First Level Leadership

Performance Evaluation Feedback is Challenging You!

How to optimize performance evaluation feedback

What actions do you take   in answer to the challenges of Performance Evaluation feedback?  Is it?  1) How to pass through the meeting without resistance? Or  2) How you might best devise means of consistent methods of feedback?

It is traceable that I am aware of your predicament

Let me help you to seek a way out of this predicament. Imagine you are ready to give “Performance Evaluation” feedback to one of your staff, but suddenly your inner dialogue stalls you. This little dialogue is not a perfect piece of dialectic …

What the heck is inner dialogue!

Inner dialogue is the thinking process that is triggered by awkward situations. This affects your feelings that in turn drive your behavior in any given situation.

Here is an imaginary representation of your inner dialogue:

The Situation

You are dealing with the under-performance of a staff member.

Your Inner Dialogue

“They’ll hate me if I mention this”.

''I’ll never be able to work with them again”.

“They’re bound to be defensive if I criticize them”.

“They always challenge my judgment”.

Your Feelings

Nervous, hesitant…

You need to gain confidence by challenging this inner dialogue

This can potentially produce a negative self-image,

"I'm no good at giving negative feedback," which in turn leads to a downward spiral of confidence. To break this downward spiral, gain confidence by challenging your inner dialogue.

Remember:

Sound inner dialogue is honest, accurate and rational. Faulty inner dialogue exaggerates talks of inevitabilities, certainties and absolutes.

In the example above, you might tell yourself,

"They will be defensive,"

“May be I can show them the gaps,”

“I can overcome their resistance with the skills I have developed.”

This will decide if your inner dialogue was sound or faulty. The bottom line is that you need to have a positive inner dialogue before you proceed with your performance evaluation feedback.

How do you plan to overcome resistance in a concerted manner?

There is every possibility that when giving feedback you encounter resistance to the points you are trying to get across.

Employees could be at one of these

four stages when receiving feedback:

Deny the Problem: "Nobody's complained have they?"

Blame Others: "The company rules weren't very clear on this."

Accept Partial Responsibility: “I can see your point.”

Take a Practical Approach: “I will start reading about how to handle customer complaints from our customer’s log book.”

Your objective is,

ideally, to get staff to at least the third stage

How can you minimize this resistance?

• Start your feedback in a coaching style. Asking staff to analyze their own performance can help to avoid implied criticism.

• Challenge your inner dialogue.

• Remember B.O.O.S.T. when giving Performance Evaluation feedback

Now what is B.O.O.S.T.?

BOOST is an acronym to encourage the free flow of informal performance evaluation feedback.

Performance Evaluation feedback, if it is to be acted on, needs to be:

Balanced

In a performance evaluation, it is vital to balance both positive and negative comments. Positive feedback boosts employee morale and increases the likelihood of the success being repeated. Equally, you need to know when and how exactly performance falls short. There is an understandable tendency to forget the positive and concentrate on the negative. Make sure you get to the point to ease the other person’s uncertainty.

Owned

Use terms such as "I like", "I've seen". Avoid phrases such as "you", "it", "people".

Feedback has much greater impact if it's owned and delivered personally.

Phrases such as

"X wouldn't like this" or "Y asked me to tell you" should be avoided.

You are on much safer ground referring to your own experience rather than information from other staff.

Objective and be Specific

Use actual examples of what has been done well or needs to be improved.

Use phrases, which reflect behavior ("You don't come to work on time", "you're project was late")of what people do rather than attitudes or personality ("You're a poor listener", "You're lazy", "You have a negative attitude").

Talking in terms of attitudes and personality can be emotive, which is open to different perceptions.

Try to use "last night",

"now" rather than"

always" or "never".

Talk about feelings, "when you do X I feel” rather than making judgments or concrete statements.

Timely

Feedback is more effective closer to the event. This is because it is more likely to be accurate and less likely to be rejected as not important.

Where emotions are involved, give everyone an appropriate "cooling down" period before you tackle the issues. Being timely also involves being private, with no interruptions and removing physical barriers.

Giving Performance Evaluation Feedback

More effective words and phrases (less judgmental, owned)

I’d prefer

Appropriate

Effective

Reflect on

Areas of development

For me…

It appeared as if

…gave me the impression that

Phrases to avoid, if possible (judgmental, vague, critical)

Good / Bad

Nice

Should not

Must

Ought to

Negative

You are (friendly, arrogant, unfriendly etc)

What if this doesn't work?

In that case, you may have to move into a more directive style. When exactly you move to this style is an individual judgment call. But remember - one of the factors to consider when deciding how much direction to give is the maturity and willingness of the other person.

As long as you remain calm and assertive,

this can be highly effective although it is less likely you're going to get a commitment to change.

Some points to remember

while running a performance evaluation feedback:

1) Gain confidence by challenging your inner dialogue.

2) Overcome resistance and ideally get the staff to at least the third stage.

3) Minimize the resistance by adopting coaching style, challenging your inner dialogue.

4) Remember BOOST while giving performance evaluation feedback.

“B.O.O.S.T.” stands for

BALANCED,

OBJECTIVE,

OWNED,

SPECIFIC &

TIMELY.

Try some of the techniques, and sweep away the spasm of resistance.

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