Here s What I Know About Board Assessment Tools

Nobody much likes performance evaluation systems. Managers find them unworkable and uncomfortable. Workers dread them. And many experts think we should scrap them altogether.

But when you are a working manager you do not get much choice. You have got to do performance evaluations on your people using the system your organization has in place.

Start by understanding that you will find really two different things that go by the name, "performance evaluation." One of those things is your organization's formal performance appraisal process.

Do whatever you must to handle your organization's evaluation system. You should work with whatever system your organization has devised. Someday you may be able to change it, although not now. Devote your time and energy to making the system deliver good results.

Although the formal system is only included in the story. Usually the evaluation that happens there is like a report card. It's a summary judgment of performance that took place for a length of time.

Give notice if you have to start documenting behavior. Generally speaking, your suggestion to change behavior or performance will be informal. That suggests you will not need to document. And much of the time your suggestion and coaching will cause improved behavior.

But sometimes you may need to let folks know that they're not doing good enough. Should they keep doing what they are doing, you certainly will have to start documenting their behavior. Let them know before your start.

Then, if you must document, do some things. Keep good records of the performance or behavior that you're tracking. Be specific about what happened, when and where.

Keep good records of your counseling meetings with your subordinate. What did you say? What did she or he say? How did you agree that things would change?

Making small course corrections on the way has a couple of advantages. To start with, small corrections are far easier to make than big ones, so your odds of a successful outcome go up.

Second, by making small corrections and documenting your counsel and your subordinate's behavior, you've got the issue on the table. When the time arrives for formal performance evaluation, your subordinate will know where she or he has come up short. And you'll determine what they've got to say about how they're doing. No surprises.

Take enough time within the formal session. In one organization where I did research we compared the time that top supervisors dedicated to the once-a-year performance appraisal meeting to the time that other supervisors took. The very best supervisors spent almost 2 times as long in the formal session as their less-effective peers.

Yet, if there weren't any surprises, what did they spend time on? They discussed growth and also the future. That is more enjoyable and more productive than going over what did and didn't happen since the last review.

Make agreements on just click the up coming internet page will happen next. Be sure you leave the formal performance evaluation session with a clear plan for how your subordinate will develop throughout the next period and what you're going to do to help.

Set milestones for your agreements. Determine whom shall do what and exactly what the deadlines are. Determine how performance should change.

Here's what to remember. The performance evaluation that makes an impact takes place daily, every time you encounter somebody that works for you. If you take every chance to coach, counsel, encourage and correct your people, and if you document in which you must, there will be no surprises at evaluation time. Then you can use the evaluation time to help people grow and develop.