I received the final word on my 2006-2007 annual performance review this week at the City Council meeting. The Council met in Closed Session in advance of the regular Council meeting to conduct the review. The review is coordinated by a private personnel consultant named Harry Brull. Mr. Brull works for Personnel Decisions, Inc. (PDI). He coordinated my review last year too. And the year before that as well.
The review process starts with a survey that goes out to City Council Members at to a representative sample of City staff members. The survey is a simple set of five questions:
1. What do you view as Mr. Neal’s significant accomplishments during the past year?
2. What hasn’t happened that you would like to seen happen?
3. As city manager, what does he [me] do particularly well?
4. What could he do more of/less of?
5. What should his priorities be during the next twelve months?
Council Members and staff members complete the survey by answering these questions. Most do it online, but some do it on paper. All the information is then routed to Mr. Brull at PDI. Mr. Brull assembles the information, analyzes it and then presents a report to the City Council. I am not present in the room when this information is presented to the Council. I have always done it that way. I think it makes for a more comfortable and open environment for the Council to discuss my performance. I am especially comfortable doing it that way in Eden Prairie with the kind of Council I have here. In other places I’ve worked, I’ll just say that not being in the room was a bigger risk than being in the room.
Here’s a very truncated summary of the comments from the survey:
1. Accomplishments. Some respondents pointed to the completion of physical projects like the Fire Station #4. Some talked about the training program we offer on our Performance Partnership. But most of the comments were about leading staff members and the City organization through a particularly contentious local election in November 2006.
2. What hasn’t happened: There were a couple of comments from concerned employees about the erosion of salary and fringe benefits. There were a couple of comments about needing to lead the Council through a consensus or visioning process.
3. What I do well: Lots of comments about communication. People think I am a good communicator. I’m glad they do. I think it’s important and I spend a lot of my day doing it. I also had favorable views of my leadership style and vision for the city.
4. More of/Less of: Not much in the way of comments here. Some would like me to provide more updates about what’s happening at the State Legislature. That’s a good idea. I’m going to do that. I also had a few comments that employees would like to see me more often. Maybe drop by their staff meetings or work places more often. Also good advice. I’m going to do that in the upcoming year too.
5. Priorities: Several comments about working closely with the Budget Advisory Commission to make sure it is successful. There appear to be some concerns among employees about this new feature of our budget process, but there seems to be confidence that I can handle it well. There were also several comments about moving forward with the redevelopment of the Major Center Area into Eden Prairie’s new Town Center. Also several comments about working with the Council to help them reach good decisions for the City.
I’m a lucky guy. Always have been. I have been lucky enough to land here in Eden Prairie in a great city with a great staff. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again now: The secret to being a successful city manager is having a team of smart hard working people working with you. I’ve got that here. I’ve also been fortunate enough to work with very solid City Council Members since I’ve been here. That’s makes a big difference to me. So, I get another year as city manager. I’m happy with that. Judging from my performance review, the Council and City staff is happy with that result too.
