It’s coming up for annual review season again. You and your direct reports are probably as keen as each other to get it over with, so you can get back to ‘proper’ work. Your team may have been with you for so long that you feel embarrassed to do their appraisal.
How do you make them constructive and meaningful?
When handled properly, the appraisal can inspire solid performers and reignite the poor ones. When mishandled (that old ‘sandwich’ technique) they are tense affairs, full of mixed messages that lead to either no change in performance or even worse, a reduction. You want the appraisee to leave the room feeling confident about their capabilities and with renewed focus. Do you feel that way after your own appraisals? Most of my coaching/outplacement clients are at a senior level and can’t remember when they last had any structured feedback.
Here are two simple but crucial points to make your appraisals effective, so you stand out as a great manager.
1. Let them do the talking.
Provide an opportunity for people to reflect on what is going well, what they are proud of and where they are against business objectives. Instead of launching in with your opinion, give them space to think. Unless they have zero self-awareness – and you have been negligent in providing feedback up to this (see point two) – they will know where how their performance stacks up. So use this as an opportunity to help them figure out for themselves where they need to focus their attention in the next period and how they can improve. It is surprising how motivated and capable people naturally are, so don’t get in their way. You want them to take responsibility for their own performance so give them responsibility for the feedback too.
A good leader asks great questions and allows people to think for themselves. This is the best way of learning. How do they feel about their performance so far, what has worked well, where do they see any gaps, what are their strategies for dealing with them, what support do they need to do that? What could derail them? If they are missing a point, ask if you can add something, but let them try and come up with it first.
2. Give continuous feedback throughout the year.
Feedback is for the whole year, not just for Christmas. It is disastrous to bottle up messages, either good or bad, for the annual review. Address performance issues in real-time and deal with problems as they occur so they don’t escalate. Feedback should be continuous, verbal and written – formally or informally as appropriate – so it is traceable. It must be job-relevant and future-orientated. Keep it short and specific, so there is no ambiguity about what is working well and what isn’t.
If there is underperformance, then confront it head on and don’t make them read between the lines. What is not working? What actions do they need to take to make it work? Focus on behaviours, not character traits. Be specific – “you need to double your call rates to potential clients” not “you should be on the phone more.” Avoid an authoritarian style but equally don’t shirk from asking what you want.
Demand an improvement: tell them what they should stop doing and what you want them to start doing instead. Define what success in the role should look like. Remember that people only hear what they want to hear so be very specific about your expectations. Keep a clear record.
Recent research has found that negative feedback delivered constructively can promote greater performance benefits than positive feedback. So, you aren’t doing anyone a favour by sugar-coating negative feedback.
Keep it going…
Now that the appraisal box is ticked, is it back to work as normal? The evidence is that real performance improvement only occurs when an organisation/employer genuinely shows a culture of support for development and maintains the continuous feedback and interest throughout the year. The new objectives need to be relevant and the employee needs to feel confident that they will be supported by their manager. Encourage them to perform, review, learn from their mistakes, take calculated risks and above all, to think for themselves. That enables you, their manager, to think more strategically and develop your own career. So everyone wins.
As ever, I love your feedback – and stories of great or not so great appraisals.
Best wishes
Zena