“Opportunities”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
“Opportunity”. I used to be part of an organization that used that very word euphemistically. The top-down leadership in that organization mandated that the team was not to use the word “challenge”, but instead replace that word with “opportunity”. “We don’t have ‘challenges’”, they insisted, “we simply must view those challenges as “opportunities’”.
Well, when it doesn’t (hardly) rain for a year, or when the entire global economy falls over like the guy who stayed too long at the Christmas party, or when a key team leader leaves an already-shorthanded team—those are challenges, not opportunities, let’s be honest. Intelligent, loyal, hard-working people need to be treated as such.
I’ve had a couple of bosses who were pretty honest about their HR commitments. Both told me essentially the same thing: “We do an annual review to appease the unwieldy HR megalith we’ve generated, not because we’re going to reveal some heretofore undiscovered deficiency or merit in your performance. If you’re doing something that needs either changed or commended, we won’t wait until the end of the year to tell you.” I like and appreciate that kind of honesty. Maybe HR doesn’t, but I do.
That’s not to say the annual review doesn’t and can’t have value. For the HR megalith, they (may) need a record trail if anything goes haywire down the road in your career path. But for the team, this can be a time for sharing long-range vision of the organization, and for gathering critical, essential, input (concerns, questions, needs, high points, etc.) from all members of the team.
The point is this: don’t simply check the HR box; as always, use this one-on-one time to reinforce the two-way lines of communication essential to effective leadership.
