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> "This is where you're at today. To get to the next level, this is what you need to do. With your help we've put together this plan for your next 3-6 months. Y

> "This is where you're at today. To get to the next level, this is what you need to do. With your help we've put together this plan for your next 3-6 months. You'll finish up A, make sure B gets deployed. C gets checked-in with QA sign off. Do this w/o ticking anyone off or being a general jerk and that looks like Level XYZ" "Sorry, corporate priorities changed. A and B were cancelled and C was put on indefinite hold. Sure, you did great work on D and E, but those weren't part of your stated goals for this year. Oh, and by the way, there was a re-org and the manager who promised you a promotion isn't your manager any more." Not saying you personally do that; it sounds like you're a pretty good manager. But I've seen this pattern many times, and know a lot of other people who have experienced it.

kenjackson 16y ago
That does happen, and when it does you adjust. It's not like your report is about to checkin everythign all at once, he's about to click Commit, and then new marching orders come down just before he presses the button. Presumably when A gets cancelled, he comes by and says, "A just got cancelled" (or you tell him, depending on how news flows). "This was part of my plan for this cycle, how can we adjust the plan?" And then you discuss giving him proper credit for work on A until it was canceled, and then break down what his new priorities look like. Or, "I just started work on D, how does this fit in the plan?" "Currently it doesn't, but lets get it in there". There should be very few things that happen that would be so important that they'd be worth discussion in a promotion that you don't communicate about within a day or two of it first appearing on the radar (if not hours). The last issue of a reorg is the one that is toughest to deal with. I would talk to their new manager, layout their plans, etc..., but there's no guarantee that the new manager will have the same philosophy. Being a manager is hard work. And frankly, I'm largely done with people management. It's the hardest job I've ever had, bar none. But its important, and I think some of the problems noted in this article are things good management training can deal with.
- gaius 16y ago
  Not if your annual targets have already been entered into SAP HR and the system won't let them be modified outside of the appraisal period, and required yes/no answers to them in the next appraisal period for it to do ranking calculations. Basically if you have a formal appraisal process at all you're trapped in a machine.
megablast 16y ago
You are right, it is not 100% perfect so therefore it should never be used, and we should keep using the much more broken system we have now.

kenjackson 16y ago

That does happen, and when it does you adjust. It's not like your report is about to checkin everythign all at once, he's about to click Commit, and then new marching orders come down just before he presses the button. Presumably when A gets cancelled, he comes by and says, "A just got cancelled" (or you tell him, depending on how news flows). "This was part of my plan for this cycle, how can we adjust the plan?" And then you discuss giving him proper credit for work on A until it was canceled, and then break down what his new priorities look like. Or, "I just started work on D, how does this fit in the plan?" "Currently it doesn't, but lets get it in there". There should be very few things that happen that would be so important that they'd be worth discussion in a promotion that you don't communicate about within a day or two of it first appearing on the radar (if not hours). The last issue of a reorg is the one that is toughest to deal with. I would talk to their new manager, layout their plans, etc..., but there's no guarantee that the new manager will have the same philosophy. Being a manager is hard work. And frankly, I'm largely done with people management. It's the hardest job I've ever had, bar none. But its important, and I think some of the problems noted in this article are things good management training can deal with.

gaius 16y ago
Not if your annual targets have already been entered into SAP HR and the system won't let them be modified outside of the appraisal period, and required yes/no answers to them in the next appraisal period for it to do ranking calculations. Basically if you have a formal appraisal process at all you're trapped in a machine.

megablast 16y ago

You are right, it is not 100% perfect so therefore it should never be used, and we should keep using the much more broken system we have now.