Welcome to 2010. This is the first work week of the new decade. Many of us are celebrating this new year as a very new beginning. Like you, I am looking ahead to a great year and am thrilled to put 2009 in the rear view mirror.
Shortly many managers will be sitting with their team and going through another annual ritual known as the performance appraisal. The performance appraisal is one of those activities where we look back on the previous year’s activities and assess how we did, what we did well, what we could do better and our plans for improvements and results for the upcoming year.
I am not a fan of these annual critiques. First, it is a forced conversation that involves a very subjective evaluation. Second, it seemed to be the only time that my manager ever really discussed performance and objectives. Third, the goals and expectations of me were not my goals, they were company goals. Finally, I was the only one being evaluated.
This year try a new approach- performance agreements. Sit down with your individual team members and talk about this year. Instead of focusing on your assessment of them, focus on how the two of you can collaborate to accomplish great things going forward. Here is the process for an effective performance agreement that focuses on what your individual team members are looking to accomplish and how you, as their manager, can help them accomplish it:
- What are your goals and aspirations for this year? Whenever possible, these need to be measurable and tangible goals.
- Why are these goals important to you? This helps you better understand what motivates and drives them.
- How are you going to accomplish this? This helps you create a road map with them.
- What do you expect and require of me and the company? We all have expectations. You need to be held accountable, too.
- Create a business plan. Develop a plan that the two of you agree on. Include the expectations that you have of each other. Include in this plan and process for regularly meeting and evaluating how things are going. This is how you empower and engage your team members to accomplish great things. And it helps you focus your efforts, as their manager, on the activities that are critical to both of you.
Do yourself and your team a big favor: skip the silly process of performance evaluations. Focus on the real important issues like looking ahead and accomplishing great things. This is going to be a great year. The sooner you engage in motivating, supporting, and guiding your team on the mission,vision, values, and goals that you both agree on, the sooner your business results will improve.