Way to effective appraisal

Appraisal are always awaited and most of the time expectations are so high that receiver come out disappointed and giver come out exhausted. Appraisee will always say 'fingers crossed' before getting into the meeting room.

But is this what appraisal are meant for, then the reply is no, not at all. In the busyness of work life we miss the complete ideology of word review which leads to appraisal. The right format and method of appraisal is very important for appraisee to feel happy.

To do effective appraisal every manager should follow few simple steps; make sure you invest enough time to get your data correct, do your home work before writing the appraisal document and conducting the meeting (quality of work done, quantity of work done, collect feedback from internal & external customers). Manager should ask his team member to maintain a "ME" file which should note what are his/her achievements, what are his/her disappointments & learning's and what will he/she like to redo in coming year if given a chance.

When planning for meeting it should be planned other than Monday & Friday or before vacation, their should not be long disconnect after discussion as that leads to increased negativity if any and timing should be fixed for minimum of 1 to 1.5 hours and there should be no pressure to finish the discussion.The review feedback should be shared well in advance to the team member so that he/she can read through and come to the meeting prepared.

When you are writing appraisal you should be concise and specific. The document should contain specific feedback with incidents. Document should contain more of future plan and specific feedback of past. The language should be positive and reader should be able to focus more on his future with understanding of constructive areas. When setting goals keep in mind your new year resolution strategy i.e. if you set multiple or more than 5 goals, appraisee will not be able to focus on priority. Set goals in a pattern which tells what he/she did good and should continue to replicate next year, what are the areas which needs more concentration & constructive approach and rest small or short term goals which will give motivation on completion to achieve yearly goal.

For a effective meeting and absorption of your feedback, you should create pattern of regular meetings. If manager waits for providing feedback in yearly review meeting wherein he mentions incident that is 6 months old it is too late to highlight it and it will demotivate and put person in defensive mode. As I mentioned earlier it is yearly review meeting which means review of the year and not discussion of the year. Review can happen only when you have viewed the year before.

All managers should understand that it is discussion and not instruction session. Manager needs to encourage the team member to participate in the conversation and seek his acceptance on points discussed. When discussing with team member, manager should not read the form it looses the personal touch. It is very important to create trust and sensitivity towards team members growth, if the form is just dealt in a mechanical way the nut for trust is loosened. And as you know a loosened nut leads to disasters.

And the  most important aspect of the complete process is to create value and assurance. As human we want to work with manager who can save our back, when we are right and in need so give that assurance to the member so that he will be motivated and do not leave the room in defensive mode.

One should remember that the meeting is successful if both the parties leave the room in win - win situation. Smiles on face & interconnection in mindset leads to better productivity