meeting goals? | |
| Capable of meeting goals? | |
| AVERAGE |
Part 3: Alignment
Alignment — Def: a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, nations, etc., with a common cause or viewpoint.
–Dictionary.com
Alignment, then, has 2 elements:
- Agreement
- Cooperation
As you consider each of these, don’t forget that any individual’s agreement or cooperation must be consistent not only with you, but with all members of the core and extended teams for your initiative to yield the most value from their participation.
It is important to recognize that the most insidious behavior of all is the person is agreeable in speech, but then not cooperative in action, or who is agreeable in speech but only cooperative with some people or in some situations.
Performance Evaluation Practice 3
Answer the following questions for each of your people:
- Are they agreeable?
- Are they cooperative?
Based on these answers, assess the Alignment of each of your people (High, Medium, or Low).
Example 3
| Measure | Rating (H/M/L) |
| Agreeable? | |
| Cooperative? | |
| AVERAGE |
Finalize the Performance Evaluation
A final evaluation is the “average” of each of the 3 scores.
| Measure | Rating (H/M/L) |
| Engagement | |
| Performance | |
| Alignment | |
| AVERAGE |
Place the result of each person’s performance evaluation in your PowerBoard.
Review
It is helpful to assess each of your people based on their Engagement, Performance, and Alignment with your overall and specific goals.
Periodically evaluate your people in each of these areas, with an assessment of High, Medium, or Low.
Next Steps
Where there is misalignment, it’s worth having a conversation to bring them up to speed with your current goals and expectations. This can be done in a friendly, encouraging way. Inspire them to your mission. Invite them to be a part of your initiative.
Where there is general consensus that your goals are clear after one or more reiterations of your goals, it may be time to select and replace team members accordingly.
The next section will offer more guidance about this.
Practice 4
Answer the following questions in writing, and place these answers in your PowerBoard also.
- What was most valuable here for you?
- What did you learn that you did not know before?
- Name one action you can take today that will begin to implement what you learned here.
- Based on the assessments above:
- Which people do you see as your greatest allies?
- Are there any people who you will want to distance from your initiative?
- Might it be worthwhile to add more people or organizations to your core or extended stakeholder group?
Next: Acknowledge Every Team Member
Next:
Acknowledge
Your Key Team Members
More Information
- Performance Evaluation
- People Assessment criteria from Radical Focus, by Christina Wodtke
- Definition of engagement from EMP Trust HR
- Performance management
- Definition of Alignment, from Dictionary.com
- Performance Management
- Review question taken from The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier
Photo Credits
- Man pondering: photo by icons8. Link.
- Couple shaking hands: Image by rawpixel.com. Link.
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