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A Lightweight Template for Monthly Performance Discussions In my series of newsletters on preparing for your performance review, I mentioned a template you can use when talking with your manager during your one-on-one meetings (1:1s). A colleague and I have also mentioned this template in our talks on performance assessments, rewards and recognition systems, and...

Phrases to Say to Demotivate Your Teams There is this one phrase that can quickly demotivate people. I’ve seen a number of executives use this phrase in several conversations I’ve had. It doesn’t matter whether I’m an engineer, a manager, or a director. Neither does location matter – I’ve heard it in multiple offices around...

Slicing Your Hiring Dinosaur to Pieces Many companies have gone Agile over the years, undergoing transformations and seeing their teams deliver quicker (hopefully). Organizations seem to lust after delivery teams going faster. And yet as an organization, we hamper them in other ways, such as hiring. Let me illustrate this with the following scenario. I’ve...

Are you ready for next year’s performance review cycle? Part 3 of 3 I’ve gone over the first two suggestions on how to get ready for performance review cycles during this pandemic in my previous newsletters. The first newsletter in this series suggested you designate at least one 1:1 session a month to lightweight performance...