Episode D5.003 Promotions Based on Performance, not Connections

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Introduction
Here we are in the last week of July and the first month of the 3rd Quarter is ending - how much closer are you to success?

If you have been with us all month, you know we have been railing against the politicians and bureaucrats for acting arbitrarily in response to the pandemic; and any illusion they are making data-based decisions should have been dispelled by now. This is not about a specific political party or group, it is about the arbitrary use of power at the expense of the most important global community - you.

People like us, Living the Life, employ 57% of the planet's population and yet are treated as the source of its problems. Not here, we celebrate the contribution you make to a better society and our focus is to improve your chances of success. 

This week we continue the new programming structure. We use a Balanced Scorecard to format our weekday shows: Finance (Monday) = Operations (Tuesday) + Sales (Customers) + People (Employees) with Fridays dedicated to Owners. Look at the week this way - Monday through Thursday is working IN the Present, Friday is working ON the Future.

Also, we just built a new community, our version of a Chamber of Commerce. Join Up and gain access to our Hosts and access our library of best practices.

Have a great business week.
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Show Objectives
Today’s show is about top grading and putting in a formal performance management system. Top grading follows a similar philosophy of the pareto principle or 80/20 rule and allows you to identify and promote your top talent. Promoting top talent based on performance is a win for your company because your best people will continue to move up the career path. When you lead with your best talent, others will either follow suit by seeing what expectations look like or lesser talent will find other, less competitive, employment. 

What You Need to Know

EPISODE D5.002 COMPANY PROVIDES A CAREER PATH

When you top grade your promotions, you intentionally select the top 10% of your employees and groom them for the next level or promote now, then build a profile of them as a basis of your performance management system.

Key Issues:
Owner/Manager Perspective

1. How do you transition your company to a performance based promotions system?
2. Many companies set up promotions based on time. When this is the case, there is not much motivation to perform to high standards. 
3. How do you segment your employees in order to identify and determine who is your top 10%?
4. Look at a career from 2 viewpoints - technical and organizational.
5. A small business is challenged by providing a career path - however if we have made it to Stage V - we are a real business and need to think about retention of the best and attracting the same group because of staffing needs from growth.
6. Develop people technically first - job of management is developing skill mastery,
7. Continue to develop their business skills to make competence complete,
8. Promotion is based ability to demonstrate new skills​

Key Issues - Employee Perspective:

1. Become competent for your position - identify the final gaps.
2. Become indispensable by taking on the thankless jobs required to make the business work - what is left?
3. Find opportunities to gain exposure for knowledge and skills beyond your position - tell me when I can join innovation teams.

What You Need to Do

1. Know your growth plan and create future organizational chart that focuses on positions
2. Create future position descriptions - focus on job demands
3. Instill a Performance Management system that promotes based on performance and details performance expectations, progress
4. Create a job scorecard with success metrics
5. Create Future Position Descriptions
   1. Create future organizational chart - focus positions;
   2. Create future position descriptions - focus on job demands
6. Coach your employees. Create a Training Plan for the new Positions
   1. Formal classroom for technical, human, and conceptual
   2. Delegate by creating "boss for a day" where you give them a position 1 level higher to understand the new demands
7. Formalize Training
   1. Technical Skills - driven by technology and position descriptions;
   2. Human Skills - driven by management requirements and teamwork;
   3. Conceptual Skills - driven by ownership demands of strategic thinking and innovation

Shows
Previous: Episode D5.002 Company Provides a Career Path 

Next: Episode D5.004 Formal Training Programs for Job Demands & Career Development (James Bryant)


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