????德勤會計師事務所最近披露稱，該公司重新設計了績效管理方法，以期完善這個每年耗時近200萬個小時但效果不佳的管理流程。這家專業服務巨頭表示，新制度將包含的內容，以及將要舍棄的內容，可能會讓人們感到吃驚。

????然而，與“內容”同樣值得注意的，是“誰”來負責這項工作。

????德勤計劃以一種更大的緊迫感，向每個團隊領導者提供更多工具，使他們可以至少每周評估一次所有直接下屬的工作情況。

????在最近的一期《哈佛商業評論》中，德勤的領導者發展總監阿什利?古道爾對該公司的這項新舉措進行了一番解釋：“這類簡短的對話可以闡明領導者對每一位團隊成員的期望與原因，告訴他們什么是出色的工作，以及在未來幾天內每個人如何做到最好。”

????目前，大公司的管理方式正在發生變化：團隊領導者獲得了（在個別例子中，使用“奪取”一詞更準確）更多評估和指導下屬的責任與自主權，德勤正處在這一趨勢的最前沿。在這一趨勢當中，團隊領導者正在接管傳統意義上屬于公司人力資源部的職能。

????馬庫斯?白金漢表示：“我們現在有機會將權力合理分配到團隊領導者手中?！卑捉饾h與古道爾共同撰寫了這篇發表在《哈佛商業評論》的文章，他的公司TMBC在為德勤提供咨詢。（提示：白金漢是筆者經營的德魯克研究會顧問委員會成員，也是筆者的好友。）

????在大多數公司仍在執行的傳統組織結構中，人力資源部負責進行每年一次或兩次的績效評估。當反饋傳達給一線管理者時，往往因為滯后而失去了作用。

????白金漢表示：“評估信息最重要的聽眾是團隊領導者，但他們往往無法及時得到這些信息。對于一家公司來說，真正的工作是在局部小環境中展開的。”

????在德勤和其他采用這種方式的公司，首先由每一位團隊成員進行在線自我評估，這將增強團隊領導者評估的效果。這種方法使員工可以開發和了解自身的優勢，與他們的上司和其他同事分享自己的見解。

????自動提醒可以確保團隊領導者每周獲得一批數據，使他或她可以回答下面三個問題，衡量和幫助刺激下屬的積極性與工作效率：我的每一位下屬有什么優點和能力？他們這一周在做什么工作（暗含的意思是，他們的工作與能力是否匹配）？以及他們本周的感受如何？

????績效管理并非唯一一個越來越多地由團隊領導者負責的活動。許多公司也在用相同的方式處理目標設定、員工調查、培訓甚至招聘等任務。

????戴維?哈塞爾表示：“改變確實在發生。”哈塞爾是web軟件開發商15Five公司的CEO，該公司的軟件旨在改善員工與上司的溝通。

????有兩個因素正在推動這種轉變。首先，日益增加的壓力迫使公司更快行動，而典型的公司官僚組織根本無法做到做到這一點。

????When Deloitte revealed recently that it was redesigning its approach to performance management—hoping to fix a process that chews up nearly 2 million hours a year but yields crummy results—the professional services giant suggested that people might be surprised by “what we’ll include” in the new system “and what we won’t.”

????As notable as the “what,” however, is the “who.”

????Deloitte plans to give more tools, along with more of a sense of urgency, to individual team leaders so that they can conduct formal check-ins with all of their direct reports at least once a week.

????“These brief conversations … provide clarity regarding what is expected of each team member and why, what great work looks like, and how each can do his or her best work in the upcoming days,” Ashley Goodall, Deloitte’s director of leader development, explained in the current issue ofHarvard Business Review, where he laid out the initiative.

????Deloitte is at the fore of a trend that is changing how major companies are managed: Team leaders are being offered—and, in some instances, simply seizing—more responsibility and autonomy in evaluating and guiding the people who work for them. As part of this movement, they are taking over functions that have traditionally been the province of corporate HR.

????“We now have the opportunity to put power right into the hands of the team leader,” says Marcus Buckingham, who wrote the HBR article with Goodall and whose company, TMBC, has been advising Deloitte. (Full disclosure: Buckingham is a member of the board of advisors of the Drucker Institute, which I run, and he is a friend.)

????Under the classic corporate hierarchy to which most businesses still adhere, HR centrally administers a performance evaluation once or twice a year. By the time feedback filters down to front-line managers, it’s often too backward-looking to be useful.

????“The most important audience for this information is the person who doesn’t get any of it in a timely way—the team leader,” says Buckingham. “The real work of a company happens in microclimates.”

????In the case of Deloitte, as well as other organizations using Buckingham’s methods, team leader check-ins are augmented by an initial online self-assessment taken by every member of the group. The instrument allows employees to explore and understand their strengths and share those insights with their supervisor and other colleagues.

????Automated reminders then ensure that the team leader is given a weekly dose of data, making it possible for him or her to answer three questions shown to measure and help spur engagement and productivity: What are the strengths and capabilities of each of my people? What are they doing this week (and, implicitly, how does that match up with their strengths)? And how are they feeling this week?

????Performance management isn’t the only activity undertaken directly by a growing number of team leaders. Goal-setting, surveying workers, training, and even hiring are increasingly being handled in much the same manner.

????“There’s definitely a shift happening,” says David Hassell, the CEO of 15Five, a company that makes web-based software to improve communication between employees and their managers.

????Two factors are fueling this transformation. First, pressure is rising for companies to move much faster than the typical corporate bureaucracy can facilitate.