By Steve Moran
Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Performance Reviews Will Bite This Year. Be Ready,” where they talk about how companies are tightening their belts taking a look at the individual contribution that each team member is making and that those who are not up to snuff are being shown the door.
The goal is to “make sure every seat is filled by the right person.”
Senior Living Performance Evaluations
How performance is graded in senior living seems to be more subjective than scientific. I hear stories about senior living communities that have gone through four executive directors in less than a year and others where the community is substantially underperforming, with unhappy team members and residents, yet the executive director remains in place.
It appears that way too often, retention, hiring, and firing decisions are based more on likeability than performance.
This problem exists likely because there are not enough “A-player” executive directors and leaders to go around, and so senior leadership holds on to suboptimal leaders because they are fearful that the alternative is worse.
We are working on some things to make this better. Stand by for more info in a few weeks.
You Only Control You
The most significant takeaway from the article is that this is the perfect time for you as a leader to do your own self-evaluation to make sure that you are the right person, the best leader you can be. This means doing some hard work, taking a look at areas you can get better. Here is where you can start (from the article, and more):
- Take a look at your performance over the last few months. What have you done well and not so well?
- Ask others you trust — people you work with, your supervisor: What you could be doing better? What do they like the most about your work?
- Ask how you’ve made things better for your organization.
- Ask what it would be like to work for you.
- What would it be like to have you as a team member?
- What are you really good at?
- Why do people like or hate working for you?
- How do you help others grow in their roles?
- How do you help advance the goals of the organization?
- How do I motivate or demotivate my team?
- How am I better at what I do this year than last year?
- How do I want to be better next year?
If you have the courage to tackle these questions, to be honest with yourself, you will be more successful and happier in your professional and personal life.
