Ratings are Out! Or Are They In?

It’s almost impossible to talk meaningfully about someone’s performance as a whole ("Nicola, I thought you did great last year"). So instead most performance conversations are broken down into chunks - we call them factors - which might be a hard performance metric like sales, or a softer behavior like teamwork.

There's No I in Team (Really!)

Businesses ultimately depend on the success of teams, but performance reviews focus on the strengths and weaknesses of individuals. How do we bridge this gap?

Connections & Voyeurism: Why Pinterest is My Happy Place

You do good stuff, you want people to know about it: whether it’s a really cunning hat you just knitted, or a kickass pitch that won a giant account. Work or play, everyone wants some kind of recognition for a job well done.

I Never Should've Added My Boss on Facebook (or Lessons for Managing Gen Y)

We’ve all heard the standard complaints about members of Gen Y (or "Millennials," if you prefer) - they’re disloyal, lazy, have short attention spans, you practically need to throw parades when they accomplish the simplest tasks, they want the top job on day one, don’t respect experience, won’t be long term employees, are only motivated by money, need work to be fun.

Not Too Easy, Not Too Hard: It's Goldilocks Goals

When it comes time to set goals, be clear on what constitutes ’just right’ for you. It’s good to be stretched (yoga-style), but not so stretched that everything snaps. A crazy workload will mess with both your work and personal life, so you need to be realistic about what’s achievable.

When VAGUE is Better than SMART

Remember SMART objectives? Specific, measurable, attainable...repressive...tedious...?

The Manager-Miner Metaphor

The most successful organizations have one thing in common; they’re able to inspire their employees, and they recognize achievements.

What's In a Name? (You Are NOT Your Job Title)

Internal Principal Human Functionality Administrator? Really? So many job titles are confusing, pretentious or lame. Or they are so vague and ambiguous they no longer have any meaning.

Engagement & Long-Term Love, A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time...The economy had been through a period of prolonged stress (in case you hadn’t noticed). It was still a bit shaky and nervous and jumped at loud noises. This hit employee engagement hard; it’s difficult committing to something that might vanish in a puff of smoke at any moment.

Motivational Performance Reviews (and other oxymorons)

I Met Expectations: 5 Reasons Why Performance Management Needs to Change

We love performance reviews, although we know we’re not in the majority; just check your social network of choice any day of the week and you can see how unloved the poor things are. But why? And does it have to be that way?

Compression: It Has Its place and HR Isn't It

Congrats! You're a 3