People-Leaders: Document like James Comey
Walter Hoff
Leadership Development | Consultant | Coach | Facilitator | Curriculum designer | Avid contemporary jazz and chocolate lover
Like many Americans, I was intrigued by the testimony that ex-FBI chief James Comey provided on the circumstances surrounding his termination.
I did not watch the live event, which enthralled this country like no event I’ve seen since the OJ Simpson trial verdict. After hearing what I call some of the “post-game” analysis from those TV political commentators, my main thought went far from the political implications; I went right to implications for all people-leaders.
What most caught my attention was the way Comey documented his conversations with the President. Immediately after he left a conversation, he got in his car, pulled out his laptop, and began typing.
So where is this going? Comey is a model for what all leaders need to do. Following any conversation with a direct report that involves delegating a task, coaching on the front or back end of a task, or discussing performance, leaders should document that discussion. That documentation needs to happen soon after the discussion while it’s fresh in the leader’s mind.
Just Not a One-Meaning Word
Some people-leaders look at the word document and think only of what needs to be captured when a direct report is not performing well. The thinking of some is the employees who are heading down the path toward possible termination from the company are those who require the manager to document how far performance is from expectations/standards, what needs to happen to get to meet expectations/standards, and a time frame in which it needs to happen.
Other people-leaders and Human Resources professionals think of documenting actions that are either egregious or violate company policy, the type of transgressions like stealing or fudging an expense report that lead to immediate termination.
Yes, documentation is required in these circumstances. If you are a people-leader who thinks that only these circumstances require documentation, please change your thinking. Document the good stuff, like when you provide positive feedback (you are doing that, right?).
Document What They Are Doing Right
Document the good performance throughout the year, then provide any feedback to your direct report. The benefit to your direct report is a satisfaction that the boss acknowledges the good work she/he is doing. The result is a more satisfied, engaged employee who will be more willing to replicate the actions that were praised. And isn’t that good for the business?
What benefits the employee obviously benefits the people-leader, which is a better performing employee. Another benefit for the people-leader is that come performance review time, the people-leader is not scrambling to remember the good things that the employee did well throughout the entire year. The people-leader is not relying upon memory.
When warranted, your documentation will also include what was not done well or needs to improve. We all have something job-related that we could do better. Again, we are not talking about the employee who is one or two steps from termination.
I wanted to put a spotlight on documenting what employees have done well because I still find that people-leaders do not provide enough feedback to their direct reports on what was done well.
Does every encounter or conversation need to be documented? No. It is especially not necessary for the casual conversations that are not related to job performance.
When it involves any aspect of job performance, like delegating a complex task or coaching after several observations, document it. And do it while it’s fresh in your mind. James Comey would be proud!
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Walter W. Hoff is President of Development First, LLC, a leadership development consulting company that provides consulting, coaching, facilitation, and design services to companies in various industries who are focused on building the skills of present and future leaders of people. Walt coaches and develops people-leaders on how to develop the skills of their employees in order to be able to navigate through constant change, resulting in more engaged employees, especially the millennials. The benefit to the people-leader is more opportunity to be an effective, strategic people-leader.
Transformational Management Consultant @ Insigniam | Supporting senior executives faced with complex business imperatives and rapid change to succeed!
6 年Great article Walter. I stress to leaders all the time that documenting is not always about what people do wrong, it’s about capturing what they do right. We can’t always rely on memory to inform us especially when it comes to performance evaluation and employee recognition. The ability of a leader to document and document well helps to highlight the consistency of performance; this is how you find your high performers, low performers and those in the middle of the bell curve.