A Few Thoughts on Leadership

MedMan has long been a proponent of the 360 annual evaluation process for all our staff. It is not perfect, as pointed out by Dr. Chris Meade, a Boise native, professor and organizational development consultant, “For many leaders, 360s can be a frustrating experience. At best, open-ended comments can be unfocused and unhelpful. At worst, they’re a way to anonymously take a jab at a colleague. And ultimately, they can even derail the learning process”.

Then I am reminded of one of my colleague’s favorite sayings, "done beats perfect”, which is certainly the case in a world that depends on execution. We get this done for our clients and our professional staff, and yet we are still left with the probing question of whether there is a better, more timely and meaningful, way. The annual performance review is under fire by human resource professionals around the country, and being replaced by Microsoft, CIGNA, and even GE who pioneered the idea.

Ratings and formal evaluations may go away, but the tenet of professional development stands as a cornerstone of execution is the MedMan model of “assess, plan execute".

Recently a client asked about what they should expect of a leader. Some scholarly people have packaged a response more succinctly than I could, so here are a few thoughts on what to expect from a leader, and what leaders are constantly striving to do with all the imperfections of ratings and measurements: