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How to benefit from performance appraisals

If your attitude towards performance appraisals is to regard them as a tiresome formality, or even an irritating waste of time, you should reconsider. In fact, performance appraisals, whether they are annual, six-monthly or rolling, are a significant business tool, and they present an excellent opportunity for you – and your organisation – to benefit, in many ways.

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Sometimes, there’s a kind of ‘school report’ air about performance appraisals, with your line manager playing the role of stern headmaster and you as the naughty pupil. If that’s how it is in your organisation, your senior management are clearly missing the point of performance appraisals.

Effective performance management should be concerned with establishing a culture in which everyone, from the lowliest minions through to the board members, takes personal responsibility for improving both the business processes and their own abilities. At performance assessments there should be a dialogue between your line manager and yourself, not one-way traffic, with your manager listing your failings or praising your successes.

Here are some of the benefits you can gain from your performance assessments, provided that you undertake them in a positive, constructive frame of mind:

Regard a forthcoming appraisal as an opportunity to step back from your job for a while, and think about how well (or badly) it’s going. Are you still enjoying your work? If not, why not? Are you so overloaded with tasks that you can’t keep up? Do you need any specialised training? If you enter your appraisal meeting with some issues in mind to discuss, and perhaps some suggestions for procedural improvements, you, your line manager and your organisation will all benefit, and you will leave the meeting with renewed enthusiasm.

Your performance appraisal is an opportunity to ensure that you fully understand your team’s aims and objectives, so that you can contribute to them. In the same way that your line manager will clarify what they expect you to do, you should discuss with them how they intend to manage you, and explain what support you believe you need to do the best job possible. If you don’t contribute constructively in this way, your manager might assume that they don’t need to give you further assistance.

During your appraisal, try to work together with your line manager to establish your specific short- and long-term goals . You should also ask for guidance in measuring your own performance, because if you don’t know where you’re coming from and where you’re going, you won’t know whether you are succeeding or failing.

Use the appraisal as an opportunity to review events since your last performance appraisal , in order to establish what successes and failures there were, and what lessons can be learned from them for the future. And remember, often more can be learned from failures, than from successes.

Try not to take offence at adverse criticism during your appraisal. Making excuses or, worse still, becoming aggressive, will not improve the situation. Just remember that you see things from a totally different point of view to your line manager. In fact, if you are honest with yourself about the criticism, you may even accept that it is justified. So instead of getting angry, which is a natural human reaction, say that you will think about what has been said. We all make mistakes (including your line manager): the trick is to learn from them, and not make them again.

Treat the appraisal as an opportunity to learn from your line manager. If you progress successfully through the organisation, one day you will be conducting appraisals of your subordinates. Try to consider the appraisal from your manager’s point-of-view. Think about where you fit into the overall picture and why certain issues are being discussed. Consider the framework within which you are all operating, and the strategic goals that lie behind what is being said. So as well as talking about your own issues and problems, try also to listen carefully to what your line manager is saying, and learn from them.

Think of an appraisal as a stepping-stone in your career path. An opportunity to consider whether you are finding particular aspects of your job boring or stimulating. A good manager will always seek to identify, nurture and develop talented individuals, because they have the potential to become increasingly valued assets of the organisation. So use the appraisal to communicate your interests and aspirations, rather than letting your line manager guess at your likes and dislikes.

Use an appraisal to refine your personal development plan (PDP). You should have a PDP that defines the actions you intend to take (such as receiving coaching by your line manager, and internal or external training) to develop your knowledge, skills and abilities. A performance appraisal is often the ideal opportunity to review, revise and refine your PDP. However, if your appraisal needs to concentrate solely in issues such as performance and salary, the PDP review could be dealt with during a separate meeting.

Coaching is an important element in your personal development plan. It should be discussed during your performance assessment, or in a separate related meeting. Your line manager is responsible for ensuring that you receive appropriate coaching , which usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals. Coaching differs from other forms of help, such as counselling and mentoring, because it concentrates on improving your performance and developing individual skills that will enable you to work better .

You should leave after a performance appraisal looking forward with some confidence, even if it didn’t go as well as you hoped. Problems should have been aired and solutions discussed. You should now understand exactly what expectations your line manager has of you, and they in turn should know what they can do to help you perform better, or more efficiently, or with greater consistency. And you should both be working towards agreed, achievable goals.

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