Performance Appraisals–Beyond the Inquisition

It’s that time of year when we employees look with trepidation towards our annual performance appraisals. If you’re like the average guy (or gal) performance review time is something you dread. Traditional performance appraisals (or reviews, if your lingo stretches that way) are rigid, hierarchical affairs with a manager-driven format. At best they’re inefficient and flawed–at worst, downright unfair. Many people I talk to express emotions of surprise, concern, fear and inequity at their performance review. But perhaps there is a better way?

Performance appraisals should be a simple sign-off on information about real conversations that is being collected throughout the year. With a more collaborative approach, the judicious use of new technology and an open mind on the part of both the reviewer and the reviewed, workers no longer need to fear the annual inquisition.

It seems to me that traditional approaches leave employees feeling washed out. They’re just way too random. With an annual review, the chance to actually be recognized for our work is negligible. Management instead reverts to some kind of gut feel or cookie cutter approach that does little for the employees or the organization. Unless your manager is sufficiently attuned to the workplace to keep an ongoing record detailing good performance, and updates that record throughout the year, there’s a tendency to focus on the big, memorable stuff (which, alas, is often negative). This results in a pretty useless assessment of performance.

So we had a think and came up with some guidelines for employees. Think of it as a 101 in self-promotion or, if you’re too modest to look at it that way, just consider it a way to let the truth shine when being appraised. Of course you can’t lose sight of the fact that sometimes constructive criticism is justified, but by following the steps below, that should be balanced by positive feedback.

1. Create awareness

People often work in their own little silos. They don’t take the time to share what they’re working on with their peers and managers. Self promotion is something that many people feel awkward doing. Yet it’s one of the best ways to be recognized for your genuine efforts. So open up. Share your current projects, ask peers for feedback and keep the world (or at least your little part of it) apprised of what you’re up to.

2. Document, document, document

It’s no good moaning about your poor performance appraisal when you have nothing in writing to show what you did and what recognition you achieved throughout the year. No one cares more about making you look good than yourself. Take charge of that and ensure that, at years end, you’ve got a dossier of good work to back up your claims of performance. We’re not talking scrapbooking here–just a few examples where you’ve performed beyond expectation. A customer testimonial, a hot sales lead you converted or the fact that you bought the boss an apple every single day (actually maybe not on that last one!)

3. Speak up

When discussing the review with your manager, be aware that they’re running the same process with many people. It’s all too easy for them to fall into a routine in the review conversation. But you have the ability to change that. Drive the conversation in your favor (without becoming monotonously pompous) by referencing the accomplishments and positive feedback you’ve received throughout the year and asking questions.

There are some changes going on in the modern workplace that make reducing performance review anxiety much easier than ever before. The workplace is becoming more social. Sure, it’s always been common to converse over the water cooler, but those conversations are occurring more and more within a social software platform. That makes it easier than ever to capture information. That and the ease of accessing these new tools make it feasible for any size of workplace to try out social software for low (or, even better, no) cost. Social tools, while unusual in a traditional work setting, support a much more natural way of working than traditional rigid approaches.

Photo of mark and smiley by MinivanNinja. Licensed under CC.