The ire of rating performance
In over two decades of management consulting, I have yet to find anyone who likes performance appraisals. They cause no end of stress for both appraiser and appraisee and are dreaded by both. People do want feedback on their performance, and they certainly want the salary raises, bonuses and promotions that are tied to performance appraisal results.
Nonetheless, they dread them.
The problem is that most performance appraisals are subjective ratings of key aspects of one’s performance by a supervisor. There is a list of competencies against which he or she has to rate the team member’s entire year’s performance. It’s really not that different from “Dancing with the Stars” or a gymnastics competition: “TEN” “EIGHT” “NINE AND A HALF” yell the judges. And the competitors hug, cry or breathe sighs of relief. My friend and trusted HR Associate Toni Spencer notes: “And hence the discomfort and pulling teeth in getting the reviews done. Also the distrust and resignation felt by the ratees. I hope a real conversation is started as the current 1-5 rating system etc is not working. Employees are unhappy.”
Marcus Buckingham in his article “Most HR data is bad data” speaks about the IRE (Idiosyncratic Rating Effect) of performance appraisals that causes so much ire (intense anger, wrath). (I love puns and this one is perfect). He posits that ratings are flawed as they actually say more about the rater than the person being rated – “On average, 61% of my rating of you is a reflection of me”.
– click to read article
I don’t have the right answer, and neither does Marcus Buckingham. But what I do know is that the current rating system does not work. Is this the best we can do? I think not. Admitting that there is a problem is the first step in finding a solution. There must be a better way.
TAKE ONE ACTION
Get active on Social Media. Make sure you are on at least one Social Media site that’s relevant to your business and adopt the mindset of a social media-savvy CEO. Not sure where/how to start? Get curious and click the “help” button (or ask your teenager)!
INTERESTING LINKS
I am an advocate and practitioner of “going with the flow”. I have made so many decisions based on intuition, instinct or gut feel that have turned out to be right, that I try to always listen to my inner voice. Now there’s research that supports this type of decision-making. Try “mind wandering” and see what happens!
– click to view article
Are you still resisting Social Media? Do you realize that “30% of Fortune 500 CEOs have a presence on at least one social channel”? Time to increase your “social fluency”! This article describes the 7 attributes of CEOs who “get” social media. Are you one?
– click to view article
