Performance appraisals are nerve-wracking…for both employees and managers.
Employees are anxious to know how well they measured up. Does the boss know how hard they tried? Does their manager realize how many obstacles were in their path or how steep the learning curve was for the assignments given? Does management appreciate the unheralded contributions they made to the overall team performance? Did they make the grade overall?
From the manager’s point of view, there is angst as well, especially if the performance has been substandard. Negative feedback is difficult to give in a constructive way. You don’t want denial, anger or tears as a reaction. What you want is an agreed-upon development plan that will address the critical few performance gaps along with the employee’s commitment to improve according to an agreed -upon schedule. That’s the challenge with a low performer.
With a high performer, the challenge is different. You are very likely to hear a request for more stuff – i.e. pay, promotion, work assignments. How should you handle that?
This is what we mean by keeping the conversation “clean.” Don’t mix the two. Discussions of performance and “more stuff” should be kept separate. Why? Because each topic deserves thorough preparation and thought. When the issue of a raise or a promotion comes up, explain that you would like to discuss salary at another time and schedule a meeting. Raises should be granted according to two separate measures:
1. The quality of an employee’s performance, and
2. The value of their contribution to the organization.
Deal with the first in your performance conversation. For the second, solicit the employee’s thoughts on how they could affect the value of their job. Could they take on more responsibility? Are there other duties they could handle?
What you owe your high performing employee is a path to growth within the company and a specific timeline for getting “more stuff.”
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