March is synonymous with basketball! The ACC competition has begun. There are some important HR lessons that can be learned from this team sport.
Basketball Coach Dean Smith once said, “if you make every game a life and death proposition…you’ll be dead a lot.” He knew – he lost 254 games in his Hall of Fame career! The same applies to making important personnel decisions such as whom to keep and whom to promote, based almost exclusively on recent events. However, the data in your short-term memory may not be the best information to base an important organizational decision on.
A basketball coach – like a manager – must create the best team possible. The coach/manager will balance the skills of each employee for optimal performance. He/she often has to make difficult decisions about next steps for an employee with some recent performance issues.
Consider an employee named Joe. The manager needs to determine if Joe should be promoted or fired. The manager should consider the following questions.
- What knowledge, skills and abilities does Joe add to the team?
- How easily could Joe be replaced?
- What performance metrics can we use to evaluate Joe’s performance over the course of a year?
- What capabilities does Joe potentially bring to an expanded role within the organization?
If Joe has historically been a solid contributor, don’t over-manage as a result of a recent wobble. Have a conversation or even a documented disciplinary write-up, if warranted. Investing in getting Joe back on track is going to be less costly than replacing him, almost guaranteed.
If Joe has done something worth celebrating, consider a one-time bonus or some form of public recognition. However, don’t rush to put him in that supervisor role that just opened-up based solely on this single victory or recent short-term success. Evaluate his fit for this new position separately from his recent star performance. Otherwise, you may have just taken a solid individual contributor and put him in a supervisor role where he might be soon underperforming.
Contact the Davidson Group for advice on hiring, employee retention and succession planning.
