John,
I agree that the difficulty of performance appraisal and planning is
systemic in nature. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to be a
manager and to do a good job at performance planning and feedback. No
organization I know of provides much of any training or education around
this issue. And subordinates don't like to hear bad news. The
combination of the difficulty for the manager and the desire to avoid bad
news by the subordinate means that bad news is seldom given effectively.
Generally it is not given at all, and when it is, it occurs because the
manager has gotten so frustrated that he or she can not be effective in
the delivery.
I believe in a pretty basic approach. Positive feedback when someone does
well, negative when they do not do well. All given in a professional,
non-judgemental way, with a lot of simple expression of faith that the
person can do it. I practice some paradoxical stuff. When in a team
environment, I tend to give a great deal of individual feedback. People
can begin to lose a sense of personal accountability otherwise. When in
an individual contributor environment, I collect feedback from many
associates, so people can get a clear notion of what others think of their
work.
Let me say something that is probably highly unprofessional. You can't
really be a good manager and give sound, high quality feedback to someone
you don't care a lot about. Caring about others -- deeply caring about
them -- is a necessary prerequisite to being a really good manager.
--Rol Fessenden
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