Performance Path Team - Speed Ream

Speed Ream has over thirty years experience in business management, including software, digital hardware development, and residential construction. In the last ten years he has been focused on bringing leading edge planning, project management and team building practices into the software development workplace.

Since 1976 he has owned and operated his own construction and software engineering companies, along with serving as a software engineering consultant to firms such as Stac Electronics, Fiserve, Novell and Microsoft.

On the construction side of his businesses, he has served as an adviser to the California Contractors' State License Board, advising as to acceptable Standards and Practices in the building trades of roofing and framing.

Currently living in Melbourne, Florida, Mr. Ream specializes in business development and 'Speed Planning', an advanced planning technology that helps several kinds complicated projects become 'Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget.'

Executive Team Of Performance Path - Rodney E. Waddell, CEO

About Mr. Waddell

Mr. Waddell has nearly 18 years of experience in training, team building and organizational development.

Rod has worked as a business consultant since 1986 focusing on improving employee performance and loyalty. He has developed models and the methods for businesses to integrate leadership assessments, pay-for-performance, and incentive systems resulting in a culture achievement not entitlements.

Sought after in the banking and insurance industries, Rod provides intensive management workshops for improving employee performance and leadership development.

He was a principle partner with Dynamic Resource Development, Inc. whose international client base included fortune 100 corporations such as ATT, Chevron USA and Chevron CCR, Colgate, General Motors Canada and many others.

Since establishing his base of operation in the Cayman Island Mr. Waddell has worked with organizations such as Admiral Administration, British Caymanian Insurance, Cable and Wireless, Coutts Cayman and Coutts Jersey, Julius Baer Bank, and many CI Government departments.

Beyond training and team building, Mr Waddell has developed strategic interventions, company policy manuals, performance based job descriptions, appraisal systems including Performance Path ® a performance management software system. In addition Mr. Waddell has incorporated avatar and text-to-speech technologies to animate psychological assessments, customer service surveys and 360 degree feedback systems.

Mr. Waddell holds a BA in psychology and a Masters degree in Counseling. Post graduate work includes receiving designation as Advisor Specialist with IIP, Deming Quality Management, Human Element Leader/Trainer, Situational Leadership and DISC assessment and many other certifications.

Mr. Waddell donates may hours of his time each year to social organizations, such as, Junior Achievement and the Chamber’s Mentoring Program.

Performance Path Mission - Performance Appraisal Process | Appraisal Management Software

Performance Path ® was developed as a follow-through tool and process to insure a measurable way to not only report on, but to ensure the business objectives are communicated and achieved at every level of the organization.

The supervisor uses an Incentive Cache ™ to reinforce performance improvement and the supervisor may use an Incentive Cache ™ to strengthen the transfer of new or improved skills demonstrated on-the-job. Job Link™ training creates a tangible link between specific on-the-job skills, job-linked training, and on-the-job performance.

Our Mission:

We provide dynamic technologies that instantly transform business strategy into business reality. Our clients become agile change masters leaping ahead of slow to change competition. We tangibly link organization mission with employee passion and guarantee results.

Company Profile:

Mr. Rod Waddell has worked with such prestigious organizations as, AT&T USA, Barclays Private Bank, British Caymanian Insurance, CIBC, CUC, Cayman Islands Government, Cable and Wireless, Dresden Bank Latin America, Colgate, Chevron USA/CCR, Exxon, GM of Canada, and Tropical Shipping. to name a few.. Mr. Waddell has recently qualified as Advisor Specialist with Investors In and People UK.

After 20 years of leadership experience Mr. Waddell continues to enjoy building business success through innovative and teamwork.

Why Do appraisals If You Are Not Giving A Raise - Employee Appraisals

“Why do appraisals if the company isn’t giving a raise?” This was the question from a participant in a middle management training class. Before I could answer several other managers agreed with him. A better question is, Why call yourself “Manager” if you don’t manage? I’m not being sarcastic here. This gentalman has lots of company. In my twenty years of consulting/training experience I find most managers are really coordinators or event planners. Many do not see ir staff development as a high priority, not even a responsibility at allat all. 

Why should they see it differently? Their job is to get the iron out the door, deal with customer expectations, squeeze out efficiencies, ensure compliance with regulations and safety codes, etc. These are measured and have a huge impact on the business not to mention their pay check. Even if they wanted to where are they going to get the time. Isn’t development HR’s job anyway? 

• Ensure all employees understand the organization’s mission and strategy
• Provide strategic human resource planning Identify the A positions
• Ensure top talent is assigned to roles where e value is created (A Positions)
• Ensure development of a highly skilled and motivated workforce
• Ensure expectations are being met
• Provide consequences for exceeding, meeting or failing to meet expectations
• Constantly communicate organization’s strategy and strategic needs
• Leader managers don’t just manage, they change things

Performance Appraisal Criteria - Employee Performance Appraisal

Most appraisals use traits such as: leadership, team work and communication to describe job standards for all jobs. One size fits all appraisal format. Every employee shares the same appraisal form. So, the actual appraisal form doesn’t measures actual job performance. It measures the manager’s opinion of the employee’s performance. Traits are open to interpretation. Different managers may have different opinions over the same employee’s performance. Usually there is little if any relationship between the appraisal items and strategy. This commonly referred to as “finger in the wind appraisals”. Examples include,

Poor Example of Phrases for Performance Appraisals
Examples Taken From Working Appraisals

Customer Service - The ability to anticipate the customer’s needs and seeks to find solutions and solve problems related to customer satisfaction.

Decision skills - Refers to the ability to make appropriate well-informed decisions in a timely manner, balancing competing needs, dealing with complexity and confusion, and being decisive but not impulsive

Team Building - Finds out and suggests meaningful ways of improving the operation of the department and constantly looks for ways to improve efficiency when carrying out key responsibilities. Builds and exhibits effective team spirit to foster organizational goals and objectives, by utilizing the skills of all team members to achieve both business and individual results

Set Direction - Fosters the development of common direction, provides clear direction and priorities, and clarifies roles and responsibilities, sets goals..:

These factors taken together create stress and frustration for everyone.

Building Effective Appraisal Rating Systems

So how can you reduce the bias inherent in rating scales? First behavior anchored rating scales (BARS) can define ratings by identifying job specific behaviors to define the rating scale. What actions indicate when an employee meets, exceeds or does not meet expectations. Human Factors Rating Scales

The Human Factors rating scale (HFRS)is a new technology developed by Performance Path® LLC. HFRS measures the developmental factors associated with employee performance. These factors may include observable measures of both skill and motivational levels. This allows managers and HR professional to quickly identify effective coaching strategies by pinpointing the underlying factors affecting performance. When combined with job specific performance standards HFRS provide objective measures of management and staff skill sets, motivation level in key result areas, innovation or conduct. Developmental trend analysis provide feedback on management coaching and training effectiveness, 

A common dilemma for many managers is how to fairly evaluate the level of work difficulty for different people assigned to the same job category. I once had a hedge fund manager tell me he had 80 accounts with the same job description. But he said, they were not all doing the same job. Some of them were doing basic accounting. Others were working with very complex accounts containing CDOs, mortgage backs and derivatives. How can we fairly use the same measuring stick with them? We solved this by creating a second rating scale that evaluated the staff on the factors ranging from the size of the account, technical complexity, Client profile, etc , This rating scale was used boost the overall rating of the final score. This provides extra compensation for individuals working in more difficult jobs. Suddenly difficult jobs become more appealing to staff. who would otherwise play it safe.

Fixing the Fatal Flaws of Appraisals - Employee Appraisal Tips

How many managers would consider running a business without a way to accurately measure up to 70% of their budget. Yet, this is exactly what is happening with most business and organizations around the world. Nearly all government organizations and most businesses do not have an objective way to accurately measure staff performance. 

Comp and benefits accounts for up to 70% of the budget..Appraisals are frequently used to evaluate employee performance, determine pay increases, bonuses and support promotion decision. Unfortunately appraisal criteria are usually vague This leads many employees to view them as biased and unfair. It is critical for managers to recognize the importance of performance management and find more accurate and fair ways to measure staff performance. 

The key contributors to appraisal failures include: ill defined rating scales and subjective performance criteria.

’ Poorly Defined Rating Scales. 

‘Prejudice is the child of ignorance. Wooly rating scales are those that rely on the rater’s perceptual to determine staff performance. The underlying problem here is that most managers do not know the difference between an observable behavior and an opinion. Which statements below are observable statements. Behavioral Vs Opinion Execcise

• Sandy liaises with other departments ensuring all customer files are up-to-date.
• Kim followed-up with customer complaints
• Tracy maintains the fork lift.
• Francis keeps the file cabinets organized.

The correct answer can be found at the end of this blog. 

Some managers are hard raters while others are soft. I once had a general manager for a local utility tells me, “No one deserves a five This essentially turned the appraisal’s five point rating scale into a four point rating scale. Not only is this a very biased statement but increases “regression to the mean”. That is to say, the smaller the rating scale the more likely you are to get rating in the middle of the scale.. On a three point rating scale (1 2 3) most people will be rated 2. When the majority of staff are rated “meets objectives” or “average” the more pay increases resemble across-the-board raises. This drives up the cost of pay overall. See my previous blog, Across-The-Board Raises Increase Cost and Reduce Performance for more details. In other words, the larger your rating scale the more differentiated your work force becomes and the flatter your compensation bell curve becomes.

Many appraisals rely on the manager’s perception.. Here s an example. 1. Unacceptable, 2. Developmental,3. Meets Objectives, 4. Exceeds Objectives, 5. Walks – On - Water and 6. Talks With God. Bias results when rating criteria are not applied consistenly, And biased ratings will lead to erroneous decisions. Think about the many ways raters bias can distort well meaning managers. 

Book Review Differentiated Workforce - Performance Management Workforce

I have been reading an exciting new book. Exciting, because of the explicit roadmap linking key positions and talent with strategy. The book The Differentiated Workforce by Bran Becker, Mark Huselid and Richard Beatty provides a compelling explanation for identifying key positions and people whose performance make or break strategic success..

Most organizations are focused on across the board talent development. This is a very expensive proposition. The authors make a powerful case that people in high impact positions contribute disproportionately toward strategic success or failure. Focusing line managers and HR resources on the people in these positions drives down cost, builds value and strengthens long term sustainability.

The authors begin by establishing the benefits of having a differentiated workforce strategy including

    * Measurable improvements in strategic execution.
    * Senior managers are as engaged in following workforce issues as they are in following financial issues.
    * Enabling HR professionals to distinguish between investments that provide measurable ROI from best practice hype.
    * Enable HR managers to make targeted investments in staff and technology that create high strategic returns or eliminate wasteful practices that do not.
    * Resulting in obvious and measurable strategic contributions by the workforce.


The authors point out something I have said for years. That line managers are the most important link in strategic execution. They have the great influence over the mindset and motivation of their direct reports. If they do not understand or buy into changing policies and objectives; then strategy will never become a reality. The authors describe the importance of management and HR accountability in delivering talent development.

While the workforce takes up to 70% of all expenditures most organizations do an extremely poor job of accounting for it. The authors do and excellent job of describing the significance of measurement, accountability and consequences. The authors emphatically state that effective workforce development ensures that top talent, the authors refer to them as A level employees, in key roles drive strategic capability, create customer and investor value".

The authors lead the reader through easy to follow steps in creating a fully differentiated workforce. This is a must read for all managers and HR professionals.

Across-The-Board Raises - Increase Cost and Reduce Performance

Organizations that continue to use across-the-board raises as an easy and effective way to control compensation costs and reward employees soon find out the truth. Yes, it may be easy- but it is not an effective means of controlling costs and rewarding employees, especially over the long term.

Employee pay is a key tool in fulfilling many corporate objectives. Among these are: attracting top performers; maintaining employee satisfaction; ensuring strategic alignment; increasing performance; and encouraging innovation. However, Robert Heneman, a noted compensation consultant says, “The ultimate goal of a pay system is to align the goals and interest of employees with the goals and interest of the organization.” How do across-the-board raises help achieve this?

First, it’s important to recognize that most top performers are driven by achievement. Since achievement is an internal motivator, organizations can harness its power- as well as the power of other internal motivators- by setting clear goals for individual and team performance. Management By Objective (MBO) is one way organizations have found to tap into the power of motivating employees to achieve. Across-the-board raises are not based on achievement, and so they miss out on harnessing the influence of a powerful internal motivator. Top performers would rather work in an organization that recognizes and rewards both their achievements and the effort that goes into them.

Over the last few years, several federal organizations have raised the salary range for many of their employees. This was done primarily as an effort to both attract and keep high achieving employees. Is this a workable strategy producing positive results? We think not. As stated previously, most high performers are motivated to achieve. Without a system that rewards their efforts, one of two things almost always happens: Either the high achiever leaves; or there is a noticeable drop-off in achievement. Instead of a race to the top with appropriate rewards for those who make it, across-the-board raises turn beneficial competition into a race for mediocrity.

Book Review - Influencer - Business Consulting & Training

Book Review - Influencer by Kelly Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxwell, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.

Managers have very complex jobs. Not only must they be well grounded in the technical side of the business, but understand the intricacies of human nature as well. In fact, dealing with human behavior is the most frustrating aspect of the job for many managers.

At last, I have found a book that provides five practical strategies for making change happen. The authors of Influencer have done a marvelous job of distilling powerful insights from behavioral scientists and business leaders into a guaranteed formula for change. Anyone who reads this book will benefit from it.

The authors demonstrate how five simple strategies achieved startling successes. This book is vividly illustrated with successful stories describing how these strategies have worked, such as dramatically reducing HIV infection in an entire country, how a large manufacturing facility turned the dismal implementation of Six Sigma into a massive success for the company, as well as how you can change self defeating behavior for yourself and others.

If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you know I focus on practical information leading to measurable results. This book delivers both.

Business Accountability - Performance Management Software

Top companies already use detailed performance metrics (Analytics), benchmarks and individual quantitative performance measures. Yet, accountability continues to invoke fear and trembling in the minds of many managers and staff members. One reason that performance ratings are so threatening is that internal performance reviews are often done so badly. Managers frequently see them as bureaucratic exercises to check off the boxes for salary purposes. Accountability is often thought of as a way to justify blame, pass the buck or cover your butt (CYA). Phases such as, “Not my job,” and “Good enough for government work” serve to reinforce inaction and continued failure. Ask people how work is going and you are likely to hear something like “Same shi*, different day” (SSDD). A lack of accountability has destroyed job fulfillment and pride in work.

A lack of accountability allows individuals to justify entitlement thinking, such as, “I have been here longer than anyone else; I should be next in line for promotion.” Fear is a major impediment to individual and organizational success. Howard Lewis, author of Technological Risk, contends that we have become a risk-adverse culture. This is completely understandable when one considers how much we are pelted by frightening media reports, homeland security alerts, economic crises and “lite” wars (similar to lite beer with reduced calories, lite wars have reduced casualties). Lewis contends that we have become afraid of risk and that fear, more than anything else, impedes a nation’s progress. Nothing weakens an individual’s or an organization’s resolve more, than the rejection of accountability. Accepting accountability empowers us.

Twenty years ago Intel was the leading manufacturer of memory chips. Yet, the writing was on the wall. Intel would lose the chip market to cheaper, more nimble Asian competitors. That business model no longer worked in the new globalized market place. CEO Andy Grove was accountable to shareholders and employees for sustaining Intel’s success. Grove took action and replaced Intel’s old business. Intel focused all its resources from making memory chips to making microprocessors. The rest, as they say, is history. Andy Grove’s decisiveness put Intel on a new trajectory of success that continues today.

A great definition of accountability can be found in the Wall Street Best seller The OZ Principle. The authors Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman define accountability this way, “A personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.” Accountability is the first step to ownership. It is understandable why all high-performing organizations build a culture of achievement by increasing employee accountability and empowerment.

Leadership in Action - Performance Management Software

From 1991–1993, IBM lost more than 15 billon dollars. Lou Geistner was hired as CEO to turn things around. By carefully making sure the right people were in the right positions and installing a team-oriented compensation system, Geistner eliminated silo thinking and expanded cross functional cooperation. He returned IBM’s focus to its cultural roots: ardent customer service and discipline. Promotions and performance management shifted the culture focus from entitlement to achievement. Geistner once remarked, “I have come to see in my time at IBM that culture is not just one aspect of the game, it “IS” the game.” By the early 2000’s IBM had shed 14 billion dollars in inefficiencies and become the world’s largest and most influential information technology company. 

How do you know if your managers are creating value or destroying it? James Collins said it best in How the Mighty Fall, “People do not have jobs, they have responsibilities.” Performance based job descriptions define measurable leadership responsibilities. Establishing specific leadership measures encourage managers to do more than act as coordinators. They must get the best out of their people. Accurately defining and measuring leadership provides an incentive to excel at every level throughout the organization. 

There are several ways to measure leadership effectiveness. One way to establish leadership effectiveness is to measure employee responsiveness:

• How long does it take for employees to take action (Agility)?
• How well do employees perform in activities that drive strategic objectives (KPI’s)?
• What percentage of employees go beyond just meeting job requirements, e.g., exceeding customer expectations or suggesting better ways of doing things (Discretionary Effort)?
• How many ideas from employees are initiated and implemented? (Innovation)?
• How many employees can directly link their daily activities with mission or strategy (Strategic Alignment)?
• Ensuring the performance range between top performers and poor performers does not exceed 10% year after year.

Leadership Delivers The Future

Effective leadership pays off. Measuring leadership effectiveness in organizations tells us a lot about the future performance of an organization. Towers Watson’s Human Capital Index provides striking data showing leaders that are trusted by their employees generate higher employee commitment and return 42% more to shareholders. It is well recognized that good leaders are effective decision makers. But that does not entirely explain the high return to shareholders.

Effective leaders engage their employees by:

• Increasing their awareness of task importance and value.
• Getting employees to focus first on team or organizational goals, rather than their own interests.
• Activating their higher-order needs such as: Achievement, Self Respect, Belonging, Competency and Recognition, etc.

Increase Employee Performance

Align, measure and view daily performance impacting mission, vision and goals!

Kaplan and Norton, developers of the Balanced Score Card reported that 70 to 90 percent of organizations failed to realize the full potential their strategy promises. A recent article by Erik Berggren and Lars Dalgaard estimate that companies experience successful strategy results only 15% from planning but 85% from execution.

It is one thing for business leaders and senior management teams to develop new strategies. It is quiet a different challenge to have them successfully implemented. Many strategies fail to deliver their full potential. This can be traced back to four critical success areas.

Strategies fail because;

• The mission or strategy is vague or unclear. People are not sure what they need to do to support them day to day,
• The values described in the vision, mission and goals are at odds with the existing values and beliefs guiding behavior within the organization,
• There are no measures to help staff mark progress toward goal achievement ,
• There is no reinforcement for behaviors supporting change.

Strategic Mapping Vision to Action Workshop

Strategic Mapping Overview

Strategic mapping is a strategic planning and execution process. It has been successful used by Fortune 100.corporations such as Chevron, ATT, and Colgate. It provides executive teams with the technology to quickly execution and anticipates bottlenecks and blunders. The process quickly identifies underperforming high impact areas key result areas. Avoid wasting valuable time and money.

Strategic mapping ensures senior management can ...

• Build consensus quickly even with the most diverse membership.
• Envision areas holding the greatest opportunities and failure.
• Generate business alignment.
• Measurably links strategic drivers with the day-to-day actions of employees.
• Track strategic performance by department, position or person.
• Execute strategy changes faster.
• Increase return on investment of money, machines, and manpower.

Strategic mapping is an analytical process developed to align diverse opinions while pin pointing the key result areas essential to long term success. Participants identify and force rank the factors which they believe have the greatest impact on their future success. The items are rated according to their current performance level and plotted on a matrix. Through the welding together of diverse opinions the matrix provides a clear road map indicating current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

With this new perspective, rational and realistic business plans can be easily constructed. Individual team members will be able to confidently create measurable performance objectives aligned with a sense of purpose shared by the entire team. Valuable resources can be focused where they are most needed. Team members will be able to support organization mission, strategy, and goals while making independent decisions.