HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER
Title: Get Rid of the Performance Review!
Competencies: performance management, performance appraisal
Who benefits: managers/supervisors, employees, organization
Consultant Usage: organizational development and human resource development
What’s it about? One of my least favorite authors has written a short article about one of my least favorite topics. Oddly, the results are favorable.
The author is arrogant and presumptuous. The topic is distasteful. Yet the end result is something I have advocated for over three decades (yes arrogant author, you are far from the first to think of this topic). Â
The topic is performance reviews/appraisals. They don’t work. Never have. And at the risk of being labeled “lazyâ€, let me quote the author who nails it in this provocative paragraph:
“To my way of thinking, a one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional pretense. It’s a negative to corporate performance, an obstacle to straight-talk relationships, and a prime cause of low morale at work. Even the mere knowledge that such an event will take place damages daily communications and teamwork.â€
He goes on to list a host of reasons why performance appraisals fail. Most of his reasoning is valid, although he shows some real sloppiness when writes about “the contemporary performance-reviewing fad called ‘360-degree feedback’.” Most folks who understand “360-degree feedback†know it works best as a developmental tool, not as an appraisal tool. And “360†has been around for over 20 years, which is a lot of longevity for a “fadâ€.
His solution is a good one. Performance previews. Sit-downs to discuss the future and the mutual responsibilities both parties. Focus on the future, which is, after all, the only time zone we can do anything about. It is also the only place that both parties are likely to get a real mutual agreement.
If you like the concept of the article, there is an excellent book that has been around since 2000 called Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead, which is reasoned, thoughtful, and well researched. I highly recommend it if you are interested in the topic.
If you read either, would be very interested in your thoughts.
Catch you later.
Â
[tags]performance review, performance appraisal, performance management, feedback, coaching, performance previews, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
That’s a good summary of the article, Ken. I disagree, though that the author’s solution is any better than what he wants to replace. I blogged about that at length in “Abolish the Performance Review” at
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2008/10/21/abolish-the-performance-review.aspx
Where the author of the journal piece and many others go wrong is in imagining performance appraisal as a sort of summing up that happens every year or six months or quarter. But for most effective supervisors, performance appraisal is part of what they do several times a day, every day, with everyone on their team. If you don’t do that, no “summing up” system can work because there’s nothing to sum up.