Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

  • Rosa’s Books
  • ManagingWithAloha.com
  • RosaSay.com

It’s time to retire your annual Performance Appraisals

July 26, 2005 by Rosa Say

Simply stop doing them. Discontinue them in your company, and seize your opportunity to simultaneously reinvent any system or process that is tied to them.

Lisa Haneberg is doing a week’s study of the automatic-pilot folly we call the Annual Performance Review. She’s calling it Escape Performance Appraisal Week at Management Craft!

This morning she posted Part 2, and I could barely contain myself in adding my own comment. In part I said,

“Oh Lisa, you are so right about this! I’m dragging my soapbox over and putting it next to yours so we can broadcast this louder and in all directions.”

So that’s what I’m doing!

The beginning of Lisa’s article today says it all for me:

“We should not employ performance appraisal systems that only the BEST managers and leader can make worthwhile.”

I’ve done the Annual Performance Review in a number of different companies, and the entire process is grueling for everyone involved – even for that manager and leader who makes the best of it. Like Lisa, I have yet to uncover a good reason we persist in keeping the process at all.

In response to Lisa’s series, Adrian Savage wrote an article on The Coyote Within that highlights how the mismatch of values between boss and subordinate complicates the review process even more so. If you are a boss ready to prepare yet another appraisal for someone, I strongly encourage you to read what Adrian has written (2010 update: Unfortunately, I can no longer locate this article online, but do think about the next sentence…) Within his post, Adrian asks if the real cause of performance appraisals are simply to assure compliance. It’s a question every boss doing an appraisal should honestly be asking themselves.

In Managing with Aloha I do have a section about how to conduct a better Performance Review if this is a process so ingrained within your company you have no choice but to live with it. It’s in the chapter on ‘Imi ola, to seek life in its highest form, for in the Managing with Aloha work culture we connect the Annual Performance Review with the professional mission statement and with the setting of goals and objectives. However I readily admit my suggestions in that section are to help you make the best of what has been a sacred cow kind of process, so you can be that BEST manager and leader Lisa referred to here:

“A great manager or leader might actually find that their performance appraisals are not a drudgery and their people do not dread them. But here is the point – that’s not because of the system, it is because the leader or manager has created an environment where open and trusting conversations happen as a matter of course. In this case, having to go through the appraisal may not feel much different than most other conversations.”

If you are the decision maker with the authority to own this decision, be bold and do the right thing: Retire the Performance Appraisal process in your company once and for all.

Filed Under: MWA Key 7: Strengths Management Tagged With: annual appraisals, performance

Comments

  1. Management Craft says

    July 27, 2005 at 12:00 am

    Scrap Performance Appraisals – Part 3

    Yeehaaww! I’m stirring up the blogsphere a bit. I’d like to start this post off by acknowledging the folks who have linked to this series and offered their own spin on the topic of performance appraisals: Rosa over at Talking

Search Talking Story your way

RSS Current Articles at Managing with Aloha:

  • Mana‘o pu‘u wai: What the Heart Wants
  • 7 Business Themes for 2019
  • Rapid Fire Learning: Guilt is a worthless emotion—or is it?
  • Ho‘ohana: The Founder’s Mindset
  • Financial Literacy Revisited: You and Your Income
  • Sunday Mālama: Are your projects and your ideas in sync?
  • Sequential and Consequential Mahalo

Search Talking Story by Category

Talking Story Article Archives

  • July 2016 (1)
  • April 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (6)
  • February 2012 (6)
  • January 2012 (10)
  • December 2011 (1)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • October 2011 (17)
  • September 2011 (8)
  • August 2011 (6)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (12)
  • March 2011 (16)
  • February 2011 (16)
  • January 2011 (23)
  • December 2010 (4)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (4)
  • August 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (4)
  • June 2010 (13)
  • May 2010 (17)
  • April 2010 (18)
  • March 2010 (13)
  • February 2010 (18)
  • January 2010 (16)
  • December 2009 (12)
  • November 2009 (15)
  • October 2009 (20)
  • September 2009 (20)
  • August 2009 (17)
  • July 2009 (16)
  • June 2009 (13)
  • May 2009 (3)
  • April 2009 (19)
  • March 2009 (18)
  • February 2009 (21)
  • January 2009 (26)
  • December 2008 (31)
  • November 2008 (19)
  • October 2008 (8)
  • September 2008 (11)
  • August 2008 (11)
  • July 2008 (10)
  • June 2008 (16)
  • May 2008 (1)
  • March 2008 (17)
  • February 2008 (24)
  • January 2008 (13)
  • December 2007 (10)
  • November 2007 (6)
  • July 2007 (27)
  • June 2007 (23)
  • May 2007 (13)
  • April 2007 (19)
  • March 2007 (17)
  • February 2007 (14)
  • January 2007 (15)
  • December 2006 (14)
  • November 2006 (16)
  • October 2006 (13)
  • September 2006 (29)
  • August 2006 (14)
  • July 2006 (19)
  • June 2006 (19)
  • May 2006 (12)
  • April 2006 (11)
  • March 2006 (14)
  • February 2006 (14)
  • January 2006 (7)
  • December 2005 (15)
  • November 2005 (27)
  • October 2005 (22)
  • September 2005 (38)
  • August 2005 (31)
  • July 2005 (34)
  • June 2005 (32)
  • May 2005 (27)
  • April 2005 (28)
  • March 2005 (36)
  • February 2005 (33)
  • January 2005 (35)
  • December 2004 (13)
  • November 2004 (24)
  • October 2004 (22)
  • September 2004 (28)
  • August 2004 (8)

Copyright © 2019 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in