When you and your supervisor do not have clearly defined goals for your performance there is a chance that you both have different impressions of your priorities. And, when you don’t check in regularly to ensure that the goals remain the same, that gap can become an abyss. Let’s make sure you don’t find yourself at the bottom of it like Xavier.
Xavier, a regional head of finance for a national organization, listened to his CFO outlining his subpar performance for the year, and was dumbfounded. He had walked into the discussion fully expecting a stellar annual review. Over the course of the hour, he’d gone from feeling highly engaged to completely demotivated. So, how did the two of them end up with such wildly different perspectives?
Xavier attended the annual company meeting at the beginning of the year, where the CEO laid out her vision for his region to increase its market share and profitability of new clients. He had taken on this goal as his own. He worked with the leadership team to create a budget that would allow them to achieve these goals. He partnered with sales and marketing to develop metrics to assess the cost of customer acquisition. He teamed up with IT to create a dashboard that allowed the team to see its progress in real-time. Ultimately, the region surpassed the target set by the CEO.
The CFO, however, was focused on functional goals. They had listened to the CEO’s call for increased profitability and determined that finance would contribute to this goal through automation. Specifically, the CFO was looking at bringing in a single financial platform to replace the myriad of homegrown solutions that existed across the company. They believed this would help the organization in 4 ways. Firstly, this would reduce the burden of maintaining all of these ad-hoc systems. Secondly, it would be far less cumbersome and time-intensive to capture reporting at an organizational level. Thirdly, it would standardize data capture and reporting throughout the company. And, finally, the finance organization would be able to redeploy employees from data entry to analysis.
Unfortunately, neither the CFO nor Xavier took the time to articulate these goals to the other. They both assumed that since they had attended the same meeting and heard the same directive, they’d taken away the same priorities. But, as you can see, not only were they not aligned there were ways in which they were working that undermined the other’s goal. This culminated in a performance review that saw them both shaking their head in disbelief. Xavier was frustrated that all of his efforts with the regional team were not only not recognized but being held against him. While the CFO was aggravated that Xavier had “gone rogue” and viewed himself as part of the region team rather than the finance team.
How might you ensure that you and your direct supervisor are aligned on what success means for you?
- Set clear goals at the beginning of the year – work with your supervisor to craft goals for yourself that support the organization’s goals. Make sure you are both clear on not only what the goals are but how they will be measured.
- Check-in regularly throughout the year – whether in writing or in person, regular check-ins give you the opportunity to share your progress and any challenges you may be encountering, as well as to ascertain any potential changes in priorities.
- Surface and resolve contradictions – in the example above, both Xavier and the CFO were focused on profitability, but they were coming at it from two very different vantage points. While laying out goals and expectations would have lessened the conflicts, it likely wouldn’t have eliminated them. In this case, Xavier’s need for real-time metrics now seems to be at odds with the CFO’s vision of a single platform (which would take time to research, purchase, and implement). Being aware of, and talking through, these contradictions enable you both to be on the same page as to how to address it.
Part of the trepidation that people feel heading into their annual review, I believe, comes from a lack of understanding of how their performance is being evaluated. By taking the initiative to work with your supervisor to establish and monitor your progress toward clearly defined goals, you are putting yourself in a better position to achieve success.
