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Car Loan InformationEmployee Evaluations: Four Tips to Help Managers with Performance Review Conversations
by:
Dick Grote
Managers talk with the folk on their teams every day. Some the topic, most of these conversations happen with no stress, little anxiety, and bottom tension. But once
the language is just about an employee’s performance, anxieties often abound. Here are four route to reduce the tension and sensitiveness
that too often surround performance evaluations.
1. Don’t wait for the meeting to deliver the performance appraisal form.
I worked for large corporations for fifteen years before beginning my consulting career. Every one of those companies — GE, United Airlines, PepsiCo — took performance appraisal really seriously. And my bosses at those companies as well took their responsibilities for performance evaluation seriously as well. But all of my bosses kicked off the appraisal discussion in a way that was secure to get it off to a bad start. How did they begin? They set up the time for the meeting and then waited until I was sitting across the table
to hand me their completed appraisal form.
At the start of the meeting my boss would-be give me his appraisal form and I would-be engage all of my speed-reading skills, whipping through the document as fast as I could to see what he had aforementioned just about my performance. Patch I was reading the evaluation (and probably missing several key points in my haste to take everything in) my boss would-be be behind his desk, deceit to work, but in truth trying to gauge how I was reacting to the evaluation he had written.
What a terrible way to begin! Don’t wait until the meeting starts to give the worker
your performance appraisal document. It’s far more effective to go up to the worker
an hour or so in advance of the meeting, and say thing
like this: “Mary, you cognize we’re deed together at two o’clock to go over your performance appraisal. Here it is. Why don’t you take several time between now and then to review it? See it with kid gloves
and jot down any questions that you’d like to ask.”
Giving the person the appraisal to review in advance of the meeting can lessen defensiveness. It allows her time to think just about what you’ve written and prevents spur-of-the-moment reactions. You’ll commonly find that giving the person a chance to see what you’ve written in advance produces more much effective business discussions.
2. Set a time frame (and give yourself an extra fifteen minutes).
Your discussion of a person’s performance evaluation may be one of the most important interactions you'll ever have with that individual; do sure you’ve allowed enough time. In most cases, an hour should be ample to review the appraisal document itself as well as discuss many a of the different subjects that often pop up during performance reviews — development activities, career plans, and futurity goals and projects. Do certain that the really next activity you’ve regular
after finishing the review isn't one that must begin at a set time. If you provide yourself with a little flexibility at the end, you can take the time to wrap up the discussion comfortably.
3. Don’t start by discussing the form itself.
Yes, the form is important, but the form just serves as the formal record of your assessment of how well the individual has done over the past year. Rather than beginning with the 1st entry on the appraisal form and moving lockstep through the document item-by-item, it’s more effective to start by asking a general question that requires the employee’s thoughtful consideration: “Tim, you’ve had a chance to see the appraisal. Why don’t you start by telling me how you feel the past year has gone?” Then listen as the individual responds and continue the discussion from there.
4. Don’t fixate on deed the worker
to agree with your performance appraisal.
One of the most common questions managers ask me during training sessions involves how they can gain an employee’s agreement with what they’ve written in the performance appraisal, particularly once
what they’ve written isn't entirely favorable. “Don’t try!” is my proposal
to them.
What is a performance appraisal? It is a formal record of the supervisor’s opinion of the quality of the employee’s work. Pay attention to the key phrase, “. . . the supervisor’s opinion . . .”
Of course the worker
is going to have a several opinion — all of us believe we’re above average. The goal in the performance review discussion is not to gain the employee’s agreement, tho'
it is good if that happens, the goal is to gain the employee’s understanding. As long as the worker
understands how you came up with the evaluation, you’ve done your job. Of course, he may disagree (particularly if you’ve set the bar high and have tough, exacting standards). But don’t waste time trying to persuade a person that you’re right and she’s wrong. The important thing is that she understands your expectations and how her performance was assessed.
There’s a lot more to conducting good appraisal discussions, of course. But these four tips should do a tough job just a little bit easier.
Just just about the author:
Dick Grote is one of America’s best-known consultants on employee performance management. He is the Chairman/CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation and developer of the GroteApproach web-based performance management system at http://www.groteapproach.com
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