- Do you enjoy appraising employees’ performance?
- Do you look forward to receiving feedback from your boss?
Having an organizational mission, vision, goals, and objectives is great. In the sports world, that’s called the X’s and the O’s. But any coach will tell you, nothing happens without the Jimmys and the Joes, A coach is looking to get peak performance out of his or her players. They are constantly giving feedback; some positive and some constructive. It is a means to an end – victory!
As a frontline employee, I received performance reviews from some of my supervisors. From others, I got the impression that no review was good news because feedback was only given when someone did something wrong. Those were my performance appraiser role models.
I was promoted to a supervisory position because of my good work. I was told that among my many duties, Human Resources mandated that I appraise the performance of my subordinates once a year. The items on the performance appraisal form were pretty straightforward. It seemed simple enough until someone was sitting across the desk from me. I had to rate their performance on fifteen items on a scale of 1 to 10 and had the option to write comments supporting my reasons for the number circled on that 10-point scale for each item.
Can you imagine a coach appraising his players’ performance once a year at the end of the season? I am not suggesting that supervisors be as intense with employees as a coach. However, I am advocating that those leaders be more attentive to employees’ strengths, weaknesses, and potential.
The most important thing for a leader to do is let employees know what is expected of them. Leaders also need to understand that people have different skills and abilities. Once each subordinate knows what is expected of them, they periodically encourage and praise their effort and the results. If they get off track provide specific and immediate constructive feedback to help them get back on course. Remember the better your team members perform, the easier your job becomes. In addition, you will achieve better results and your performance appraisal is likely to reflect it. Now, that’s how performance appraisals become win-win!