Use Performance Feedback And Achieve More

Year-end is always festive. It is also time for performance appraisals and feedback.

In 2020, COVID has ratcheted up the value of performance management. When people work from home, the number of hours worked is not significant, the results are.

Performance management has three stages: goal setting, monitoring and appraisal. Let us focus on appraisal and feedback right now.

Everyone gets appraised one way or other

Performance appraisals are part of your life. The standard appraisal practices will look like this: As an employee, you will do a self-appraisal. You will appraise your performance against the objectives that were set at the start of the year. You can rate yourself Excellent, Good etc. (as per the rating scale) against each goal. After that, the supervisor will review your performance and give a rating.

As a manager, you will review the performance of each of your team member and give them a rating.

So, you will appraise your team, and you get appraised by your boss.

That’s life. Everyone gets appraised.

Interestingly, during a training programme, a participant asked me, “Who appraises the President of a country?”

I replied, “The people.”

“No.”, the participant said, “it is the spouse.”  

Maybe. Fortunately, it is not job-related.

Who is responsible for your performance?

Your job performance depends on your skills and efforts. You are primarily responsible for achieving or not achieving the goals. Remember, your performance track record affects your career and future.

Your line manager comes next. She or he has the responsibility to support and inspire you to achieve the goals. Besides, if a team member does not reach the targets, the line managers cannot achieve their targets as well.

HR Manager’s job is to put in place an appropriate performance management system and train staff in using it.

Feedback is a Goldmine. Dig it. 

Feedback from the people you work with is among the best things you can get from your professional life. You can get it formally from the performance review. But you can get informal feedback any time during the year.

The purpose of feedback is to improve performance. Open organisations promote the culture of giving and receiving feedback.

Some organisation use the 360-degree feedback system. It provides a channel for you to get feedback from your peers and co-workers. Similarly, you also can give feedback to your bosses and peers, besides the staff who report to you.

Positive and Negative Feedback

In management, only two types of feedback exist: positive and constructive. Negative feedback has no place in people management.

You give positive feedback when an employee meets expectations by achieving the targets, solves a business problem or shows the commitment by putting extra efforts etc.

Constructive feedback contributes to improved performance, even if the employee has not achieved the targets. A suggestion for achieving a better outcome is constructive feedback. It encourages the person receiving it to do better.

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” – Mark Twain

Negative feedback is problematic. It does not help anybody. It highlights the need to train the person giving such unhelpful feedback.

Employees feel valued when they receive positive and constructive feedback. Even if a team member has not achieved the targets, there are always somethings she or he did well.

Recognise those. Remember, praise is a part of ‘appraise’.

Future Options helps organisations to set up paper-based and online performance management systems. For more information, please send us an email to info@futureoptions.org