CRM - Empowering Leaders

One way to honor the work people do is to review its quality and quantity. By never reviewing it, we dishonor the sacrifice they have made. How can you know how to resource someone without knowing how things are going? How can you provide problem-solving support without knowing what the problems are? If the mission of your organization matters, then the contribution of your leaders and the work they do to carry out that mission matters, too.

Unfortunately, many people have experienced periodic assessments as a club being held over their heads. Instead, it should be a regular two-way dialogue, an opportunity to advance the cause and to support your people, a chance to capture learning as it occurs. Regular review is a far cry from controlling accountability; rather, done well, it should accelerate individual and corporate capacity.

Without effective review:

• People can feel undervalued. After all, they have given so much of themselves, often sacrificially, and it feels no one is paying attention.  
  
• Problems that arise become forest fires before they are dealt with. And forest fires take a huge toll, not only on what they burn, but on the people it takes to put them out.
  
• People have trouble keeping the dots connected; i.e.: "Remind me again, how does the thing I am doing make a difference?"