For many years, I have been against annual or semi-annual performance appraisals, sometimes called reviews. The idea that once a year you and your boss sit down face to face and talk about how you did the entire previous year just seems unnatural. The business guru Dr. W. Edward Deming agrees with me.
Surprise!!
I have had no bad experiences with reviews. I haven’t had a bad review or a surprise review. I simply believe that there is little if any value in this annual display of power whereby you are talked to by your boss about what should be discussed every single day of your career. I cannot imagine what would happen if your boss actually said “Bill, on October 13th at 3:45, you came back a few minutes late from your break. On January 3rd, the spreadsheet you gave me hand an error in it. So, I have to give you a low grade, and therefore no raise.”
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Could you imagine the surprise? Why wouldn’t he have told you in October, and in January? Well, that is my point. If he is a good manager, he would be communicating your performance everyday. You would know every day where you stand. What good is this ceremony. It is a complete waste of time.
Evaluated Daily
Good managers perform reviews every single day. Anytime you make a mistake, or conversely anytime you do something well, you should know it right away. You should not be surprised by anything that would be said in a review, therefore making the entire process moot, or dare I say – BORING! I think that if you are being evaluated each day, you should and would know at any given time where you stood. Don’t you think that getting that information would help your performance each day? Of course it would. If you were told what to do to succeed, you would most assuredly do that more often. And, if you were told not to make mistakes, you would do whatever you could to be more accurate. Simple? Yes, it is. Unfortunately, too many bad managers need this formality to communicate with their staff.
Divide and Conquer
I think that the review process divides a team between those that get good reviews and those that do not. Those that get good reviews, or what we used to call the pets are set aside from those that do not. They are on a different list and actually perform as if they are not part of the “in crowd”. It creates high school style cliques that cannot inspire team work. The cool kids will stick together as will the not so cool kids. There is no upside to foster these cliques, especially among adults. The divide does becomes even larger as time goes on.
For Real Dude?
I do believe that the annual performance appraisal is a complete waste of time. In a highly functioning company, you will know where you stand every single day. I think that companies should abandon them completely dude!
I would love to hear your thoughts!
Have a great day!
mike.anderson@directyourcareer.com
http://www.directyourcareer.com