Even managers are prone to “Student Syndrome.”
It’s that time of year when managers everywhere groan under the weight of the performance evaluations they’ve barely started. Yes, there’s a similarity between college students and their assignments and managers and their performance evaluations—both groups wait until the last possible minutes to complete their work.
I know more than a few managers scrambling to find time on their over-packed calendars to complete their stack of evaluations. Whether you’re working from home to avoid the daily distractions or carving out weekend time, it feels like a grind. (It shouldn’t, and there’s a lot broken about the performance evaluation process, but that’s another article for another day.)
I lived through this work for several decades, and I learned some valuable lessons along the way. The real work of getting performance evaluations starts long before you reach the time to write and discuss them. Nonetheless, you’re at the 11th hour. Here are some tips you can use at this late date to help you do your best for your team members.
Eight key things to consider when developing and delivering performance evaluations
1. Remember who this process is supposed to benefit.
The process is for the benefit of your team members—the individuals you are evaluating and decidedly not for the powers in H.R. Your team members are your customers for this process.
2. Evaluative feedback is different than performance feedback.
Now is not the time to talk about someone’s behavior in a recent meeting or that they dropped the ball on a deliverable for the project team. You should have delivered performance feedback on the fly and as close to the observed behavior as possible.
Evaluative feedback is an assessment at a point in time of someone’s progress and contributions to the organization. It recognizes superpowers and successes and highlights opportunities to learn, stretch, and contribute at a higher level. It compares performance to (hopefully) clearly identified and communicated expectations.
3. Performance evaluations are a dialog, not a monologue.
Please resist the urge to sit in judgment of someone as you opine on their worth from that lofty manager chair. This happens too often in organizations, even with seasoned managers.
This evaluation is theirs and yours together, and you should introduce processes that ensure a quality discussion. This is one of the year’s most important moments for them, not you. Honor it by engaging and talking. Pre-share the form, categories, rating system, and areas for comment. Work through it together. Yes, I said that. Develop the performance evaluation together. (Yeah, controversial.) Ask questions. Ask for their perspective on successes and challenges.
4. No surprises. Ever.
Remember, this is evaluative feedback, not performance feedback. If you, as the manager, plan on springing a low rating on someone for an issue or area you’ve not been discussing and working on together before this session, go directly to manager jail. This is not the time for new data, fresh criticisms, or to grind an axe. I reiterate: no surprises.
5. Share what you admire about their contributions and approach to their work.
Did I mention they’re the customer? I love this discussion as a chance to share my heartfelt perspective on what I love about their work and contributions. Do this, but be specific and offer examples. Constantly shift this positive evaluative feedback to feed-forward. “How do you envision leveraging your strengths here for future and even larger initiatives?”
6. Work together to design approaches for identified/agreed-upon gaps.
In one discussion, the individual’s need to become more visible across the organization to key stakeholders and influencers was a key area for development. This activity had been discussed via 1:1 sessions, but the individual was still uncomfortable with the activity. Instead of criticizing or judging at the moment, I encouraged them to self-assess. Then, we worked together to design strategies to gain experience and grow confidence in this area. Expectations for progress were crystal clear moving forward and importantly, I understood how I could raise my coaching game to support them.
7. NEVER give them their goals—design them together
I still catch managers in my coaching and workshop programs who give the goals to their team members. While organizational goals are imposed across everyone, individual goals must be initiated by the individual (go figure) and developed with the manager. (By the way, ditch your S.M.A.R.T. goal format forever. You are hurting your organization and the individual with that dated, simplistic format. Find out why/how here.)
8. Beware ratings roulette.
The late great management thinker W. Edwards Deming intensely disliked the performance rating system. He described it as a game and used his Red Bead Experiment to showcase the flaws in evaluation (as well as the broader management system). Nonetheless, you are likely “forced” to rate your team members on some scale. The potential for gamesmanship is exceptionally high if the ratings drive compensation adjustments.
Tough love:
- Inflating ratings to make people feel better or avoid confrontation is wrong.
- Inflating ratings to game the system for compensation adjustments is wrong.
- Deflating ratings because you’re a hard a@@ who never gives a top score is wrong.
If you did your job of setting expectations, giving timely feedback all year, and conducting the dialog based on the above suggestions, the ratings will emerge for both of you. If there’s a difference of a degree, discuss it. If there’s a difference by a mile, you’ve failed in some part of the process. Admit it and design an approach for the future. (I can’t help you with that score resolution here—you screwed up.) My counsel: don’t penalize your team member for your screw-up.
The Bottom Line for Now
By the time you reach the review process, it’s too late to go back and clarify expectations, run timely 1:1s, and give ample behavioral feedback. Identify this as one of your gaps as a manager and commit to strengthening your effectiveness with all that goes into guiding and coaching your team members. For now, avoid the abovementioned traps, have quality discussions, and design the future together. And then redouble your coaching work!
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Join me for an upcoming session of The Manager Development Program—ideal for new managers wanting to start strong and experienced managers striving to scale their impact!
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