Let's hear it for teams!
Microsoft made news yesterday by announcing a significant revision in employee evaluation. In the past, Microsoft has strongly defended the "stacked ranking" system, which is essentially a bell curve within a reporting structure: no matter the degree of talent, work ethic and expertise that was demonstrated on the job - it was mandated that someone would be deemed "at the top" and someone would be deemed as under performing.
From a team leadership perspective - all should rejoice that this seeming relic of the 80's "back-stabbing-to-prove-I'm-better-than-you" culture is disappearing. Microsoft says it is replacing the curved ranking system with a new review program that focuses on personal performance and teamwork.
Some key observations:
When it's time to "move on" - move on! Microsoft defended an antiquated practice beyond it's time; but give them kudos, they had the courage to finally nix it. There are some companies, leaders and institutions that will not give in to the will of the people, but instead, keep standing on the past like it will support them in the future. Know this, if you are standing on the past, you are standing on a pillar of sand.
The utter futility of internal competition. The stacked ranking system essentially fueled internal competition. If you're having an internal competition for a food drive or United Way - that's fine. If it's a competition to prove who's the best at the expense of others - that's lunacy. Fierce, internal competition tears a company apart. The ability to compete externally, and win, is the strategy that all should adopt.
What is "better" anyway? The stacked ranking system over-simplifies the fact that some team members are "better" than others. At face value, that will always be true; but let's look at it another way. Some team members may work longer hours - but they aren't as intuitive about the business. Some team members may be high analyzers; but other members of the team are great about making the business happen. We build teams not by who's best and who's the worst; we build teams by bringing together a diverse group of individuals that have talents that complement each other.
Finally, and most intriguing: by eliminating stacked ranking, Microsoft has created two strong areas of focus. The first is internal team building; they recognize that to be effective, they must have strong, multi-functional teams that play well together. The second area of focus, then, is on external competition; they are building these strong teams to fend off the competition to maintain, and build, their status as a premier digital technology powerhouse.
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Brent Frerichs is the author of "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" available for e-readers, tablets, IPads from Amazon Kindle. If you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can now read this book for free!
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