Leadership at 37signals use the same performance assessment framework, no matter the role. The framework consists of 3 categories, each with different expectations depending on the job and level:
- Skills. This is the part of the model you'll use to assess technical abilities, judgment, decision making, problem solving, project management, and communication. Skills can be taught and improved with coaching, but they're also the most crucial for our staff. Without a high degree of skill, an employee will not succeed in their role.
- Engagement. This is the part of the model you'll use to assess how your report 'shows up' to work, their energy level, interest in their work and team, initiative, curiosity, ownership, accountability, independence, and positive attitude. Engagement can be coached, but not taught; it's inherent.
- Coachability. This is the part of the model you'll use to assess receptivity to feedback and coaching, their growth mindset, ability to disagree and commit, and reputation within the team or company as a source of wisdom.
You'll often hear leadership use 'SEC' as shorthand when discussing our model. We apply the model at many different points during an employee's time with the company.
- When leveling new hires. You can refer to the framework if there's a question of seniority.
- When conducting performance reviews. The performance review form you complete as manager mirrors the framework for the job/level of your report.
- When coaching career progression. The expectations for leveling up are documented and clear.
- When coaching underperformance. If you sense your report is not performing at level, you can look to the framework to help articulate how they're falling short and what they can do to correct.
The deep performance management and assessment tactics expected of managers are covered in later chapters. Consider also adding SEC scans to your manager toolbox. Scans are very quick, high-level assessments of where your report's performance falls on the SEC model. The scale is HIGH, MID, and LOW (so, for example, high-skill, mid-skill, low-skill.)
Ideally, all employees would be high-skill, high-engagement, and high-coachability. Of course that's not realistic, even more so when you consider that individuals' performance in each category will fluctuate in time! One person might be low-engagement on one project and high-engagement on the next. It's human and normal, and it's why we don't rely only on quick scans for capturing performance, but also on comprehensive assessments of performance over time.
A scan that results in consistent high-low-low, mid-low-low, or mid-mid-low in any combination should be looked into more thoroughly. Loop in the People Ops team if your scan results look like that.
An example: You manage Jack, a Senior Programmer. He was hired due to his skill. He's bright, inventive, technically adaptable, and has a seemingly endless capacity for whatever work is thrown at him. He's a bit of a loner, doesn't feel the need to communicate, and no one really knows what he's working on for weeks at a time. When you bring this up as a problem, he's dismissive and a little arrogant, citing the undeniably brilliant contributions he's made. You perform an SEC scan to realize that Jack is high-skill, low-engagement, and low-coachability. Knowing that helps you articulate where he needs to improve on the framework, and that decisive corrective action needs to be taken.