Page 149 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

120 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

or baseball coach, the model is the same, namely, provide your
players with up-front training and practice, send them into the
game, and give them ongoing feedback.

Story from the Trenches

Tom had worked as a plant manager for five years and was just
getting ready to receive his first performance review. Andrew,
Tom’s boss and the company president, asked me to facilitate.
I met with Tom and reviewed his self-assessment prior to the
meeting. Unfortunately, Andrew did not complete his assessment
of Tom in advance; in fact, he was just finishing it as I arrived.
Although Tom was already waiting, I asked that we delay the
meeting for a few minutes so that I could review Andrew’s assess-
ment. After scanning his answers, I apologized and said that some-
thing had just come up and we needed to reschedule.
A few minutes after Tom left, I called Andrew and asked if his
intention was for Tom to quit. Andrew said, “Of course not; he is
one of my best plant managers.” I told him that I had called the
meeting off because that is most likely what would happen if I
allowed the meeting to continue. I went on to explain that while
Tom’s self-evaluation was nearly all positive, Andrew’s evaluation
of Tom was nearly all negative. I asked Andrew why he would
give one of his best plant managers such an awful review. He
responded that Tom’s numbers had been down lately and he
wanted to give him a wake-up call.
I asked Andrew, “If you worked for someone and had not got-
ten a performance review in five years, how would you think you
were doing?” He responded, “I guess I would think that I was doing
pretty well.” Correct. I told Andrew that he actually deserved the