I guess preaching can influence!
I wanted to update you on a post from a number of weeks ago where I was talking with a manager at Lawson about our merit review process. I challenged this person to think differently about the situation, and we had our monthly mentoring meeting last week and got an update.
As a mentor, I try to influence and suggest, but not push (too much) and in this case, since I admitted I had been preaching a bit, I deliberately didn’t ask for an update. But in fact, I did get one (I was hoping!) and was delighted with the outcome:
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This manager was fearful of what very senior people would think of a lower increase, and that turned out to be the easy part. They understood the rationale and were appreciative of the recognition.
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The manager ended up with a range of increases from 2.5%-8%, and prior to our discussion that range was something like 3-4%. Bonus points towards admission to HR heaven for really making great performance matter!
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One of the people that got 8% was delighted, surprised and very appreciative. The second person, not so much. They expected more (and imagine if that 8% had been 4%!) and that discussion proved to be the most challenging.
Shame on me: I prepared the manager for the (possibly) difficult discussion with the senior people and what to expect from the delighted/surprised person. But I left my mentee fully unprepared for the top performer who got a great increase relative to any measure and was still dissatisfied. I guess 2 out of 3 isn’t bad.
Most importantly, I’d influenced the manager to evolve to a new level, and confirmed that the experience was a good one. On to the next one!
Tags: compensation, Lawson, performance management
