4 ms·

> If you want performance reviews to actually matter, allow people to set goals that do not always benefit the company. Understand your employees have many diff

> If you want performance reviews to actually matter, allow people to set goals that do not always benefit the company. Understand your employees have many different interests and give them space to explore those interests. I gotta confess, I'm very deeply confused by this. The company's goal is to develop their staff in ways that benefit the business the company is engaging in, because the purpose of the company is to be successful in that business. If I'm operating a company that produces bread, no, I'm not going to help you develop your skills in woodworking. Why would I? If you really want to learn professional woodworking, develop those skills on your own time and then go get a job as a woodworker. Or, accept you work for a company that needs people with skills related to baking bread, and develop your skills accordingly. Or, alternatively, convince me why your becoming a skilled woodworker is good for my bakery business. That said: If the company wants skilled bread bakers, they should be providing the time, space, and resources to allow their staff to develop those skills during their time at work. They should not expect people to continue to develop those skills outside of work. That's your time to use as you see fit, including picking up those woodworking skills if that's what's really important to you.

blowski 7y ago
Both you and OP have made excellent points. I guess the challenge in software is understanding when bread is not bread. For example, I manage a team of devs. Our stack is React, and one of the devs asks for a course on Vue. Is that relevant? What about Bash, AWS, security, networking, user experience? All these things are relevant and could feasibly help the company. I think the OP was suggesting we allow people to set goals like this, as opposed to setting goals like “finish project x by April”.
- CarelessExpert 7y ago
  Yup, totally agreed! And that's where a) as a professional, you need the ability to advocate for the development of skills if you think the business will see benefit, even if the benefit isn't immediately obvious, and b) as a manager, you should be actively encouraging staff to think this way, and you should have an open mind when a they bring these kinds of ideas to the table. Personally, I desperately wish my staff were more aggressive about thinking proactively about professional development. Most of the time I have to nag them just to take an hour out of their work week to read a book or something...
  - hashkb 7y ago
    > Most of the time I have to nag them You've recognized that you're nagging them. If you're not joking, then it sounds like you need to do the much more difficult and risky job of cultivating and protecting a culture where they feel safely encouraged to do it themselves. Make sure you're taking on the risk that they probably perceive they are taking when they sacrifice that hour of their work week.
    - CarelessExpert 7y ago
      You know, you make a really interesting point, here. I've tried to consistently deliver the message that they have the freedom and protection to take time out for PD, but I've not actually dug into their perceptions to see if I've been successful or if the on-the-ground reality doesn't match what I think is going on... I think I have a topic for my next 1:1's! Thanks for the suggestion!
  - buckminster 7y ago
    This might sound silly, but I found that actually buying the book and handing it to the developer was quite effective. They then understood I was serious about them reading it.
    - CarelessExpert 7y ago
      Yeah, so first off, not silly at all! Second, if I have a staff member where we agree that reading a book (or listening to an audio book, or taking a course, etc) is a good idea, we make sure the resource is available for them (there's no way in heck I'd expect a staff member to go out of pocket on a PD resource of any kind). At that point, they can either expense the thing themselves, or I'll just get it done (especially if they're dragging their feet a bit). One way or another, that book lands on their desk. :)
- SeanAppleby 7y ago
  This is how I see it too. Technology is inherently about dynamic navigation of unknowns. Having your employees laser focused on things the company knows it needs leaves your company with a dearth of information about the landscape around it and how best to navigate those unknowns, while also stifling employee growth at the same time. I would change the bread analogy from woodworking to flour-making, sandwich-making, chemistry of baking, and engineering of ovens, encouraging creative exploration of things on the edge of the business that could help to grow the business and employees at the same time by providing a better map for steering the business.
chefandy 7y ago
> If I'm operating a company that produces bread, no, I'm not going to help you develop your skills in woodworking. Why would I? If you really want to learn professional woodworking, develop those skills on your own time and then go get a job as a woodworker. Because the bread is stored on shelves, and you use rolling pins and workbenches that could be repaired/built better/designed better, knowledge of structures could help making new bread products, and the tools used in woodworking could have direct applications in making bread, which could save you money or make you better products.
- CarelessExpert 7y ago
  And this is how you might "convince me why your becoming a skilled woodworker is good for my bakery business". Well done! :)
truculent 7y ago
This seems like a poor example to me. More like a shop that makes wooden chairs and OP wants to learn how to make a nice hardwood desk.
SamuelAdams 7y ago
I can completely understand your confusion. Your example is a bit extreme. To give you more specific examples of "things that interest me, but do not (directly) benefit the company": * The company uses SVN, while I'm interested in learning Git. * The company uses JQuery and PHP, I'm interested in learning React / Vue / Angular. * The company is interested in hosting websites on VM's - I'm interested in learning about containers (Docker). A better example: Let's say you're a bakery. You want to bake cookies: I want to (on a random, slow, friday afternoon) learn how to bake elephant ears. You want to produce bread: I want to produce cheesecake. Your example of bread to woodworking would be more akin to a Web developer working on embedded systems engineering or something way different. Of course that makes sense to do during your off time only. My examples above are things that could be used by the company I currently work for (git / docker / Angular), but the company chooses not to use these technologies due to various reasons (political, economic, expense, etc). As a result, I can't put that on my "Competency plan" because it does not directly or immediately benefit the company. Now good managers will allow this. They see the benefit in trying new technologies even if there's no immediate need. But those managers are far and few between. Personally I would love to work with folks who just want to try some cool shit on a boring, slow Friday afternoon.

blowski 7y ago

Both you and OP have made excellent points. I guess the challenge in software is understanding when bread is not bread. For example, I manage a team of devs. Our stack is React, and one of the devs asks for a course on Vue. Is that relevant? What about Bash, AWS, security, networking, user experience? All these things are relevant and could feasibly help the company. I think the OP was suggesting we allow people to set goals like this, as opposed to setting goals like “finish project x by April”.

CarelessExpert 7y ago
Yup, totally agreed! And that's where a) as a professional, you need the ability to advocate for the development of skills if you think the business will see benefit, even if the benefit isn't immediately obvious, and b) as a manager, you should be actively encouraging staff to think this way, and you should have an open mind when a they bring these kinds of ideas to the table. Personally, I desperately wish my staff were more aggressive about thinking proactively about professional development. Most of the time I have to nag them just to take an hour out of their work week to read a book or something...
- hashkb 7y ago
  > Most of the time I have to nag them You've recognized that you're nagging them. If you're not joking, then it sounds like you need to do the much more difficult and risky job of cultivating and protecting a culture where they feel safely encouraged to do it themselves. Make sure you're taking on the risk that they probably perceive they are taking when they sacrifice that hour of their work week.
  - CarelessExpert 7y ago
    You know, you make a really interesting point, here. I've tried to consistently deliver the message that they have the freedom and protection to take time out for PD, but I've not actually dug into their perceptions to see if I've been successful or if the on-the-ground reality doesn't match what I think is going on... I think I have a topic for my next 1:1's! Thanks for the suggestion!
- buckminster 7y ago
  This might sound silly, but I found that actually buying the book and handing it to the developer was quite effective. They then understood I was serious about them reading it.
  - CarelessExpert 7y ago
    Yeah, so first off, not silly at all! Second, if I have a staff member where we agree that reading a book (or listening to an audio book, or taking a course, etc) is a good idea, we make sure the resource is available for them (there's no way in heck I'd expect a staff member to go out of pocket on a PD resource of any kind). At that point, they can either expense the thing themselves, or I'll just get it done (especially if they're dragging their feet a bit). One way or another, that book lands on their desk. :)
SeanAppleby 7y ago
This is how I see it too. Technology is inherently about dynamic navigation of unknowns. Having your employees laser focused on things the company knows it needs leaves your company with a dearth of information about the landscape around it and how best to navigate those unknowns, while also stifling employee growth at the same time. I would change the bread analogy from woodworking to flour-making, sandwich-making, chemistry of baking, and engineering of ovens, encouraging creative exploration of things on the edge of the business that could help to grow the business and employees at the same time by providing a better map for steering the business.

chefandy 7y ago

> If I'm operating a company that produces bread, no, I'm not going to help you develop your skills in woodworking. Why would I? If you really want to learn professional woodworking, develop those skills on your own time and then go get a job as a woodworker. Because the bread is stored on shelves, and you use rolling pins and workbenches that could be repaired/built better/designed better, knowledge of structures could help making new bread products, and the tools used in woodworking could have direct applications in making bread, which could save you money or make you better products.

CarelessExpert 7y ago
And this is how you might "convince me why your becoming a skilled woodworker is good for my bakery business". Well done! :)

truculent 7y ago

This seems like a poor example to me. More like a shop that makes wooden chairs and OP wants to learn how to make a nice hardwood desk.

SamuelAdams 7y ago

I can completely understand your confusion. Your example is a bit extreme. To give you more specific examples of "things that interest me, but do not (directly) benefit the company": * The company uses SVN, while I'm interested in learning Git. * The company uses JQuery and PHP, I'm interested in learning React / Vue / Angular. * The company is interested in hosting websites on VM's - I'm interested in learning about containers (Docker). A better example: Let's say you're a bakery. You want to bake cookies: I want to (on a random, slow, friday afternoon) learn how to bake elephant ears. You want to produce bread: I want to produce cheesecake. Your example of bread to woodworking would be more akin to a Web developer working on embedded systems engineering or something way different. Of course that makes sense to do during your off time only. My examples above are things that could be used by the company I currently work for (git / docker / Angular), but the company chooses not to use these technologies due to various reasons (political, economic, expense, etc). As a result, I can't put that on my "Competency plan" because it does not directly or immediately benefit the company. Now good managers will allow this. They see the benefit in trying new technologies even if there's no immediate need. But those managers are far and few between. Personally I would love to work with folks who just want to try some cool shit on a boring, slow Friday afternoon.