Test With Project Work

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“What could I have done differently?” Joyce asked. “I thought Phillip was the right choice. I know now, that I was wrong, but how do you make the decision on whether or not to promote someone?”

“Why did you think he was a candidate for promotion?” I asked.

“Well, he has been with us for a little over a year. He knows the ropes. He was a team leader, had the respect of his team,” Joyce replied.

“And what level of work do you think he is capable at?”

“Well, based on what we have been talking about, his current capability seems to be about four weeks or a little more, but not a lot more.”

“So, how could you find out how much more?”

“Well, he was successful at four weeks. I could have given him a task that took six weeks to complete, or eight weeks.”

“Exactly,” I pointed out. “The best way to determine performance is with project work. The problem with project work, is that, until we talked about Time Span, you had no way to determine the level of work. With Time Span, you can measure with more precision. Your job, as his Manager, becomes more precise.”

One thought on “Test With Project Work

  1. Ed Burke

    Tom …. I have been a CEO for many many years, and now a Vistage Chair for 2 years and am working with ~40 companies. Your blog today in putting someone into a role who does not have the right time span is SO COMMON. For one, I have done this a dozen times (before learning about time span), and then several times after this knowledge.
    Everyone …. please test the persons time span before the change in role …. since without doing this it ruins everything (poor role position, can’t go back, pay issues, turnover (the person, others) etc.)

    Reply

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