"No Alarms and No Surprises"

“with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silence.”

For many of my clients its coming up to annual appraisal time. And despite the mantra from HR and senior management that a process of regular feedback means that the annual review meeting should not include any surprises for the appraisee, I would feel safe in betting money that for many the annual review is still akin to going to the dentist every five years – there is going to be some unexpected bad news and its likely to be painful.

For me its very clear – it is a manager’s job to provide constant feedback (positive and negative) and support throughout the year, and those who save 364 days worth of feedback for that once a year review are failing their people, failing their organization and failing themselves.

People deserve to get feedback on a timely basis so that they can recognize what they do well and appropriate adjust not so good behaviour if required.

Organisations deserve managers who will earn their salary and actively manage performance.

Managers deserve a team of performers but how can that happen if the manager doesn’t give feedback on what is working or not working?

The authors of Crucial Conversations (a book I highly recommend, that takes the concepts of emotional intelligence and puts them into tools and tips) talk about “Suckers' Choice” being often behind a managers inertia when it comes to feedback.

“Suckers Choice” is about setting the brain a false either/or situation. For example

“I can be liked by my team OR I can be honest”

“I can give tough feedback OR not hurt their feelings”

The point being that this choice makes it simple for the brain to do one or the other.

However can a manage be “liked by my team AND honest” ?– of course but it takes more effort, more preparation, more energy.

We all create “Suckers’ Choices” – but they are short time in value and the easy choice now often results in even tougher conversations down the line.

Never more than now, with the risk of RIFs and redundancies hanging over so many organisations and people, is the need for regular honest feedback required.

Making someone redundant, without ever having given that person the appropriate feedback and the time to address the feedback, is more than a question of fairness or poor management – it’s a human rights violation.

So if you are a manager and you are doing an annual appraisal soon, ask yourself “Have I done enough to ensure there are no surprises for the individual in this review?”

Welcome your comments, and thanks to Radiohead for the title and quote.

Colm