Picture courtesy of Steve Woods
Judgement! I think that is the problem. How are they going to be judged for the year?
There are so many ways of conducting these reviews and I have read a few posts and comments recently where some are advocating a move away from Performance Reviews (PR).
I’m thinking: “Why would you do that?”
The system may be broken but rather than throw it out, fix the damn thing!
Purpose of the PR
Fundamentally, the purpose of a PR is to:
- Current Situation: ascertain how an individual is traveling in their job
- Wins: what achievements they’ve had, so there can be some recognition and;
- Development: where they would like to improve, what roles are they considering and how they want to progress in their career
Difficult stuff, I know. 
Different Strokes
Talking with Daughter (C1) the other day she mentioned that her PR was due but she wasn’t looking forward to it. When I enquired why she said that she has to:
“talk about what I’ve done in the year and how I think I’ve gone. What I want is for my manager to tell me how he thinks I’ve gone and get some feedback. All he’s going to do is agree with what I’ve said.”
My view is this is how a PR should be conducted. It is the employees review and their opinion counts. In fact, even more so. If an employee has know real idea how they are performing then I think there is a problem.
Having said that, a good manager will always provide clear goals and targets so the employee can measure themselves. Lack of objectives and targets can be quite demotivating to an individual, at any level.
All PRs should be justified with evidence and I think it is a great opportunity for an employee and a manager, together, to recognise achievements, development opportunities and create a “where to from here” development plan.
I think, in reality, C1’s problem is the seeming lack of real interest from her manager is the problem. But that is not the fault of the PR, that is squarely the faulty of the manager.
Judgement? Or …
Earlier in the post I suggested that “judgement” might be the problem and, for many, I think that is the case. However, it could be worse – the manager could simply be disinterested.
The possibilities of different management styles can be quite horrendous:
- you have a manager that drives you – tough, sometimes painful and occasionally unfair, your blood boils occasionally too.
- you have a manager that overly supports you – appreciated but sometimes too sugary, some solid and constructive feedback would be good occasionally.
- you have a manager that doesn’t care – what on earth are you to do with that? This is less, worse than lassiez-faire
So, when it comes to PR time, give your manager some feedback. Tell them what you need. Be professional but be direct. Tell them how you want the PR to go. Guide them. Many managers behave they way they do because they think that is how they are supposed to act.
None of us get it right all the time.
And, even though a PR can feel like a Tax Audit at times, I don’t know of anyone who has self-combusted or turned into a green tree frog from having the PR completed. It’s just a performance review dammit!
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