From what I’ve observed, the majority of businesses will use a three-point scale with Low being 1 and High being 3 on each axis for potential and performance. You may see a prioritized 9-box similar to this one in order to break any ties and to express value clearly:
7 Mysteries 8 Developmental Worker 9 Upcoming Leader
4 Conundrum 5 Main Employees 6 High-Impact Workers
1 Poor Performer 2 Productive 3 Reliable Expert
It is crucial for you to understand how leadership will use this mental model because it may be a factor in stack ranking, bonus assessments, and general performance management.
Productivity. Some companies use employee activity monitoring software such as Controlio either by tracking statistics on their work on “spyware” on their computer.
1. Take use of the 9-box
Position yourself at the top of the 9-box.
7 Mysteries 8 Developmental Worker 9 Upcoming Leader
4 Conundrum 5 Main Employees 6 High-Impact Workers
1 Poor Performer 2 Productive 3 Reliable Expert
This situation has far too many moving parts. Previously, I’ve observed:
A person who was content with their position and had no desire to advance was thought to have less potential. A team thought to be performing better was one that was performing more routine tasks. Teams that generate challenges for themselves to tackle next seem like heroes and perform better.
How can most of this be avoided?
Maintain a downward gaze and concentrate on providing value and outcomes. Either 3 Trusted Professional or 6 High Impact Performers will be your new ranking as a result. While it may seem desirable to aim for the middle (5) box, if you are perceived as having average performance and average potential consistently, you will not receive as much credit and will appear average in a stacked ranked list (as we have already learned: middle or average 2.8 for Vince and Xavier could land you somewhere on the layoff list).
2. Get closer to your group
It may sound strange, but you should make an effort to be closer to your team if HR is considering location as one of the weights (perhaps because your organization has a return to work policy). You will be watched more closely the further away you are, therefore it will be even more important for you to concentrate on being present and effective.
In the event that you work remotely, be careful to emphasize:
Continuous communication: make frequent use of documents and chat. To stay visible, make it a point to share something worthwhile each day.
Setting up a purposeful meeting time is important since you won’t happen to run into them in the workplace hallways. Instead, you should consider carefully who you must spend synchronous time with.
Make instructional videos, question-and-answer videos, and demo videos to take use of async communication. To add value, a meeting is not necessary. Communicate succinctly; avoid making noise or adding to the workload of others.
Offer to help out: if you commute from your bedroom to your office, you are saving your other coworkers hours of time spent on their daily commutes. Make good use of your excess time by lending a hand to the team.
Act as the star of the meeting: as a remote worker with no in-person distractions, you have the advantage of taking notes and paying attention during meetings when others are in the office. Make sure to take notes throughout meetings, enumerate important topics, and stand up to voice your concerns or pose questions. Speak up and keep speaking up if you feel like you’re not being heard in person. Don’t allow people not to hear you.
3. Ensure that your company or product has a future
Choose your squad carefully before joining. Try to find something else if your product has a known end-of-life, is continuously losing money or costs the company more than it’s worth. You might also be a “4” in other areas of the layoff calculations. That runway is limited (you might potentially join this crew and come up with an incredible idea that turns the ship around), so yes, you might not be as stressed out on this team because all you’re doing is keeping the lights on.
In order to reduce money, HR may consider eliminating positions. When joining a team that has limited prospects, be mindful to assess the situation and recognize when to move on to a different group. Put yourself in a position to avoid a layoff if your firm is publicly traded and the stock keeps going down.
4. Participate in a cost center or profit center that substantially reduces financial hardship
Almost as crucial as a profit center is a cost center that guarantees revenue. When it comes to money leaks, most businesses prefer to avoid them. The following teams are some instances of cost centers:
The Quality Assurance (QA) team bears the expenses of testing and assuring software quality, but does not immediately make money from it. Any flaws found prior to manufacturing would prevent a loss of income. But some flaws can be funny, like the time PayPal gave a man a $92 quadrillion credit by mistake.
The production engineering team, along with the DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering teams, oversees the infrastructure, deployment, and operation of software applications, mostly at a cost to guarantee uninterrupted operations. Any outage would result in lost income and/or damage to the company’s reputation (see the PayPal outages from 2004 and 2015, for examples).
5. Make an Effort
Put it simply: finish your work. Don’t be a nuisance, make good use of systems and tools, and constantly bring value. Make an effort to reply to communications, remember your obligations, and avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly.
Conclusion
As I’ve said previously, there are inherent problems with the 9-box approach. Ask inquiries to confirm if there are sufficient checks and balances (described in the linked article) to try to make the field more equitable after finding out whether your organization is using this approach.