The praise in appraisal

It’s that time of year again when I’m expected to perform the yearly employee appraisals. A quite common format for this ritual is that the employee performs a self assessment based on a questionnaire and presents their answers to the manager. The manager in turn should come up with some constructive and insightful feedback that will help the employee see areas where they can improve and grow. Sounds good in theory.

I’m sure that there are managers out there who do a great job following this format, but based on my own very unscientific observations, however, it seems that few employees see value in this ritual. I’ve never really liked this setup either as it presumes that I know more about a person than they do themselves. If I were a psychologist, this might be true, but I'm not. This year, I’m leaving this format altogether.

My first assumption for this year’s appraisals is that most manager feedback should happen when a situation is fresh and feedback is relevant, not saved for a once-a-year conversation. For that reason, I don’t need to bring up old situations again, they have already been dealt with. Weekly one-on-ones takes care of any other issues relating to priorities, training, career planning etc.

My second, and more important, assumption is that people generally want to do a good job and contribute to the best of their ability. The issue here is that even if we tell ourselves that we are doing the right things, there is always this inner voice of doubt questioning whether we really do things well enough or that our contribution really matters.

This year, I have spent a lot of time gathering reflections about my team members from all around the organization. My questions were along the lines: What do you appreciate the most about this person’s contribution last year? Which are this person’s super powers? To bring some substance into the answers, I asked the respondents to be as specific as possible but only focus on the positives.

It is so obvious when presenting this feedback to my team members that they become a little bit taller, smile a little bit wider, relax some and seem to feel a lot better about themselves.

I can easily imagine that some object that it is not helping an individual learn or grow, that you need to give hard, “constructive” feedback to develop. The misconception, in my mind, is that this type of feedback somehow has to be presented with the perspective that you’re doing something wrong, something that has to be corrected. On the contrary, I believe that the best way to give constructive feedback that has a chance of actually affecting someone is to pick up on the already good things and make that person aware of how others appreciate it. By focusing on the good sides, we encourage the type of behaviors we want more of and appreciate.

Spend more time on praise, and your appraisals will never be the same again.