Loz Earnerbly

L. Earnerbly

Joz Kiddin

J. Kiddin

Loz, Head of Market Success

Afternoon everyone,

I’m Loz and I’m a Manager here at Moonlight, an imaginary LXP marketplace.

I’m about to have a Performance Snapshot conversation with one of my Team, Joz.

Joz joined us at the end of last year and, honestly, it’s been kind of difficult to decide what his indicators should be.

He’s got such impressive insight - he freelanced for a Marketing consultancy, so he’s worked across so many different projects and sectors.

There’s nobody on my team who can really match his ability to innovate. He’s been involved in a couple of projects for us that have been amazing and smashed KPIs.

BUT. He’s so unreliable when it comes to many of operational aspects of the role.

His planning is sporadic and mostly in his head. We’re always having to remind him to submit reports and analysis.

Basically, he seems allergic to any kind of process.

When it comes to our values, he’s great fun and a real team player.

He’s a soooo active in all our Fun channels, knows a lot of Moonlighters from Donut chats, and he’s said so many times that he joined Moonlight for the culture and the people…

Yet, at the same time, he doesn’t really participate at all in Sprint planning or retrospectives, at the moment, he’s pretty much silent unless I or another member of the team ask him a specific question.

It’s frustrating and confusing.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that he’s recently broken up with his long term partner partner.

While it’s been a mutual decision, I know that living alone has been tough for him, we’ve talked about a few times in our 121s.

He lives on his own in a studio flat and he finds it tough to concentrate and get the balance right when he’s living his whole life in one room.

There’s the co-working pass that gives him access to a space twice a week, but he lives in a small city and he’s worried to bump into his ex there which is tricky and I can’t do much about.

So, it’s been complicated but, after I sense-checked with the other managers, Joz’s indicators has been set at Meeting most expectations for both his performance and his values.

He’s rated himself as Exceeding most expectations for performance and Meeting all expectations for Values.

So… I’m not really looking forward to this.

I know he’s going to be disappointed and it seems such a shame when he’s definitely doing such a great job in so many ways...

Anyway, he’s just joining me now… so wish me luck!

Loz

Yeah, hi mate, I’m alright thanks.

Honestly, I was up quite late last night and I’ve just spilt all my milk all over the kitchen floor...

So not a great start to the day!

Loz

Do you think you can just order a pint of milk on Deliveroo?!

Loz

Yeah…maybe I will if I can find my phone

Loz starts looking around for their phone, moving papers etc

So, anyway look, your Performance Snap Shot Conversation.

Loz

Trying to reassure

Great, so look, obviously, nothing to worry about.

I mean, I don’t have to tell you what a great job you’ve done in so many ways this month.

The re-design of the Fire Banner was inspired…

Loz

Yeah. On that note, actually, I see you’ve still not uploaded your notes on the campaign metrics for Water Blizzard yet.

Loz

Ok.. well, if you can try and get to that today, Pete’s waiting to finalise the budget there…

Loz

Great, thanks. So…anyway yes. Basically, here we are!

Generally, my view is everything’s definitely coming together for you in this role but, you know….

There’s still a little way to go.

Loz

So, yeah… and I’m sorry….

I know that’s probably going to be a bit disappointing…

Loz, Head of PX

Well… the um… the fact that your indicator is Meeting Most expectations.

Loz

And you are, absolutely, in many areas of the role. It’s just there is quite a way for you to go operationally

ROI analysis, success metrics, campaign planning… all of that stuff is kind of key and you’re definitely on the way with some of it…

But, yeah, it’s just not quite there yet.

Loz

Defensive

Well, I mean, honestly Joz, I have asked you for some more detailed ROI analysis on that, so I couldn’t say for sure and that’s sort of…

Loz

Well, you know, indicators are more like a fitbit… trend… and this conversation isn’t really the time for us to discuss that…

FACILITATOR DEBRIEFS/ASKS AUDIENCE FOR THEIR THOUGHTS ON WHERE LOZ WENT WRONG:

Pitfalls:

• Loz is worried about Joz’s reaction and pre-empts it - tries to soften the blow with some praise (‘great job’) which then ultimately ends up confusing the issue.
• Loz’s bid to reassure Joz actually devalues the conversation and the benefits for them. It’s not clear what it is or why it’s important.
• Loz ends up sort of delivering the rating accidentally and Joz misses it. They don’t make it clear what the rating is for, or create a distinction between Capabilities and Values ratings.
• Loz then justifies the rating with a list of what’s missing from Joz’s current performance, rather than putting the rating into context with some accurate feedback.
• Loz mirrors Joz when they get defensive and blocks their emotional response and disappointment rather than listening to understand potential blocks to Joz’s performance.
• Loz tries to fix it herself with some suggestions for how Joz could make improvements (rambling on in a bid to hit on something that will engage him), rather than co-creating a plan and empowering Joz’s future performance.

？ What should Loz do instead…?

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