Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The First-Time Manager’s Guide to Performance Appraisals

by Diane Arthur

  • The primary objective of a performance appraisal is to ensure the maximum utilization of every employee’s skills, knowledge, and interests.


  • Managers as Coaches
  • Coaching is the day-to-day interaction between you and your employees. Its purpose is to provide regular assistance, support, praise, and constructive criticism.

  • (1) Approachability
  • Whether they need help or want to talk about an idea they have concerning how to proceed with a task, you need your employees to view you as responsive and accessible. Employees should feel that you are available for coaching, at any time and for any reason.

  • (2) Consistency
  • To earn the trust and respect of your employees, strive to apply organizational policies, procedures, and rules as evenhandedly as possible. Conversely, avoid showing favoritism, bending the rules, or looking the other way, even when it doesn’t seem as if any harm will come of it, or if it’s unlikely that anyone will find out.

  • (3) Dependability
  • Nothing shakes an employee’s confidence more than feeling uncertain about whether he can count on you when needed. Managers who demonstrate that they are reliable are more likely to have maximally effective employer-employee relations.

  • (4) Empathy
  • Managers frequently find themselves in the position of listening to employees’ work-related and personal problems. When this happens, you must strive to remain impartial, thereby maintaining an emotional distance so you can best help the employee achieve resolution. The key is to be empathetic, not sympathetic.

  • (5) Honesty
  • You should try to be straightforward and forthright without being harsh or disrespectful. This is best accomplished by adhering to the facts in all matters calling for both praise and criticism.

  • (6) Knowledge
  • Smart managers are as clear about what they do not know as they are about what they do know. Smarter still are those who view themselves as lifelong learners.

  • (7) Respect
  • You cannot demand respect from your employees if you do not offer it. This includes having regard for employees’ views, approaches to tasks, requests, and needs.

  • Managers as Counselors
  • Counseling is the structured interaction between managers and their employees, with a keener focus on specific work-related problems.

  • (1) Attentiveness
  • By being attentive, managers may follow-up coaching with more structured counseling.

  • (2) Broad-Mindedness
  • You cannot look the other way when an employee’s behavior is outside the parameters of her job. By being broad-minded, you can leverage the impact one employee’s behavior has on others.

  • (3) Commitment
  • Savvy managers know that being committed to helping employees achieve a maximum level of productivity in accordance with specified job duties, policies, and procedures can be highly beneficial to all concerned.

  • (4) Conscientiousness
  • You need to be ever vigilant about what’s going on in your department. Even if everything appears to be proceeding smoothly, it is still prudent for you to determine, firsthand, the status of what each employee is working on, as well as any interpersonal matters that could impact work. Then, if anything is out of sync, you can step in with counseling.

  • (5) Focus
  • It’s easy for first-time managers to become sidetracked when it comes to matters impacting employee performance, but with a little effort you can remain focused and make objective decisions.

  • (6) Interest
  • Maintaining an active interest in your employees is likely to result in a good rapport. Then, should counseling issues develop, employees are likely to be more responsive and less resentful. Note that interest does not mean involvement.

  • (7) Realism
  • it’s important that you take into account each individual’s level of skill, degree of knowledge, and extent of interest in relation to the expectations of the job, rather than your personal expectations based on your own prior level of performance.

  • The Golden Rules of Performance Appraisals
  • Ongoing coaching and counseling set the stage for any performance review; that is, by doing her job as an effective coach and counselor, she’ll be prepared to successfully apply the three golden rules of performance appraisal:
  • (1) nothing that is ever said during a performance appraisal meeting should come as a surprise to the employee;
  • (2) managers should be prepared to praise and criticize elements of the employee’s work from the time of the employee’s last review or date of hire; and
  • (3) every incident that is referenced should be documented.