Sense on Cents

When I worked at JP Morgan, we had a year end review process that I believe was largely a joke. Why? It lacked integrity and honesty. How so? Individuals largely gamed the system by not being forthright with each other. As a result, the overall assessment of individuals, departments, divisions, and the firm itself were skewed. I recall looking at the composite and average scores and remarking to my boss, “Our people and our firm are NOT this good.”

Mind you, JP Morgan had and still has some real strengths — but it also had some real weaknesses. Excessively bureaucratic would be a good start on the ‘weakness’ list.

I did try to grade myself and others in an honest and constructively critical fashion. Some of my reports would come to me after the fact inquiring about my assessments of them. They would often be concerned. I would respond that I had little interest in ‘gaming the system’ but I had every interest in making them a stronger and more productive employee. My being forthright and honest was “the means,” their improving and becoming more productive was “the ends.”

I raise this topic today because every individual and every organization needs a very healthy dose of constructive criticism. (more…)