

Beyond its family of super gadgets and newfound technologies, Apple is a company synonymous with effective, if not also excellent, leadership. And leading the ship for the past decade was the infamous and innovative ‘iCEO’ figure of Steve Jobs. When Jobs stepped down in August 2011 and passed away in early October, the spotlight shone brighter than ever on the business division of succession planning – what it is, what it can do, and why leaders and their successors are so critical to a thriving organization.
As many of you know, I have expressed considerable skepticism about whether performance evaluations are even worth using, if they do more good than harm. And Sam Culbert has gone the next step with his book, Get Rid of the Performance Evaluation.
When it's time for annual reviews at LendingTree, there's one question on every employee's mind: Am I a 1, 2 or 3? Managers at the online lending exchange rate workers on a three-step scale, based on individual goals and performance. The top 15% are told they are "1s," the middle 75% are designated "2s" and the bottom 10% are assigned "3s." Managers are also ranked by their respective bosses.
Some successful companies have thrived off of making their employees compete against each other, giving many a manager the brilliant idea that they should try it at their own office. They should think twice before going down that road.
For future-ready leaders, there is a critical need for organizations to convert their existing managers into leaders who can leverage their team’s potential and ensure a proactive workforce. Companies need to redefine their business models, customer relationship models and workforce models to translate future business expectations into results.
Thank God for Susan Robertson.
Susan is a friend and colleague, and a principal at the innovation firm Ideas To Go. I’m happy Susan took the time to respond to yet another article in a respected publication that downplays the value of collaboration in idea generation. I’ve written several pieces in this blogspace defending the value of well executed brainstorming, for once, somebody else wrote a rebuttal — and I’m so glad, thank you Susan!
I can’t resist adding an additional two cents.