n you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not j

A performance appraisal should be the opportunity for a leader in an organisation to set the development opportunities for their employees alight. It should be an invigorating, refreshing occasion.

Admittedly, sometimes it may be a tough experience as some home truths are formally shared about performance and leadership. But it should never, never be a surprise.

Many organizations fail the most rudimentary test of a good performance appraisal system. The system becomes routine. A tick the box exercise that has as much to do about developing people's performance as macroeconomic theory has to do with customer service.

Performance appraisal systems which are routine and more about the system than the systemic and systematic development of people are a failure and should be stopped and overhauled for the good of the organisation.

A good performance appraisal system will have coaching at the heart of its structure and application. If an organisation has not set about teaching their leaders how to coach, it is not serious about having a performance appraisal system.

Not many people are naturally good coaches. They need to be trained. They need to be able to comprehend that the appraisal is not about them but is about the employee. The key to a successful appraisal is having the employee believe they have performance gaps and that rewards will come through closing the gaps. Belief is a powerful motivator.

Belief comes from your upbringing and experiences. However, when you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not ju

y organizations fail the most rudimentary test of a good performance appraisal system. The system becomes routine. A tick the box exercise that has as much to do about developing people's performance as macroeconomic theory has to do with customer service.

Performance appraisal systems which are routine and more about the system than the systemic and systematic development of people are a failure and should be stopped and overhauled for the good of the organisation.

A good performance appraisal system will have coaching at the heart of its structure and application. If an organisation has not set about teaching their leaders how to coach, it is not serious about having a performance appraisal system.

Not many people are naturally good coaches. They need to be trained. They need to be able to comprehend that the appraisal is not about them but is about the employee. The key to a successful appraisal is having the employee believe they have performance gaps and that rewards will come through closing the gaps. Belief is a powerful motivator.

Belief comes from your upbringing and experiences. However, when you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not j

of people are a failure and should be stopped and overhauled for the good of the organisation.

A good performance appraisal system will have coaching at the heart of its structure and application. If an organisation has not set about teaching their leaders how to coach, it is not serious about having a performance appraisal system.

Not many people are naturally good coaches. They need to be trained. They need to be able to comprehend that the appraisal is not about them but is about the employee. The key to a successful appraisal is having the employee believe they have performance gaps and that rewards will come through closing the gaps. Belief is a powerful motivator.

Belief comes from your upbringing and experiences. However, when you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not j

d coaches. They need to be trained. They need to be able to comprehend that the appraisal is not about them but is about the employee. The key to a successful appraisal is having the employee believe they have performance gaps and that rewards will come through closing the gaps. Belief is a powerful motivator.

Belief comes from your upbringing and experiences. However, when you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not j

n you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not just tell them.

A leader must be able to avoid some common pitfalls of appraising performance, including biases, such as wanting people to be similar to me or positive or negative leniency; wanting to give everyone high or low scores.

Attribution; tending to see poor performance more within control of the individual and superior performance as more of an influence of external factors, is another common bias.

The forced bell curve; expecting in any group that there will be some poor employees and some great employees is another common bias.

A good performance system will also have structure that fits the nature of the business. A fast moving industry, such as telecommunications or advertising, may well have formal quarterly appraisal systems. A slower moving industry may have annual appraisal systems.

A common characteristic, however, in all industries is that appraisal must be continuous. Waiting until the annual or quarterly formal approach is not appropriate for the employee, the leader or the organisation.

Whether an employee's performance is below where it needs to be or above where we expect it to be, a leader must give immediate feedback.

When it is below where it needs to be, how can we as leaders have a conversation that says last year's performance was below par and never have told the employee? When that happens it is our performance we should be concerned most about. We have failed to lead and insist on performance until a year later!

When a