Appraisals

Most people worry about appraisals. It can be uncomfortable to be assessed, especially if your company grades performance. But appraisals play an important role in clarifying the future. By setting objectives, we can organize our priorities in the months ahead. By giving or receiving feedback, we learn what we need to keep doing and how we can improve. So in this section we'll look at how we set objectives, and how we give feedback.

Let's look at objectives first of all. The guideline for setting objectives is that they should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based. By specific, we mean that an objective shouldn't be vague or imprecise - it should be a clearly defined task. By measurable, we mean that it's easy to judge when an objective has been achieved and we can objectively measure progress, for example from customer feedback, sales figures, and so on. An objective should also be achievable, in other words it should be possible for someone to do it. If we set an objective which is too hard, the person will become demoralized and their motivation will suffer. It should also be relevant and clearly connected with the work that they do, and finally, there should be a time period for the objective, with a deadline when progress can be reviewed.

So that's SMART objectives. Now let's focus on feedback. There are two types of feedback: positive feedback, where we tell someone what they are doing well, and improvement feedback, where we examine how they can improve in the future. With all feedback, it's important that we are specific and provide examples or evidence of the behaviour. To make the feedback more powerful, we can also describe the impact that behaviour has on others. Tor example, if I'm told that my attention to detail in a report led to us winning more business, I'm more likely to recognize the importance of my skills. Or, if I'm told that my being late has caused others in the team to work longer hours, I will see that my actions have an effect on other people, not just myself.

With positive feedback, it can be especially powerful to provide third-party endorsement. This means telling them that the behaviour has been noticed by other people, not just you. If I learn that my performance is being noticed by a senior manager, I'm going to feel really good. With improvement feedback, we need to be careful that they don't interpret the feedback as a judgment of them as a person. We need to put things into perspective. We need to stress that we're talking about one specific behaviour and remind them of areas where they perform well.

To finish the positive feedback, it's worth explaining to them the precise skills they have demonstrated. We want people to continue doing what they do well. By telling them directly what skills they have, they will feel encouraged to continue using those skills. With improvement feedback it's different. We want them to change their behaviour. And the best way to do this is to look for solutions. Appraisals are not about biame. They are about what happens in the future. It's a good idea to ask them how they think they can improve things and to discuss what kind of support they need.

So there are two models for feedback: S-l-T-S or Sits for positive feedback and S-l-P-S or Sips for improvement feedback. Finally, I want to stress that, both for objectives and feedback, the more you ask questions and get them to create their own objectives and plan their improvement, the more motivated they will be. Try not to tell them everything. A good appraisal is a collaboration, not a lecture.

LESSON 7