Are you checking for dysfunctional behaviour in your talent review process?

At this time when organisations are undergoing annual performance review process, many of them are considering to combine it with talent review process. Talent review is a tool that organizations use to understand their workforce beyond standard performance review criteria where a set of employees are carefully selected as high potential for more critical and complex roles in the organisation. My recommendation would be to check for dysfunctional behaviour as a critical factor in the selection of a HiPo candidate.

Dysfunctional behaviour is undesirable as it becomes detrimental to the culture of the organisation. People with dysfunctional behaviour often tend to get embroiled in office politics, bully fellow colleagues, engage in corridor talks, defy rules, etc. Managing dysfunctional behaviour then becomes a top priority to ensure that the productivity and the team morale do not take a beating. If not managed well, dysfunctional behaviour may result in attrition, negative culture and unfavourably impact the productivity.

An organisation comprises of people coming from diverse backgrounds with different set of conditionings. What is acceptable behaviour to some, may be intolerable to some others. However, an organisation requires people to adhere to certain common mutually agreeable and appropriate standards of behaviour. With proper guidance and training, people can be encouraged to follow these guidelines. People who continue to display unfavourable behaviour despite warning, must be set at a disadvantage during the HiPo selection process.

Role of leaders in managing this destructive behaviour is crucial in managing organisation performance. Dysfunctional behaviour grows in an organisation when leaders make indirect or unclear communication and ignore clarifications. People do not know how to act and react. When the trust and bonding between the manager and the employees is lacking, it gives rise to favouritism and groupism and growing conflicts. An unfair importance to mundane agendas is given. An `us versus them` culture begins to emerge.

Sometimes organisational processes are ineffective and fail to arrest the dysfunctional behaviour at the right time. Ambiguous policies, lack of clarifications, ineffective and inconclusive meetings, breed discontent in the organisation. Leaders should cultivate skills to communicate clearly, define precise goals and keep an open engagement with employees to share feedback and address all queries immediately. 

Different organisations follow different criteria to select HiPo. In my opinion, dysfunctional behaviour should become the most critical component of making the cut for qualifying as an HiPo. It should be considered as a circuit breaker and the candidature of employee should be dropped, irrespective of him or her meeting or exceeding all other parameters. It is incumbent upon the leaders to create a positive culture at the workplace by filtering out hostile influences at the earliest.