No one on Philippe Lescornez' team of grocery sales specialists goes into a performance evaluation expecting any big news. If the manager has something important to say, he will just say it, rather than wait for a formal feedback session.

While for other workgroups, the yearly or semi-annual appraisals can be anxiety-laden confrontations between an employee and a company's official representative, Lescornez approaches them as an opportunity to summarize and commit to paper hundreds of discussions that have occurred along the way.

The veteran manager's team scores him among the top 20% of supervisors worldwide on the Eleventh Element of Great Managing, which is measured by the statement: "In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress." (See sidebar "The 12 Elements of Great Managing.") Lescornez is considered one of the best mentors in his company and was recently recognized with its "Line Manager Excellence" award for Europe.

How could a manager who doesn't make a big deal of such a traditionally important responsibility be considered the epitome of a statement that many think has "performance appraisals" written all over it? It's because receiving regular, insightful, personal feedback -- rather than a boilerplate review -- is intensely powerful to workers. Lescornez understands the difference.

The importance of everyday discussions

While Lescornez' evaluations are more pro forma than formal, his everyday discussions with his team are challenging and invigorating. No one is left guessing how he or she is doing.

"The most important part (of discussing progress) was the informal part during the year, because [Lescornez] always kept us motivated," says former team member Hulya Hoke. "He was always giving us objectives and challenging us. He did it during the whole year and not only in the formal part of the evaluation -- not only on paper, but continuously." His investment in his employees' careers is the centerpiece of their high engagement and performance.

Lescornez and his team work for Masterfoods in Brussels. This division of Mars, Incorporated sells snacks, dog and cat food, and human staples such as grains and sauces under such familiar brands as Uncle Ben's rice, Snickers candy bars, Dove ice cream, and Pedigree dog food. The team of "sales promoters" is assigned to fan out across Belgium and Luxembourg, calling on grocery stores to ensure that Masterfoods products arrive on schedule and get enough prominence at the point of purchase. Product sales hinge on two factors: availability and visibility. Those hired are frequently young and ambitious. Sales promoters generally work alone and many kilometers from company headquarters, so the job requires strong personal motivation and can be isolating.

Unless, that is, one has a manager like Lescornez. "He always calls his people in the car. He speaks with everybody at least once a week, often more," says Karin De Backer, a Masterfoods trade services manager and Lescornez' supervisor. "When people move to his team, at the beginning, they need to adapt because he phones them all the time: 'How are things going? How are you? Everything okay?'" New hires sometimes complain, "He's always behind me," until they realize he calls because he cares. "It's feedback, feedback, feedback all the time," says De Backer.

Finding untapped potential

For Lescornez, one of the challenges of motivating his team is seeing the potential of each employee and deciding what progress would be most meaningful. Consider the case of Didier Brynaert.

Brynaert works in Luxembourg, 230 kilometers from Masterfoods' Belgium headquarters and, of course, a country away from his manager and the rest of the team. Brynaert was considered a good sales promoter who was doing what was generally expected in his role. Lescornez decided that Brynaert's job could be made more important if he were seen less as just another sales promoter and more as an expert on the unique features of the Luxembourg market.

"It's a small country that's very profitable. It has 5% of the population of Belgium, and it makes up 15% of Masterfoods Belgium's business," says Brynaert, who rattles off other observations about unemployment rates and consumer preferences. "The economic situation in Luxembourg two years ago was not so good. And now, after my experience here, the business is growing."

Copyright Ó 2007 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission.  Visit The Gallup Management Journal at http://gmj.gallup.com/

Article from The Gallup Management Journal