Somebody mentioned to me the other day that it was performance appraisal time again, and they had to prepare. It’s an exceptionally good idea to prepare for performance appraisals, but it’s better to prepare for performance.
What does that mean? Well, consider that there are many great guides to effective performance appraisals, but they all focus on the appraisal. Let’s take a step back for a moment, and consider what performance looks like. If your organisation focuses on the appraisal, without first identifying performance, you’re doing it the wrong way.
Instead, your performance management system should be focused primarily on identifying what performance looks like. It should become so ingrained that your line managers can immediately describe the desired outcomes of their direct reports. Your middle managers should be able to describe the objectives and outcomes for there area. That’s not enough, though.
What’s most important about identifying performance is unity. There should be a genuine and mutual agreement by all parties as to what performance looks like. If it means different things to different people, how can you begin to ask staff to “perform”?
