A favorite quote of mine:
"Don't get confused between competence and character, because character will swallow competence every day."
I’m not much of a fan of employee “performance” reviews, though I might understand the need for them in an organization as large as Wells Fargo. I don’t think it’s constructive, or even possible, to force everyone neatly in to one of five boxes on a template. The format is out-dated. Our jobs are so much more complicated these days, and a valuable employee is so much more than can be captured on some oversimplified form from HR.
“Skills” are very important. Employees should be excellent at all requirements of their job-whether it be accounting, trading, teller, customer service, research etc.
But there are also important traits that do not get captured in the review process. These are traits such as honesty, accountability, resourcefulness, working well within a team, flexibility, energy, ability to stay level-headed in a crisis, integrity, consistency, open-mindedness, and yes: moral character.
The point I want to make is this:
As a manager - I will take a “Meets” with good moral character and integrity over an “Exceeds” who is not honorable or who is selfish every day of the week.
This is even more important now when we are deciding who stays and makes this business strong, vs who goes, based potentially on a vintage rudimentary process.