I’ve been reading David Maister’s book “Strategy and the Fat Smoker”. It’s full of practical information to help manage professional services firms. Chapter 13, “Accountability: Effective Managers Go First,” got my interest because it begins with teh true story of a firm’s president proclaiming to all his employees that he would resign if he did not succeed in improving their ratings of his performance as a manager by 20 percent within one year. Any manager who makes such a statement will get their employees’ attention and, admiration – after all, that manager is declaring their desire to improve.

It seems that no matter much we acknowledge the importance of employee performance reviews in supporting employee performance, satisfaction and retention, it’s still hard to get some managers to complete them on time, if at all.

If you’re a manager or HR prime whose company does focal reviews, also known as calendar or fixed date reviews, chances are you’re just winding down or getting ready to start up your annual performance appraisal process. The first and fourth quarters of the year are the two most popular times for conducting employee performance reviews.

Though not everyone will agree with Sam Culbert’s article in the Wall Street Journal on employee performance reviews, I think it makes some good points. The old way of giving employees feedback once a year in a rather arbitrary, top-down way just isn’t effective. And annual performance appraisal conversations can be skewed by our motivations.

This is part three of my series on the Six Aims set out by the Institute of Medicine and supported by the AHA. Today I’d like to review talent management’s impact on patient centeredness.

The IOM definition of Patient Centeredness is a focus on the patient’s experience of illness and health care, and the systems that work or fail to meet the individual patient’s needs.