Managing & Motivating
It’s “that time of year” when some of us have to give the usual end-of-year appraisal. Many people I speak to dread it, no matter whether they’re the “appraiser” or the “appraise”.
Why is this? Generally, the answer lies in several areas:
- Your performance appraisal determines your bonus or salary increment, so you want it to be as high as possible. Deep down, you know whether you’ve produced a “meets standards”, “above standard” or “below standard”. If you’re the “appraiser”, perhaps you have a number of appraisals to give, and you have a good idea of who is meeting, exceeding or not meeting the standards required. You may be dreading the report to whom you have to give a “doesn’t meet standards” rating because you know that he/she will try to “argue it up”.
- This is the one and only appraisal meeting for the entire year. Both of you dread it.
- Things have changed during the year. The targets you were set become irrelevant barely 3 months after being set. Nothing has been done about changing them. If things have moved against you, there can only be one result, but it’s not really your fault.
- You’re unprepared, with no (or very little) supporting evidence to back your judgement (appraiser or appraise) because your systems aren’t up to it.
Sound familiar? Many of my clients have one (or more) of the above issues. One recently told me of an issue that was brought up to justify a lower grading; the event had occurred eight months earlier, and no feedback had been given.
A lot of it can be put down to several key causes:
- Failing to agree targets early enough;
- Failing to define and agree the performance standards and measures to be used;
- Incomplete, inconsistent or untimely data;
- Failing to provide feedback regularly/unwillingness to give “bad news” in a timely manner.
- Failure to change targets if circumstances dictate. Not changing when circumstances move against you or in your favour can only result in a justifiable complaint;
- Unrealistic expectations of appraise or appraiser;
- Lack of support during the year;
All of these can happen in any organisation. Some of them may be “cultural” issues, some may be more “systems” related (e.g. lack of valid, consistent and timely data). In the end, many simply see the Annual Performance Appraisal process simply as a massive “box ticking” exercise and try to get through as painlessly as possible.
What can you do to improve things? Firstly, it has to come from the very top. Management needs to set clear, measurable and understandable targets. Some organisations try a “bottom-up” approach in an attempt to achieve “buy-in”, but then turn around and say that the targets staff suggest aren’t “challenging” enough. This is bizarre, considering they have come from the very people who deal with the customers, suppliers, machinery, processes etc that make the organisation’s money. There’s a clear disconnect between what management want to see and the “shop floor” actually knows.
Second, let go of “1-year targets”. The world can change in 3 months. By all means have an annual goal or vision, but be flexible enough to change it. Work from quarter to quarter.
This brings me onto the next suggestion: agility. The organisations which survived the recent crisis best were agile enough to react to changing circumstance whilst pursuing their vision. You don’t have to be a small organisation to do this, but smaller organisations usually have the management structures to allow them to do it better than large organisations.
Information is key. You need the right information, in the right format at the right time to decide what to do. Bulky lists of figures received 2-3 weeks into the following month about last month’s performance that need a degree in code-breaking to understand them are no good.
Timely feedback is essential; the end of year appraisal shouldn’t come as a surprise because reports and managers have been discussing performance throughout the year. All-too often though, managers wait until the last appraisal to break the bad news.
In short:
• Make sure you agree on targets and how they will be measured;
• Make sure your information is valid, consistent, timely and supports decision-making;
• Be honest (not brutal);
• Create the conditions for success (budget, people, equipment); don’t tie someone’s hand behind their back and send them out to fight.
Ask yourself what you do to support and what support you need.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
posted by William Martin @ 12:10
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