Performance Management

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.

 
Organizations invest billions annually on a success curriculum known as "leadership development," which ends up leaving so much on the table. Training and development programs almost universally focus factory-like on inputs and outputs — absorb curriculum, check a box; learn a skill, advance a rung; submit to assessment, fix a problem. Likewise, they leave too many people behind with an elite selection process that fast-tracks "hi-pos" and essentially discards the rest. And they leave most people cold with flavor of the month remedies, off sites, immersions, and excursions — which produce little more than a grim legacy of fat binders gathering dust on shelves.
What if, instead of stuffing people with curricula, models, and competencies, we focused on deepening their sense of purpose, expanding their capability to navigate difficulty and complexity, and enriching their emotional resilience?