Performance Management When There Is No Point B

Did you reach your destination this year?  Many year-end performance reviews are built to answer this question, which is relatively easy to answer when positions and goals are clearly defined.  But often, they aren’t.  Staffing reductions have some assuming a mix of duties that are not traditionally connected with their job.  Others find themselves acting in temporary roles as supervisors or managers.  Still others have taken on the challenge of stepping into jobs that didn’t have predecessors and therefore lack established standards of success or failure.  And then there are those whose job responsibilities have been altered or nullified by changing priorities and emerging technology. 

How does one manage and measure performance in these liminal spaces where your job is neither what it was six months ago or what it will be three months from now?

Here are two suggestions I’d invite you to consider:

1) Define the Rules When You Can’t Define the Destination

I enjoy hiking and many of the trails I hike are loops that finish up where they start.  The goal is getting from Point A back to Point A. 

The scenarios I outlined above likewise lack a distinct Point B.  Each day requires diagnosis of the situation, taking action and repeating the cycle.  Performance looks like repeatedly traversing a loop from Point A to Point A. 

There are, however, rules of engagement, and getting clear on the rules can make all the difference between you getting lost along the way, taking shortcuts versus detours and making the journey a strenuous or pleasurable one for yourself and others.

Consider shifting from goals (defining destinations) to managing performance with navigation rules that can bend and flex as the scenery changes.  Instead of setting targets, which can shift or become irrelevant, align around:

Responsibility clarity – What am I accountable for?  What do I “own?”

Expectation clarity – What specific outcomes or behaviors are others expecting from me?

Authority clarity – What can I decide?  What actions am I able to take independently?

Boundary clarity – What is outside my role?  At what point do others need to be involved?

Priority/Process clarity – How should I navigate competing demands?  What “wins” or takes precedence when priorities and/or systems are in conflict? 

Add a phrase like “right now” or “in this moment” to each of these and you have a means of managing performance that can be relevant to any set of duties you’re responsible for today.  Aligning around the rules of engagement empowers you to adapt along with the changing terrain and conditions. 

2) Measure What Matters

When I finish a hike that’s a loop, my review of how it went depends on what I measure.  Someone could say that I’ve travelled the distance of the hike and someone else could say I’ve technically travelled zero feet.  Both would have a valid argument, but whose review defines what I achieved? 

There are many ways to measure performance and some are more appropriate for those in-between times when how you show up matters more than where you end up.  For ambiguous journeys, build performance plans around:

• Metrics that will matter regardless of the trail – Meeting commitments, holding self and others accountable, providing exceptional service, etc.
• Navigation metrics – Resilience, adaptability, awareness of self, others, and circumstances, managing through ambiguity and uncertainty, etc.

Make sure your metrics add value by ensuring they can differentiate performance that exceeded, met, and fell below expectations.

If your path is looking more like a loop than a straight line these days, you are not alone.  Calibrate, navigate and celebrate every lap you complete with a guide that fits the journey you are on.

Ernest currently serves as a Personnel Research Psychologist within the Chief Human Capital Office of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He earned his Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology from the University of Akron in 2016. Over the last 20 years, he has worked in for-profit, non-profit, and government settings while holding a variety of individual contributor and leadership roles. His areas of expertise and experience include assessment for hire and development, leadership development, employee engagement, performance management, and organizational change and transformation. 

Photo Credit: Jared Brotman at pexels.com.