First Level Leadership
Increasing Critical Mass of Your Leadership Skills
Why is the manager flushed and nervous?
What is one of the most distasteful anticipations in a manager’s life? It's probably when he delivers a performance appraisal/review... or call it by any other name. You know what I mean.
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A performance appraisal is like a report card given by your superior. What will the verdict be - professional adequacy or the lack of it? What’s wrong with you? The performance appraisal’s message, no matter how smoked and hidden under cosmetic smiles, always converges to "Here’s what’s wrong with you." |
In truth
Managers who seek to influence the performance of their employees need detailed tactics of a most basic and critical skill – how to talk to employees.
How to transform them into guided missiles,
which can adjust course when needed. Rather than one accumulated direful session at the year-end, continuous feedback allows the employees to adjust their behavior as he or she cruises along.
Performance appraisal is not an event; it is not confined to the formal procedure required by a company. But a good performance review is an ongoing process, wherein nothing should come as a surprise or shock to the employee.
Continuous Conversation
The real work is what happens in between, i.e. continuous conversation. That is why a critical part of the entire process is “How” and “When.”
Communicate the expectations and the reasons for them
Inadequate information forces employees to fill in the blanks on their own. However, there is a lot of ground between reasonable expectations, and the expectation that he or she will read your mind.
In this regard, the ability to give
Effective Feedback through coaching comes into the foreground; a skill that takes time and continuous practice.
Defensiveness is a product of that feedback
Which is often practiced as a one-way information download. The main barriers to effective appraisal are avoidance on the part of the supervisor and defensiveness in the employee. Feedback may communicate information on past performance, but should include information on expectations as well.
Positive feedback is a lucrative source of emolument
Psychologists say people handle criticism best when it is delivered in a ratio of one to four—one criticism for every four compliments. Continuous feedback includes reinforcing employees who exhibit the behaviors the company believes will help it achieve its business goals. Make feedback relevant because everybody views the world from their own frame of reference.
Stop being the boss and set out towards the forest
of planned or unplanned Performance Reviews by being a coach. The best way to ensure that an employee will be more receptive to your comments, is to "forge a partnership" that makes coaching an intrinsic element of your relationship with the employee.
Mr. Manager, don't you feel your responsibility in the matter?
There was no evading the responsibility which is now thrust upon you. Indeed, performance review is about more than conversation—it’s about your attitude, your stance. Performance review, like coaching in sports, is an art. That means you must get closer to your employees and help them to take more ownership for their performance.
Something to Think About
Have you ever noticed how some people seem to have a natural ability to stimulate people to action? At some point you must confront the actions or behavior of an employee and establish performance gaps - Perhaps they are more skilled in giving continuous performance feedback in a coaching style.
By Ronen Cohen
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