Processes are critical to the well-running of any function; unfortunately, it’s often overlooked because…well, it’s boring. But the great thing about process is that it is the way to ensure consistency. The analogy I always use is that the process is the recipe….it tells you how, not just what. Here are some lessons learned regarding processes:

1.Ensure you have the right metrics to determine the health of the process. Some metrics are rear-view mirrors, others try to forecast where you’re going. Both metrics are key, but it’s more important to have metrics you use rather than having reams of information. You know you have the right metrics when if you don’t see them, you’re looking for them.

2. Be vigilant on handoffs in the processes. Pain points are almost always from what you receive from someone else and what you hand off to someone else. It’s a relay race: how you receive the baton and how you hand off will determine how you win the race. File feeds: when, and from whom? Is it documented? Are they on time?

3. Tabletop exercise: review the process with critical eyes with all the owners of a process. Often, people don’t realize what you have to do with the data because you don’t receive it the way you need to. People get used to doing things a certain way. Reviewing the process with fresh eyes can create re-engineering opportunities and reduce re-work.

4. Cross-train and document who knows what process and who’s got entitlement to what systems. Nothing is worse than a time sensitive, critical process …and the one person who knows how to do it is out unexpectedly.

5.Continually raise the bar. If metrics are always green, and never amber, the standards might be too easy. At some point, it may be too expensive to try to always hit a 100% SLA. But maybe the cycle time for response time should go from 5 days to 3.

There are pivotal moments in your career…both as a manager and as an employee, and compensation is often one of them…receiving or delivering. Lately, I have been hearing story after story about compensation, and here are my lessons learned…

1. If your employee is shocked/surprised at their comp numbers in a bad way, that’s a problem. Either their performance wasn’t clearly communicated, and/or comp expectations weren’t managed. No one should be shocked. They might be unhappy…but they shouldn’t be shocked. You haven’t been as clear as you needed to be.

2. If you are giving someone a zero increase or bonus, you are telling the person you want them to leave. Unless there is a catastrophic event (like 2008), there is no other explanation. If someone isn’t expecting it (e.g. foreshadowing through a performance evaluation), they won’t get over it.

3. If you receive an increase in base and/or bonus, be grateful. Understand that making comp decisions is hard. And if you just got promoted, understand you’re supposed to be at the lower end of your grade so don’t compare yourself with other more experienced people at your new level.

4. Comp discussions should be short and to the point. I have heard crazy stories where managers try to justify their decisions “I didn’t know what to give you because I know you have kids in college” or “do you want the $5k bump because then your bonus gets accrued” or “I had nothing to do with the number”. Give them the number, provide some context (e.g. “you did a great job this year so we tried to reflect that in your bonus.” is one phrase I have used). That’s it. It’s not meant to be a long discussion about why…..that’s a different conversation for a different day.

5. Depending on your company, compensation varies in the proportion of art and science. Don’t try to over analyze it, don’t try to compare your numbers with someone else’s. If you think you are being underpaid, have that conversation with your manager, but not at the moment you get your comp numbers .

One company I worked at had a great process: first, they had bands for base salary based on title and function. So as a hypothetical example, if you were a VP, you knew your band was $70k to $150k. If you were at $145k, you understood you were at the top of your range and shouldn’t expect a base increase. The logic was that the marketplace price for the role was $150k at the top of the range. If you wanted to make more, you needed to get promoted to the next band or perform at the highest level to get the maximum bonus. Your bonus was based on guidelines set based on your performance, which had 2 grades: G and L. G was for goals-accomplishments. L for leadership behaviors and competencies. Personally, I liked this process the best.

One day in your career, you’ll be in the seemingly enviable position of having multiple jobs to choose from. While it seems great, it can also create a lot of stress on choosing the right one. Here are a couple of questions I think are useful to ask yourself.

1. How much power will you have in the new job? Can you really say no? If you can’t say no to a project or have a say in what’s going to happen…you might be a figurehead hire….someone who looks good, fills the role, but isn’t going to be able to do much.
2. What is the journey for the next 2-3 years? Is it evolutionary (slow change over time) or revolutionary (fast with lots of casualties)? Are you a wartime or peace time general?
3. Do you trust your boss? Not whether or not your boss is a nice person, but do you fundamentally trust them? It’s a yes or no, split second answer. Listen to your instincts.
4. Will you be able to get things done? Sometimes, you can tell the situation is highly political, with lots of people with different agendas. Ask questions in your interview on how disagreements are resolved between people.. e.g “in my old world, there was a lot of infighting between operations and sales. Does that happen here?”
5. Pretend you’re in the job. Gut check: are you happy/excited/nervous or are you anxious/”oh S&*# what did I do”? You can have some trepidation….but keep you up at night anxiety isn’t good. It’s not going to get better.

Someone asked me a great question. They have a direct report who is working on a development area…and while they want to change (high will), she isn’t seeing the change in behavior she’d like to see. So here’s my advice..the 3 Fs.

1. Frequency: if you want to help someone change behavior, the feedback needs to be constant: every time you observe the behavior happening or not happening. The key is that you’re making them aware of when they’re doing it….they might know, they might not. You’re the rubber band on the wrist every time the urge or situation arises for the individual and you observe the behavior.
2. Fairness: give feedback both good and bad, right after the event. The key is to keep the feedback fresh and delivered directly. It could be anything from “I saw that you stopped yourself from reacting to the negative comments made, and you took a moment to come back with your response” to “whoops, looks like we did the thing we’re trying not to do.” But do it for both…you need carrot and stick.
3. Faking: sometimes people need a verbal “go to” phrase when they get in a jam. If someone feels caught off guard in a meeting, rather than trying to create an answer on the spot, a phrase such as “That’s a great point, let me look into it and get back to you” can be useful. If you’re losing the attention of the audience, it can be helpful to ask “Does that make sense?” rather than re-explaining what you think people didn’t understand. Another trick is to have a code between you and your employee, e.g. when you move your phone from the right side to the left side, they need to stop talking and wrap it up.

It’s hard to break out of patterns. But when you see a particular behavior which is detrimental to an individual’s ability to contribute, it’s often the one thing which can hold them back.

Someone said to me that he had a great person working for him. The only issue? She never spoke up. He knew that she could contribute to the conversation, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t comfortable joining, particularly if there were senior people in the room.

My suggestion to him? Invite her into the conversation. Say “Judy, I know you’ve been doing some work in this space. What’s your view on what we’ve been discussing?”

Sometimes, a person who’s hanging on the sidelines really wants to join in but doesn’t know how. I used to tell my team..” I don’t expect you to always be right, but I do expect you to have a point of view.”

So next time you see the person on the sideline, invite them into the game.