Delusions
I’ve recently had to deal with some delusional employees. In all three cases, they thought that they were top performers, worth double or more their current compensation. This, even though two of the three had been here for less than a year, and had average performance at best. But they had told themselves stories. In their minds they were top performers, far superior to everyone else in their same position. And (in their minds) they were woefully underpaid. This, despite the fact that they could see by our open-book record keeping that their performance was unexceptional.
None of them works here anymore.
We have a rigorous hiring process. But we have not yet figured out a screen for delusional people. If you have found one, please let me know.
Meanwhile, if you find that a new hire is completely and consistently unhinged from reality, let them go. Life is just too short…
February 20th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I think that is the hardest part (for me!) of being a business owner. I now have employees, who are representatives of my name, working for me. And how do I know they are going to do the best job possible? I can screen them as good as I can … but sometimes you just get a circumstance where this sort of thing happens, and all you can think is "Why didn’t I see that coming?"
In any case, sorry. That sucks!
February 21st, 2007 at 10:03 am
I manage over 25 employees in our firm. We have project managers, team leads, lead business analysts, programmers, graphic designers, hr personnel, administrator, etc. I know it can be very tough to manage employees especially when people have different expectations.
Having said this, no firing is not the only solution. And no employees are not always "delusional". May be these delusions are there due to miscommunications? Also what does an open-book record keeping mean? Where are your appraisal processes? It doesnt take too much to implement an efficient appraisal process in your business. In fact, everything thing your organization should be result driven, and employee reviews is just one part of it.
We have a very strict appraisal system in our company. We make all employees do their self appraisals, identify their strenghts and weaknesses, goals and what they achieved during last appraisal cycle etc. After this self-appraisal, their supervisors do their appraisals. Now all projects/tasks have to be tracked properly before you can do this kind of appraisal. Whatever event ever happened during a project, it should be logged (in a text file, excel file or a piece of paper!). It sounds cumerbersom but it’s really not. Once you get used to this you’ll realize that this works great. Anyway, so in this appraisal you can tell your employee what he achieved and what he didnt. You can clear out your expectations from him and he can clear out his from you. And thats how it works!
Firing is easy. Developing your employees to become furture manager is what really makes you a good organization.
Hope this helps.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Thank you for your insights. I enjoy reading what you have to say about growing a business. Please keep the posts coming!
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Ali: I agree with your description of appraisal systems, etc. We have great systems along these lines, and every "player" gets regular, specific feedback, including face to face, as well as multiple reports that can be pulled by every employee anytime they want, to check on the quantifiable aspects of their performance. Sort of like a baseball player being able to read his stats in the paper each day — along with the fans.
The point of my post was that despite a world-class system for performance feedback, some people live in a delusional world where the stories they tell themselves are sharply at odds with reality. Not many people, but we had a little run of them, which prompted the post.
I disagree with your statement that "firing is easy." I’ve fired plenty of people, and it is still hard every time. People are not numbers or cogs in a machine, they are real live human beings with families, dreams, and feelings. I hope it never becomes easy.
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Andrew: you are right, firing is not easy from a human perspective. I’ve always found it hard to fire anyone and as a matter of fact I’ve always tried to find alternative jobs for the person in question. However, what I meant by firing is easy was that it’s easier to just get rid of someone rather than trying to actually see his problem. With appraisal systems in place, you are absolutely right that they should be aware of the problems in the first place.
Also you are right that some people do have delusions. Actually, I don’t think there is any fixed rule of going around this problem. You can give daily, weekly, monthly feedbacks to your team and there may still be someone who would think of himself as "above" the system! Actually that person may very well be talented and indeed above the system, but the fact is companies are run by teams and not individuals. So if someone isn’t a team player than he doesnt fit in!
In "good to great", and other similar books I read a lot about how to hire only the best.. however, i dont think hiring the best mean your company will succeed. In fact, in my experience it’s been the team work that has pushed our growth. When business analysts work along side sales team, and when team leads work along side business analysts and when QA engineers make sure things are done right.. that’s when we achieve success.
I guess i am digressing a bit here
Just to wrap up, you are absolutely right that there are some delusional people.. almost always. However, i do believe that with correct processes these people can get automatically filtered out - either they leave themself or their appraisals will make them leave. In our orgnization, other than the basic annual increment, all bonuses are linked with appraisals so if you don’t perform well, you got no growth and so it’s better than you leave for a firm where you are more comfortable (the appraisal system has certainly made my life a lot easier in terms of managing people).
March 8th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I am an investigative journalist familiar with Mr. Andrew Field. I suggest that readers may want to consider the following information before rushing to any judgment about the three employees Mr. Field disparages.
[b]Big Fish, Small Pond[/b]. PrintingForLess.com is the largest (in terms of number of employees) private employer in the town of Livingston, Montana (pop. 6,000). The closest “metropolitan” area of any size is nearly 30 miles away, over a mountain pass, and even it’s only 35,000. Being a big fish in a small pond breeds a certain type of ego, particularly in the hinterlands of Montana, leading to practices that cannot pass muster elsewhere in the corporate world. Read on.
[b]Slight of hand[/b]. Mr. Field refers to “open book recordkeeping” right after he mentioned “employees pay.” This is a slight of hand, familiar to those who have worked with Mr. Field. Performance metrics and ranking are open-book – salary grids are not. The central issue reported by many employees is that the company does not apply the core value of “transparency” to its salary grid, assuming it even has one. As such, employee pay is wildly divergent, with many people being paid 60 cents, or less, on the dollar for the same work. Some employment candidates are told they are at the top pay rate for the job, adding a particularly troublesome dimension. Salary grids are published precisely to avoid this situation and are standard practice amongst many employers.
[b]Red Herring[/b]. It’s very convenient for Mr. Field to obfuscate the issue by labeling ex-employees as “delusional” (three “delusional” employees in a row? – this must be a record!!!) and to solicit assistance in his hiring process, as if this were the core issue. This is a red herring, designed as a ploy to divert attention from his own lack of sound judgment in developing his people. Those who have worked for Mr. Field know that he frames a perceived conflict with a certain degree of victimization, and then channels his energy (and often that of others, as with this blog) towards personal attack rather than intelligent debate. Not a terribly inspiring leader.
If Mr. Field spent half as much time developing leaders within his organization as he does labeling those who challenge the status quo as “delusional” (and giving himself self-congratulatory pats on the back, as he does in this blog), perhaps his “rigorous” hiring process would yield more successful employee relations instead of reinforcing his own delusional sense of importance. Makes one wonder just who is “completely and consistently unhinged from reality.”
May 8th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Amen, Rex. Amen.