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August 2009
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 As part of my personal strategy for managing my time at home, (and because I hate
household chores!), we have a cleaner who comes in once a week and flicks a duster
around the place.
It struck me the other day, as I was tidying the place up for her arrival (I know,
I’m mad), how bad I’ve been at people managing her performance.
We didn’t sit down at the beginning of the year and agree her objectives. When we
recently decided to put our house on the market, I didn’t discuss how she would
contribute towards the viewers’ experiences and help us achieve our strategy of
a quick sale at top price! I rarely offer praise – I’m usually too busy to notice
what she’s doing anyway, and over coffee, we talk about our respective animals and
the weather rather than what she’s hoping to achieve in her role here and her long-term
goals and aspirations.
I don’t even offer any feedback on her performance. When she started, I found pointing out things she’d missed and asking her to, for example, move things to clean under
them, excruciatingly embarrassing, and so, after a couple of weeks, I gave up.
In short, I’ve slipped into all the bad habits of a poor people manager – one who
doesn’t seem to notice his staff, takes them for granted, offers
no constructive
feedback, and just expects them to get on with the job.
Now, you might be
thinking that of course you wouldn’t bother doing an annual appraisal
with your cleaner and of course you wouldn’t sit down and write out her annual objectives.
Perhaps. But where do you draw the line? If we reserve our best management practices
for those we believe show most potential, don’t we risk creating the Pygmalion effect
– the self-fulfilling prophecy?
It seems to me that everyone within an organisation, should be given a clear understanding
of their role and what’s expected of them, regular constructive feedback and a manager
who’s interested in them. That applies to the office cleaner, the part-time clerical
staff and the high flying graduate – everyone. And, if I needed reminding of what
taking people for granted and making assumptions might cost, I need only look back
at the lady who used to iron for us once a week and went on to become our top performing
sales consultant.
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