Leadership Lessons: Writing Performance Evaluations
September 2nd 2008 00:55
Writing a performance evaluation is a task dreaded by many managers but a critical point in any organization. What you write about an employee is important for their future growth and for their future of your organization.
I have seen many managers limit themselves to writing only glowing comments about their staff. Often they are afraid to say anything negative or hurt the person’s feelings. Being critical is something that we are not taught to do. Truthfully though, if you are not honest with the employee you can be in a lot of trouble and it can cause damage to your organization.
I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career as a manager. I didn’t want to say anything bad about someone else and to some extent felt like I wasn’t qualified to give my honest opinion. When I had problems with employees later, I found that I had backed myself into a corner. It’s next to impossible to discipline or terminate someone that has received year after year of glowing comments on a performance evaluation.
If you have to give a rating, consider what the norm for the job should be. That should be your average. Anyone that goes above and beyond that norm on their own – without you forcing it – is the next step up. The top level is really reserved for the best of the best. This is not something that you give out as a reward or to buy friendship. When someone receives the top ranking in many categories, I consider it a point where I would want to promote the person. If that person truly didn’t earn that rating, then you are sending the wrong message. The person doesn’t understand how they can improve to be better on the job.
So lesson learned, be honest on a performance evaluation. It will make your job much easier.
I have seen many managers limit themselves to writing only glowing comments about their staff. Often they are afraid to say anything negative or hurt the person’s feelings. Being critical is something that we are not taught to do. Truthfully though, if you are not honest with the employee you can be in a lot of trouble and it can cause damage to your organization.
I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career as a manager. I didn’t want to say anything bad about someone else and to some extent felt like I wasn’t qualified to give my honest opinion. When I had problems with employees later, I found that I had backed myself into a corner. It’s next to impossible to discipline or terminate someone that has received year after year of glowing comments on a performance evaluation.
If you have to give a rating, consider what the norm for the job should be. That should be your average. Anyone that goes above and beyond that norm on their own – without you forcing it – is the next step up. The top level is really reserved for the best of the best. This is not something that you give out as a reward or to buy friendship. When someone receives the top ranking in many categories, I consider it a point where I would want to promote the person. If that person truly didn’t earn that rating, then you are sending the wrong message. The person doesn’t understand how they can improve to be better on the job.
So lesson learned, be honest on a performance evaluation. It will make your job much easier.
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Comment by Vincent Aceling
Semi Wise
Restaurant Craft
Some of the mechanisms I've used are:
1) Focusing on the good attributes and strengths more and reaffirming that these qualities are what makes this employee valuable and recognized.
2) Positioning a negative attribute not as a "weakness", but as an "area of development". Offer the employee an opportunity to debate a specific area of development and sooner or later he/she will come to self-realization that noone is perfect and that your comments are worth reflecting on.
3) Ending the evaluation on a positive note and an agreement toward an action plan to meet both your expectations and the employee's expectations. Have the employee draft a personal development plan for each quarter, work with him/her on it, and then have him/her sign it. This will create a sort of binding understanding to how you will benchmark his/her performance in the future.