Supervisors and managers usually dread the idea of annual assessments of their people. Considering how onerous the task is often made to be, I don’t blame them to be honest. I propose a better way.
This process may not work for everyone, but when it comes to performing assessments, I have a mantra. Keep it simple. Repeat often. What I mean by that is don’t make the assessment process any harder than it has to be, and make sure you’re not only touching base with your team once or twice a year. Sure, you say, how on earth do I pull that off? Let me offer one practical plan of action.
There is no need for ratings. There is no need for multi-page lists. All you need to do is ask the following questions of your team members, about their work at an individual level:
1. What is one thing we (or I) need to start doing?
2. What is one thing we (or I) need to keep doing?
3. What is one thing we (or I) need to stop doing?
4. What is one thing we (or I) need to accept or learn to live with?
These questions are answered by the individual about themselves, in writing, and also by the assessor about themselves. That’s right – you’re going to be just as open to them about your own ‘start/keep/stop/accept’ as they are going to be to you. Then you have a meeting where the member shares their personal list, then you share yours. Then you make a plan to make those into commitments and set a date to ask the same questions again. Feel free to keep the last set of answers to track how things are progressing.
Ultimately, people already know how they’re doing, they just need the opportunity to express it, validate it and discuss it. And they need you to do the same. Often. Monthly at least. Quarterly if that isn’t possible. Not yearly.
Karl Plesz
Your Productivity Guru
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