#35 - Appraisals - Telling it like it is!
30 Oct 24
It's never easy calling out bad behaviour or poor performance. But leaders owe it to the person, the organisation and the rest of the team members to do the right thing.
It takes moral courage to have that difficult conversation. But if you don't, you will store problems up for the future. These will manifest in many different ways. The reportee will have a skewed perception of their performance which will not reflect reality. Equally, those in your team who really are working hard, will give up if it is perceived that poor behaviour and/or performance is tolerated.
Have the moral courage to have the difficult conversations that will give someone the chance to turn their performance around!
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#35 - Appraisals - Telling it like it is!
What?
Love it or loathe it, until we find a better way to measure personal performance, the best way to achieve this remains the annual appraisal system.
This is the system that seemingly all Companies have adopted which aims to be the most effective and most fair way to assess individuals' performance over the course of the year.
It starts (unsurprisingly) at the start of the year with the setting of mutually agreed objectives. These SMART objectives lay out in some detail what is expected of the report, and by when, so a measurement of effectiveness may be made at the mid-year point, but more importantly at the year end.
The overall performance grade generally drives the annual bonus award, payable at the end of the financial year the following April.
It's an emotive time for both the subject of the report, and the line manager.
Why?
On paper, it seems like a great, foolproof system.
The problem is, when you introduce a reporting system that involves humans, it generally ends up being flawed. Why?
Because we are human!
And humans vary in terms of their robustness, moral courage and willingness (or inability) to be completely objective about something so emotive as someone else's performance.
Frankly, writing a report about someone who is the best thing since sliced bread is easy. Nothing controversial there!
But try and do the same for someone who is an under-performer is much more difficult. Why?
Because you can be challenged on your assessment.
The issue is many line managers want an easy life. Calling someone out on bad or under par performance is difficult. It consumes bandwidth and compounds an already busy workload. Many ask if it's really worth the effort. Ultimately people do not like to have difficult conversations.
So consequently they accept bad performance. This, in turn, disincentivises those who are working hard and doing a good job.
When you look at the HR process for managing poor performance, it quickly becomes clear that it is likely to be a long-drawn out process, perceived to be heavily loaded in favour of the person who is allegedly poorly performing!
It's not good. But, the onus is on the line manager to report what they objectively see.
By simply ignoring bad behaviour or poor performance, this encourages others to give up. Acceptance of bad performance or standards literally affects others in the vicinity. It's corrosive, and it stores up problems for the future.
This is unfair on both the line manager, as well as the person being reported on, since they believe they are doing well. They may not be aware they are doing anything wrong.
So line managers must have the moral courage to do what is right and report what they see objectively, or it all starts to fall apart.
How?
Whether it's bad behaviour or poor performance, the approach is very similar. Follow these steps to ensure you track and record how you manage the respective person:
- As soon as you notice either disciplinary or capability issues, start a narrative. This is a record of everything that you have noticed and every interaction with the subject (face to face, telephone, emails etc). Complete it as you go along, do not leave it to when you need it. Little and often is the key here. Also, consult the relevant HR policy for your Company. You will need to be extremely familiar with this policy. This is in the interest of both line manager and reportee.
- Once you have hard facts, call the person in and have an informal counselling session to highlight your concerns. Use examples based on solid facts to back up your concerns. Record what was discussed and any mutually agreed actions. If they dispute what you have raised, provide facts to back up your concerns. Keep emotion out of it at all times, even if they react badly to what you have raised. Most people will address their behaviour at this point, and may turn themselves around. Some will disagree and will not believe you, as they may have a different perception of their own performance against the reality that you have observed. In these instances the examples you use to back up your observations are an absolute must. If they still disagree, you may need to call for a second opinion from someone else.
- For a small minority you may need to repeat the above step for a second time.
- On the third occasion, ensure you brief HR beforehand on the actions you have taken thus far. Ask them to attend a formal meeting with the person as a third party, independent arbiter. You may need to send a formal letter inviting the reportee to the meeting, outlining the concerns you have identified and asking them if they want to invite someone who is able to support them. On completion of the meeting, send a summary of what was discussed or agreed. This is a formal record.
- Your respective HR policy will outline the next steps which could lead to either a more serious/elevated warning, or even dismissal.
In all HR cases, the first step is undoubtedly the hardest to take. But, as a leader, the onus is on you to take a stand, display moral courage and set the standard for both behaviour and performance.
If you don't call out bad behaviour or performance, who else will?
In Summary
I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.
Having a difficult conversation with a team member is hard. But you owe it to them and others to report what you see, and call out bad behaviour or performance. To give them a chance to turn themselves around.
Displaying moral courage is what being a leader is all about.
Have a great week!
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