In the day-to-day business world, we go about a number of important things backwards.

Aside from March Madness, which is occupying a lot of time and conversation this week, I’ve been thinking about how we sometimes approach important issues backwards. For March Madness, the games will happen every year.

Why not turn the entire two days to a week to your company’s advantage and build team spirit while employees root on their favorite teams. Many employers ask me what policies will prohibit March Madness at work. Sorry, employee monitoring and timekeeping are not high on my list.

In the arena of employee strengths and weaknesses, I’d like a dollar for every time I have heard a manager talk to an employee about the areas of weakness he or she needs to improve. I’d be a rich woman, but the real problem is that you will get better results (and help the employee build self-confidence) if you focus on helping the employee build strengths.

So, too, in performance management, employees are convinced that a performance improvement plan (PIP) is their death knell in an organization. If your organization is using performance management appropriately, this is not true. It can help an employee succeed and improve.

With these look at a positive approach thoughts, I wish you happy basketball viewing and a happy weekend.

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Eliminate Backwards Thinking originally appeared on About.com Human Resources on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 08:32:39.

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