Feedback Variability

I went for a hike with four different fitness tracking devices as an experiment.  A Withings watch, a Garmin, a Whoop strap, and Samsung Health on my phone.  The Garmin and Whoop utilize wrist-based heartrate technology and I had one on each wrist.  The Withings watch utilizes wrist-based heartrate technology as well, but I was out of wrists, so I had it in my pocket.  When I analyzed the data after the hike, I was surprised that I got four completely different results.  I get that the wrist-based devices may generate a different result than the devices that were just tracking activity, but you’d think the two wrist-based devices would provide a similar result, or that the two non-wrist-based devices would provide a similar result.  Not even close.  Four different interpretations of the workout.

How does this relate to our performance review process?  If four technological devices, some of which utilize the same or similar technology produce such a variance, do we as a team of subjective, emotional human beings stand a chance of minimizing “feedback variability”?  It can be challenging enough to be consistent with our own assessment of a mentee’s performance.  What happened yesterday or this morning tends to skew our perception, potentially discounting the overall performance over a month or quarter.  Likewise, we tend to gravitate to the negative and a mistake someone made tends to be remembered over something positive.

Bringing a framework for consistency is important in a review process.  Formats such as “Stop, Start, Continue” tend to help provide well-rounded feedback.  Timeliness, however, is a critical component and building a culture of providing real-time feedback on the good, bad and ugly is part of the secret sauce of a successful firm.  A firm with an Edge!

Ironically, although they produced different results for a short workout, I continued to wear the two wrist-based devices and the results over a 24 hour period were relatively consistent…  By constantly monitoring and providing real-time data, we ultimately get to the right place.

Reverse Engineering the Buyer's Needs

Several years ago, during my TaxOps days, I wrote a brief paper on buying professional services.  To some extent the purpose was to shift the onus for the relationship to the buyer, at least partially.  To a large extent, it was intended to improve professional relationships by providing clarity and alignment around needs and expectations.  The paper focuses on five areas; identification of needs, Firm methodology, service team, relationships, and economic arrangements.

As a seller and provider of professional services and solutions, I encourage you to read the paper geared towards buyers.  If the factors described are truly what buyers should be looking for, the onus is on us to understand them and deliver.  The success of our relationships depends on it.

5 Tips to Buying Professional Services

Tax Season Blues. Or Bliss?

No doubt, tax season is a rough time of year.  I hope all that are enduring it find a way to decompress and rejuvenate afterwards.   

While I don’t practice tax anymore, I always loved tax season.  I understand that most don’t.  But to a great extent, it’s as good as it gets. 

Do you remember the TV show ER?  It had a very successful run as a network TV drama and portrayed an emergency room in a busy Chicago hospital, and the doctors and nurses that worked there.  It certainly wasn’t relaxing, in fact it was extremely stressful, but you could relate to the individual characters and to the team as they shared a common goal – to save lives! 

While we aren’t saving lives as in ER, we are providing extreme value to our clients.  The adrenaline rush during tax season is as good as it gets and it is exciting!  Phones are ringing.  Texts and e-mails are flooding in.  Pulse rates rise as do the volume of our voices and the intensity of our keystrokes.  We are in the moment and in a state of flow as we fulfill our common goal!  We are warriors and we beat the deadline, always! 

In addition to the rush, the connection with the team is enhanced.  The real-time conversation and communication increases.  We have that common goal and it has a deadline!  Like ER, some communication is calm and civil, and some is heated.  In any event, feedback is instantaneous.  We commiserate together.  We eat together.  We spend our weekends together.  We get to the other side together and are closer as a team as a result. 

While tax season can be grueling, there is so much that comes together to make it a success.  For example:

1.       We become better communicators – Our communication with our team becomes much more direct, specific and timely.  There is no time to burn time with confusion or misdirected staff.  Likewise, our communication with our clients is enhanced.  While casual and often ignored e-mails with questions or information requests sufficed earlier in the season, pointed phone calls and possibly visits to their offices are now utilized to ensure success.

2.       We become better project managers – At other times in the year, we are victim to Parkinson’s Law which states that a project will expand in size and complexity so as to fill the time available for its completion.  During tax season, that same principal becomes our ally as time available becomes scarce.  We are laser focused on the calendar and due date list, and the tasks associated with our projects.   

3.       We become better risk managers – While quality is always job #1, perfection can not get in the way of success during a deadline crunch.  Decisions get made regarding nice to have vs. must have.  An element of materiality comes in to play, and the Pareto Principal or 80/20 rule is alive and well as we look to quantify 80% of exposures into 20% of the issues facing us. 

I’m sure there are many others positive aspects to note.  The point to ponder is whether we can bring them into our daily routines regardless of season potentially eliminating the next grueling one, or at least making it somewhat more blissful?