Chapter 2. What Performance Appraisals Do for You and Your Team
Picture yourself as an archer, your bowstring fully extended and ready to sail an arrow toward the target 50 yards down the range. You carefully aim and let the arrow fly. But this is a different kind of range — you can't see where your arrow actually lands. You have no way of knowing if you hit the target or the bail of hay behind it. As a result, you don't know what to improve, how to improve, if you're actually improving, or whether you need to improve at all. What you do know is that archery is no longer interesting, motivating, or fun.
Welcome to life without performance appraisals.
Note
Everyone needs feedback. Without it, you have no way to learn, grow, and fully reach your potential.
The problem is, many managers see appraisals as annual rituals that drag them and their employees away from their work, seemingly satisfying no one but the human resources department. And this feeling is natural — after all, most businesses haven't taken the time to explain the purpose of appraisals or train their managers in how to conduct them.
Tip
Performance appraisals shouldn't be isolated events that stand starkly removed from the rest of your managerial responsibilities. As a manager, you're communicating with your employees on a regular and frequent basis. You're providing them with assignments, updates, ...
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