August 2005
By Vincent M. Cramer
As the semiconductor market finally emerged from a cyclical downturn, it was time to prepare for the boom. Early in the recovery cycle, three actions are most critical:
- Get new products into the pipeline and out to the market as soon as possible.
- Eliminate austerity programs and start spending on staffing, marketing and sales.
- Schedule the sales conference that was cancelled during the downturn.
Having a sales conference at the start of a recovery cycle is another matter. Sales budgets have been repeatedly revised downward, and still, few sales people perform above that level. Sales commissions are meager and base salaries are often reduced.
What do conference planners do about awards and recognition for this period? What can be done to acknowledge the efforts of the sales force?
When the time for my company’s conference arrived, the conference was great and the sales force was excited about the new products that would soon be introduced. The closing event was the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony and the celebrity guest speaker was the acclaimed author George Plimpton, who sat patiently through a litany of awards and speeches. When it was finally his turn to take the podium, he stood silent for about a minute and glanced around the vast ballroom. In his customary slow and deliberate style he said, “I would like to buy a drink for everyone here (long pause) who did not receive an award tonight.”
Did recognition awards need to be given in vast numbers when everyone knew that there was no stellar performance to recognize?
Ever since Plimpton spoke those words, I have noticed that this practice has spread throughout the corporate culture—especially to performance appraisals. We are all familiar with the bell-shaped curve and we apply it broadly, with one exception. When it comes to performance appraisals, the bell-shaped curve cracks like the Liberty Bell. I have read many performance appraisals and they indicate that everyone is an “excellent” or “outstanding” employee. These individuals not only have achieved, but are exceptional and always exceed expectations.
Having spent my career in sales, I have reviewed many resumes for sales people, sales managers and sales executives. There is one metric that is on every person’s resume, because it is considered to be a critical yardstick for measuring sales qualifications: performance-to-budget. The performance percentage indicates the achieved revenue level versus the assigned budget. In truth, this ratio is a better indicator of a person’s budget negotiation skills than it is of sales performance. I am more interested in hearing about a successful sales experience that was executed despite daunting challenges or obstacles.
Comedian Steven Wright said, “Half the people you know are below average.” Why is it so difficult for us to acknowledge someone’s position on the performance curve, including our own? Sometimes it seems that corporations inadvertently encourage the practice. At a college or university, this practice would be called grade inflation. Just as performance-to-budget is tainted by the subjectivity of a budget number, performance appraisals have a similar taint relative to “expectations.”
The appraisal process is flawed. Ratings of “exceptional” and “exceeds expectations” are, in most cases, awards for showing up. Only when a manager has a high percentage of subordinates who are exceptional and exceed expectations can that manager (and his or her hierarchy) be classified in the same light. It is contradictory that an exceptional manager could have an average team.
Lofty self-assessments are almost an imperative. We must be exceptional. If not, how could we have the capability to deliver what the corporation is demanding, and possibly claiming? Corporations want exceptional individuals and high-performance teams that will be creative and innovative. That is why we get awards for showing up.
Vincent M. Cramer is the author of Cramer’s Cube. He is the founder of Winchester Consulting Group, an Organizational Development and Training Company specializing in the confluence of Collaboration, Innovation and Diverstiy. www.cramerscube.com
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