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Annual appraisal meetings: how to make the most out of it
Whether you meet with your team members or you meet with your team leader, annual appraisal meetings will have a lasting impact, in particular on the team member’s motivation and future performance.
As a team leader and a team member, how do you make sure that the impact is constructive, drives intrinsic motivation and leads to a better cooperation and performance than before?
The right setting – the manager’s first responsibility
Make sure that there is time and attention from both sides. From my experience, quite a number of team leaders consider the annual appraisal meeting a tick-the-box exercise, which is perceived as time consuming and is used as a meeting only to determine the bonus for the previous year.
As a leader, you should approach the annual appraisal with your team members as if you would meet your top clients.
Your top clients appreciate it very much when you dedicate time, come well-prepared, listen to their needs and make sure that they feel comfortable to tell you their views, in order to strengthen the relationship and to grow the business of your clients; when they grow, you grow!
The same approach is valid for how you approach your team members:
- Dedicate time and make your team members feel appreciated – even when you are not satisfied with their performance
- Prepare yourself by reading into the targets that were set, listing the possible external opportunities and threats with respect to reaching these targets
- Review your own performance and the impact your team members, in terms of your own priorities and your behaviour
- Create a positive and constructive atmosphere, which supports the psychological safety of your team members, so that you both can be open to each other without fear
- Make sure nobody disturbs your meeting and avoid any distraction
The right preparation: the team member’s first responsibility
As a team member to your team leader, imagine that you are a top client and that you want be valued for what you bring to the company. Imagine what you would need to be satisfied and how you could grow – in line with the company goals and your potential.
This does not mean that you can demand whatever you feel like you deserve; you would not expect this from your clients, would you? Unless your clients are in it for the long run, are well prepared and have documented their added value to your business, such as turnover, volumes, prices, share of wallet, order quantities, and so on.
Therefore:
- Prepare yourself by relating your performance to what is expected (your targets)
- Make a detailed, but structured list of what it took you to achieve the targets
- Make a list of valid arguments why you have not reached certain goals
- Quantify as much as possible what value you have added to the team and business
- Identify the impact of your achievements on your colleagues and your team leader
- Understand for yourself what your big picture is, concerning what you would like to achieve in the next years
- Identify what you would need to perform
- Set the accompanying personal goals that support your big picture and what you would need to achieve this
- Compare your achievements of the past years with your future big picture, and base your promotion, salary and secondary benefits increase on this
- Whatever you ask for, be reasonable, come forward with valid arguments and go for the right balance between what you deliver and what you would like to receive in return
Managers: make it meaningful and be mindful
Around 15 years ago, my former employer initiated a company-wide annual appraisal program, supported by a horrible Lotus Notes application. Back then, people management was not one of the cultural strengths of the company and the way HR initiated the appraisal program did not evoke high commitment of supervisors.
Indeed, a tick-the-box exercise to make sure that you would not receive reminder emails, which were bcc-ed to the supervisor’s supervisor (personally, I think bcc should be banned from emails anyway). Managers came into the meeting (usually after a couple of postponements) unprepared, said that they would only have 15-20 minutes (including walking back and forth to the coffee machine) to go through the targets, sort of listened and at the end I received an envelop with an inflation correction and the request to complete the Lotus Notes application and think of a few targets for the coming year.
Obviously, it was not motivating at all. Especially when I learned that co-workers were apparently struggling with a higher inflation (read: higher salary increases)–which was a bit awkward, as I thought that inflation was always set a country level.
Fortunately, things have changed. And I never (hopefully) have used that lousy approach to my team members.
So, I have always taken pride in taking enough time for appraisal meetings with my teams. Perhaps it is my commercial background to treat my team members as my top clients and hold the view that I work for the team instead of the other way around, or my human interest to understand the motivation of people, whether it being intrinsic (coming from the person self) or extrinsic (rewards).
Close to a decade a go, I had my first director role and I wanted to do it right. I took my responsibility and prepared myself well. To understand what happened the year before, to put the performance into perspective and the right context, and also to understand my impact on the performance of my team members, I asked 6 questions – before even looking at the targets and achievements:
Question 1:
What did you do well?
Question 2:
What could you have done better?
Question 3:
What did I do well to support you?
Question 4:
What could I have done better to support you?
Question 5:
What should I continue to do to support you?
Question 6:
What else can I do to support you?
Bonus question: Why?
Make sure you understand the underlying motivation by following up with why?
Make the annual appraisal meaningful and be mindful. There are always reasons for poor performance that you are not aware of and that have nothing to do with the skills or competencies of your team members. Set the stage by asking these questions and asking why when needed. Treat the answers of your team members with openness and fairness.
And then proceed in a well-documented and formal fashion with the targets and achievements for the past year.
TEAM MEMBERS: be aware of what you are asking for
Some of my clients that ask me for leadership performance coaching & development, address the point that they do not feel that they get what they deserve in terms of financial rewards, secondary benefits or promotions. Arguments that are raised are mostly related to what is achieved (and less to what is expected), related to what colleagues earn or questioning why co-workers received a promotion.
A wise HR director gave me once a very important tip:
Never ever compare your package to the package of others; you do not know what the reasons are why the packages are different. Perhaps there are very valid reasons. Perhaps not. Perhaps it is not even your manager who decides about the compensation packages. But you will get frustrated and fixated on the other, instead of your own performance.
Assuming you go into the annual appraisal meeting well-prepared, you should ask yourself the following questions:
Question 1:
What is really important to me and what satisfies me? (money, learning, status, comfort)
Question 2:
Have I done everything to support my wishes? (performance, consistency, impact on others, no flaws)
Question 3:
Do I have the capabilities? (skills, competencies, time, energy)
Question 4:
Do I have the motivation? (intrinsic, attitude, willpower, ambition)
Question 5:
Am I prepared for the consequences of a promotion? (More responsibility, traveling, spending more time at work, moving abroad, more stress)
Question 6:
Is the balance between achievements, commitments, dedication and rewards right?
Team leaders & team members: it is all about understanding each other
Annual appraisal meetings should be a dialogue with the aim to understand each other’s context, drivers and motivation. Be aware that both team leaders and team members do not know everything from each other.
The (adapted) JoHari Window may help both team leaders and team members to come to the same understanding:
Arena: Drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements that both the manager and direct reports know. These are drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements that both the leader and team members perceive.
Hidden, or Facade: Drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements selected by the team members, but not by the leader, go in this quadrant. These are things both are either unaware of, or that are untrue, but for the team member’s claim.
Blind spot: Drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements not selected by team members, but only by their team leader go here. These represent what the leader perceives but the team member does not.
Unknown: Drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements that neither team members nor team leaders are aware of go here. They represent team members’ behaviors or motives that no one participating recognizes—either because they do not apply or because of collective ignorance of these drivers, reasons, shortcomings, and achievements.
Checklist:
- Dedicate time
- Avoid disturbance
- Be prepared
- Document what is relevant
- Create a positive, safe and constructive environment
- Be trustworthy
- Ask questions to each other
- Listen to each other
- Understand each other
- Find the balance between reward and performance that is right for the direct report, manager and company
- Enjoy!
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