Following on from our last post about why people cheat, there is another neat study reported in Neuromarketing that looks at how people can learn best from failure.

In this particular study kids were given a test and after being graded were either praised for being smart or praised for their effort. The kids who were praised for their hard work were shown to perform better in subsequent tests than the ones praised for being smart.

It is suggested that the ones praised for their effort took the time to analyse where they went wrong and to learn from their mistakes, whereas the smart ones rested on their laurels.

Other studies showed that adults who analysed their performance and mistakes improved their skills over time.

So what does that mean for managers? It means for example in performance reviews recognising and rewarding effort. It means taking the time to analyse errors and mistakes to help learn from them. It means project debriefing should be an essential part of every successful team at the conclusion of each major project.

The warm fuzzy “you’ve all done very well” will not improve your performance or the performance of your team. Critical, clear yet supportive analysis will.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer

Thanks everyone for helping me out! I have been so busy burning the midnight oil on our great book Employee Performance Reviews: Tips Templates & Tactics that I have totally lost track of time. So my wonderful newsletter just welcomed everyone to March! Big sigh.

But …  that doesn’t take away from the brilliant offer we have. Just visit our special page and you can download a pile of free performance review templates and forms PLUS a free recording of our Introduction to Performance Reviews & Performance Management Myths.

Grab it now, before I catch up on my sleep and take down the offer!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Human Resource Management writers

It’s that time of year when many businesses start doing their employee performance reviews.

There was an interesting study done by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Ethics Resource Centre (ERC). Only 23% of HR professionals surveyed had any form of comprehensive ethics or codes of conduct in place in their organisation and only 43% assessed ethical conduct as part of their employee performance reviews. Since ethical conduct is and should be a “given” in all workplaces this is a bit of a concern.

When you do your employee performance reviews you need to look at not only WHAT a person does but HOW they do it. The most common problems with employees performance are in the HOW category.

I would be so bold as to suggest that most employees who are fired are only fired for how they do their job (their attitude, approach, interactions with others) and not what they actually do.

If you don’t address the how in your performance reviews, if ever you need to discipline or terminate an employee you have no leg to stand on legally before the courts in case of appeal. They rightly can argue they have not been given the opportunity to address these issues.

If you are looking for a simple yet thorough Employee Performance review process – check out our Employee Performance Reviews: Tips, Templates and Tactics e-manual .

It has all of the processes, templates and forms as well as info on dealing with the “hard issues” such as an employee bursting into tears during your review or getting angry. It is a great resource for all managers about to head into Performance Review season!

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Employee performance reviews are very serious things.

… But- like all things in life there is a totally opposite side which can be very funny.
I just updated one of my sites with some of my favourite employee performance review jokes.

• Performance appraisal terms and what they REALLY mean
• Real comments on some military performance appraisals
• Best of You Tube

Visit Employee Performance Reviews – Tips, Templates and Tactics page on Squidoo, scroll down and have a giggle at the lighter side of performance reviews.

Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Many small businesses struggle with employee performance reviews.

They want a system that works, that has “ready to go” templates, has tips on how to do them and is not just a cut-down version from big business.

Announcing the release of “Employee Performance Reviews – Tips, Templates and Tactics“.

The pack is specifically designed for small business – and is choc-a-block full of useful information.

Check it out at:

http://www.heartharmony.com.au/EmployeePerformanceReviews.html

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony