LECTURE 9:APPRAISAL CONTINUED

The purpose of the appraisal should be stated. The appraiser might also wish to
give an indication of duration, though this should not imply that they are in a
hurry to get it over with! A two-way exchange of ideas should be encouraged
from the start. Most appraisers try to get the other person talking as quickly as
possible. This can be highly effective to gauge early signals from the
subordinate. This having been said, the appraiser must control the interview
throughout, to ensure that the objectives are met in full.

The focus should be on strengths, not weaknesses, wherever possible. Good

Sales people may, for example, be awful administrators but the latter
shortcoming might be tolerated as long as minimum standards are met and
excellent sales performance continues. The message should be clear that
everyone has weaknesses which must be acknowledged, but playing primarily to
strengths can attain really effective performance.

If a scoring system is used in the appraisal interview, this should be open so that
both parties are aware of scores given and why this is so. Quantitative systems
will often create differences between people but they are not eliminated by
covering over the information to go on the personnel file.

Whilst focusing on strengths, it is important to bring any perceived shortfalls in

performance into the open so that strategies can be agreed to tackle them.
Targets or standards should be agreed, with frequent less formal review if
necessary. The interview should highlight future expectations of the person in
their job over the next period and also training and development requirements.
This provides vital input in identifying training gaps, some of which will be
unknown to the appraiser. It can also give clues on wider training implications
as what affects this worker might also affect others.

Action points should be recorded and agreed throughout, then summarized at the
end of the interview. The meeting should not conclude until the appraisee has
had the opportunity to raise any other matters. If there is insufficient time to deal
with the main appraisal or the extra matters raised, a further interview can be
arranged.
(c) Giving praise or blame
Praise must be earned. Continuous enthusiasm soon loses its effect. If you
expect (and get) continuous high performance, the occasional comment
acknowledging it is sufficient. What you must do is to praise the exceptional
effort, ingenuity, initiative or
whatever contribution it is which merits the extra recognition and make sure that
you do it at the time and not weeks or months later or worse, not at all.
This kind of appraisal loses nothing by being given informally, rather the
opposite. The recipient gains something in self-respect and the usually the
respect of their fellow workers, if it is overheard. You will gain in status as your
people come to know that you are prepared to recognise and acknowledge good
work openly.

The other aspect of routine appraisal, blame or criticism, needs more careful
handling. Work which is not up to standard also deserves and should be given
prompt recognition. You will only be storing up trouble for yourself if you allow
it to continue and then, much later, start raking up the past.

The first thing you must do is to get this into proper perspective. Mistakes,
carelessness, accidents, errors of judgment, below-par performance do occur.
Sometimes they are willful or due to a “couldn’t care less” attitude. More often
they arise from ignorance, lack of training or experience or some maladjustment
in the person concerned.

In most cases, simply to blame or to criticise, however natural it may seem, is

not going to be your best approach. It will only produce feelings of resentment,
possibly injustice and even fear. What the individual really needs is your help;
help to see what was wrong, why it was wrong and how to avoid it in future.
This may mean that you will have to probe to find out why things went wrong.
For the simple, routine correction of performance that you do as the occasion
arises and which you can handle informally, there is one very significant
difference from recognising good performance. You can usefully do the latter in
public; correction, as far as possible, should always be done in private

What about follow up action and monitoring?

Having made an action plan, it is important that it should be followed through.
This will involve action on the part of both the employee and the supervisor.
This latter point should not be lost sight of, since the absence of action by
management can render the whole process ineffective. Employees often need
support, advice and guidance to achieve new targets, particularly where they are
especially challenging and it is management’s role to ensure that that support is
available. It is better if it is proactive rather than reactive to problems; this
implies monitoring progress on a formal and informal basis, rather than leaving
everything until the next appraisal in perhaps a year’s time.
The action plan may also require management to take action themselves e.g. to
provide training, to make adjustments to job descriptions, to obtain new
equipment, etc. Again, it is important that this action is taken promptly so that
management is seen as carrying out its side of the bargain.
What are the potential problems in the process?:
(a) Personal conflict, bias and non-communication
Appraisal as we have considered it here will only succeed where there is a
mutually trusting, respectful and developmental relationship between the
appraiser and the appraisee. Unfortunately, the two parties are human beings,
with all the faults, preconceptions and idiosyncrasies of individual personality
and subject to the normal problems of being able to communicate effectively!

The problems that may arise from this must be clearly recognised and addressed
within appraisal schemes. Of particular concern is that, where distrust or
antagonism exists between the appraiser and appraisee, there is the potential for
partiality, bias, prejudice, enmity, unfairness and devaluation. Whether such
problems actually exist, or are just perceived to exist, the result is that the
process will be effectively negated. In such cases, there must be the option of
allowing the appraisee to be appraised by someone else; by a “grandparent” or
“step-parent” (as noted above) and for training to be provided for one or both
parties to try and resolve the problems.

The other main area of difficulty arises from personal perceptions, which we
examine elsewhere as barriers to effective communication. The principal
problems in terms of both the interpersonal communication itself and the
recording of outcome are: receptivity, stereotyping, the halo effect and
individual misperceptions such as projection, perceptual defence and self
serving bias. It is not easy to avoid some of these problems but we can and
should be aware of them and the problems they can create for the effectiveness
of appraisal. Every effort should be made to make clear, rational assessments of
people as complete individuals.

(b) Problems of ineffectiveness

The most common grumble levelled at appraisal schemes is that nothing ever
comes of them; no actions are taken, the papers are just filed away and forgotten
and it was all a waste of time.
Unfortunately, many schemes do not have any follow-up and the criticisms are
valid. What a waste of effort and energy! The good scheme will be active, even
proactive, dynamic, progressive, developmental and used.
Appraised staff must be given the training and development identified
(compatible with opportunity and funding). New experience must be offered,
projects completed and additional responsibilities allocated. Opportunities to
meet personal and operational objectives must be created.

MANAGERS NEED TO HAVE APPRAISAL SKILLS:

Managers have a duty to develop individuals and teams for the benefit of the
organisation’s effectiveness. This is one of the crucial elements of effective
leadership (the functional leadership model). Proactive managers set not only
targets for output of their divisions or departments but also people management
targets. In this way the manager facilitates performance as well as development
and continuous learning.

In what ways may the manager act as a facilitator for the enhancement of
performance? We consider here some of the general techniques for working
with others so that they are empowered, informed and enabled to perform
effectively. In the next sections, we examine three specific techniques in more
detail.

Problem-solving
The manager can assist the process of problem solving and hence decision-
taking by involving the team. He should encourage the team to come up with
their own solutions and where possible, their own working methodologies. This
practice can reap rich rewards, as people achieve a greater sense of ownership
by being more involved.

This process is not about abdication. The manager should not just leave the team
to get on with the job and ignore the consequences. To facilitate solutions in an
effective way the manager should support and monitor the team’s progress,
intervening whenever necessary, yet keeping sufficient “distance” to avoid
charges of interference.

Delegation of Authority
Earlier in the course we considered the benefits, as well as some of the risks, of
delegation. Herzberg’s theory teaches us that by giving people the ability to do
things we provide the basis for motivation. Only by then giving them the
opportunity to put their capabilities into practice can we truly motivate people to
achieve. Effective delegation is a skill that can only partially be taught. It is
something that managers learn to do better by putting it into practice.

Career Development
As we have seen, the annual performance appraisal is an ideal opportunity for
the manager to facilitate the positive development of an individual. By
reviewing the person’s current and potential future capabilities, a plan can be
formulated to maximise their contribution to the organisation, as well as make
work a learning and growth experience. The manager should agree targets
mutually with the appraisee and then support and monitor their progress in
attaining those results. Although the appraisal interview is the starting point, it
should not be regarded as the only time when the manager is involved in
personal development of their staff. This should be an on-going feature of the
role of the manager.

Training
Every line manager has a training responsibility. Some of this can be achieved
by formal training programmes, including signing off competencies. A further
tool is coaching and counseling, which we shall consider later in course.

Communication
To achieve business results, effective communication is vital. This is often one-
to-one, sometimes on a team basis.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a creative technique used to generate ideas from a small team,
typically no more than ten people but it can be a useful technique for generating
ideas in a 1:1 situation.

A brainstorming session has the following characteristics:

Preparation
A time should be set for the brainstorming session and a time limit for the
length of the meeting.
The group assembles to develop ideas on a specific issue; this can be new
products or services, or potential solutions to problems affecting their work.
The brainstorming session has to be led, though not necessarily by the
formally appointed team leader.
It is essential to have a flip chart or white board available to record
contributions.

Stage 1
The subject of the brainstorming session is defined and members of the group
are invited to call out ideas. These are charted up, with emphasis on generating
as many ideas as possible.
In this initial stage nothing is ruled out, however strange or unconventional it
may appear.
The list of ideas should be compiled as quickly as possible, allowing no time
for discussion of each one; that comes later.
 By the end of the first stage there should be a long list of ideas on the flip
chart.
Stage 2
The group moves on to eliminate unworkable ideas or those “off the cuff”
suggestions which can be ruled out immediately.
The team leader deletes these from the flip chart, but only after everyone is
satisfied that there is no mileage in moving any of them forward.
This stage calls for slightly more detailed discussion.

Stage 3
There should now be a list of ideas that can be built upon by members of the
team.
These should be examined in detail and action plans developed or
responsibilities allocated for moving things forward.

Brainstorming is a great technique for using the collective power of the

individuals in a group. It gives everyone an equal opportunity to contribute to
the outcome, as well as maximizing the potential for lateral thinking. However,
it has to be carried out in an organised way, if time is not to be wasted on a
lengthy and unproductive session. It is easy for the group to try to “tease out”
ideas too early in the session, or to be dismissive of ideas which might be good
ones.

Cascade
Cascading is a technique used by some organisations with a wide geographical
spread of offices. Under some circumstances it is important to communicate
information so that everyone is aware of a vital piece of intelligence, such as a
competitor’s product launch, as soon as possible.
Cascading is carried out on a “top down” basis, most often by telephone. Senior
management communicates the information initially to a given number of
people at the next level down. These in turn are charged with the responsibility
of communicating the information to the next line, with each person allocated a
fixed number of calls to make. The process can be repeated on a multi-stage
basis as often as necessary. Banks, for example, have used this technique with
messages originated at head office and moved down through regional offices,
branches and sub offices. Once the cascade exercise is complete, the originator
of the message can follow it up with a more formal communication, such as a
memorandum.

This technique has obvious benefits of speed, but suffers all the problems of
indirect communication. The message can be distorted by a large number of
factors, including the tendency for parts to be eliminated (or filtered) or even for
some things to be added which were not part of the original message. When
clarification is sought, the sender of the message may not know the answers.
The need for cascading has been reduced by IT developments such as e-mail,
video conferencing and on-line information systems.

Team Briefing:
This technique was originally pioneered in the 1970s and is today used by many
companies. It can form an important part of team appraisal. Team briefing is a
more formal version of cascade. Again, a “top down” approach is essential
and the end purpose is to enhance the communication process in the
organization. For team briefing to function, it must be possible to break the
whole organization down into small teams of 4-18 (this range is suggested by
the Industrial Society in its team briefing programmes).
Team briefings should be regular; many organizations do this on a monthly
basis. The content of the team brief should focus on four aspects:

Policy
Products
People
Other points.

Team briefings should take place face-to-face, supported by any written

background material. They are ideally short sessions but highly focused. Some
retail companies and financial services organizations can incorporate team
briefings into the half hour per week reserved for “closed for training” sessions.
The team leader has to be directly responsible for their team and trained in
communication skills, as well as in the concept of team briefing itself.

Coaching
Coaching is a form of developing others and managers have a vital role to play
in the development of their staff by operating as a coach. Many managers
accept this as sound common sense and have a genuine desire to play their part
but for a variety of reasons, including time and work pressures, the disapproval
of others or a lack of willingness to break new ground, the desire is not always
converted into reality. However, there are advantages to managers in
persevering to master the technique because it encourages them to assess
their own attitude and practices towards the development of others.

The coaching process:

The process of coaching can be considered under the following headings:
(a) Setting tasks
Tasks should be set that have a specific learning target, which is capable of
being monitored; for example, dates for completion of identifiable parts of the
task, the submission of reports etc. These targets should be appropriate to the
learner’s ability, experience and development needs.
(b) Monitoring progress
Regular meetings should be arranged to discuss what progress is being made
towards achieving the learning targets.

(c) Reviewing performance

When tasks have been completed, a review should be carried out which
addresses questions such as:
What went well?
What went wrong?
How could we improve on this?
What should we do differently another time?
By coaching in this way, trainees should learn how to improve their own
performance in the future.

Skills required:

The skills that are required of a coach include:

The ability to listen to and take notice of, others
An awareness of the feelings and needs of others
The ability to set clear, attainable goals
The ability to help others identify their own strengths and weaknesses
A willingness to be supportive at all times.
Pointers to help managers measure the level of their coaching include:
Recording the time they devote to developing their staff
Whether specific “coaching assignments” or learning opportunities for staff
are planned in advance
Whether staff are allowed to learn by experiences available through normal
(business) activities
How many coaching situations are created
How much of the manager’s own work is done by others during their absence
The level of opportunity for staff to make suggestions for solving their own
work problems.
Assisting others to manage their time more effectively is one way in which
managers can create more space for themselves, which they can then use to train
and coach staff.

How is the manager a coach?:

If we look at the relationship between sports teams or individuals and their
coach, it becomes apparent that a successful team is associated with an effective
coach. If the relationship between the team and the coach is poor then bad
results follow. The same may be said of the relationship between a manager
acting in the role of coach and their work team.
The attributes needed in the manager/coach are a friendly approach, an informed
attitude and an acceptable level of experience, to obtain and retain the necessary
respect and loyalty from their team.

Coaching staff should be an integral part of a manager’s job; whatever the

manager is doing, they are acting as a role model for others. This is especially so
with respect to interpersonal and communication skills.

In the past, the managerial role concentrated on the areas of command and
control but these styles have been superseded by one based on a partnership
being established between manager and managed, that achieves its best results
through collaboration. It is this partnership between a manager and their staff
that empowers teams or individuals to perform to the highest levels of their
competence. Coaching is a process of two-way communication, with its
emphasis not on providing information but on enabling recipients to achieve.
The benefits of good coaching to staff include the provision of opportunities to:

Increase their knowledge

Understand their job more fully
Accept greater responsibility
Be more involved in the decisions that affect their work role.
It is for these reasons that acting as a coach enables a manager to develop a more
fruitful relationship with staff, to the advantage of both themselves and the
organisation for which they work.

Counselling:
Counselling is a key skill. It focuses especially on feelings. Feelings can block
rational decision-making and personal growth. They may be generated by
incidents at work or at home. These feelings dissipate our energy as, for
example, we have a need to understand the direction of our career, or we
struggle with financial problems. Counselling is also a key tool for managing
change. Counselling allows individuals to work through and come to terms
with changes. The British Association of Counselling defines counselling as
“helping people to help themselves”. A way of interpreting this is to see
counselling as a means of helping individuals with personal problems. A
personal problem that overwhelms one person may be only an irritation to
another but the problem is a “gap”. Counselling helps to bridge the “gap”
between the current situation and the desired one. Often problems are more felt
or imagined than real but if they are felt to be a problem then they are a
problem.
Three themes identified by Vaughan on counselling are:
Counselling is a person-to-person form of communication marked by the
development of a subtle emotional understanding, often called “empathy”
It is centred upon one or more problems of the person being counselled (the
“client”)
.
It is free from authoritarian judgments and coercive pressures by the
counsellor. Some of the advantages to managers of using counselling techniques
are:
It is a process that helps people deal realistically with actual and/or imagined
problems that are reducing performance or a sense of well-being.

Counselling can be preventative in that it can be a way of alleviating or

preventing stress.

Helping clients identify feelings, emotions or misconceptions that prevent

them from understanding their situation realistically.

Enabling people to make appropriate choices between strategies.

Counselling techniques:
Different approaches to counselling exist and the approaches of the key schools
of thought are:

Psychoanalytical – Concentrating on the past history and the internal

dynamics of the “psyche”.

Client-centred – Non-directive counselling. The approach places more faith

in and gives more responsibility to the client in problem solving.

Behavioural – Applying principles of learning to the resolution of specific

behaviour.

Cognitive – A belief that people’s problems are created by how they

conceptualise their world. Change the concepts and the feelings will change too.

Affective – This is the Gestalt approach. Pain and distress accumulate and
have to be discharged before the individual can become “whole” again.

A continuum of counselling styles can then be seen. The two extremes are
directive and non-directive counselling. Perhaps the seminal work on the subject
is by Gerald Egan in a book entitled “The Skilled Helper”. Egan’s approach is
person-centred rather than problem-centred. It is often only after trust has been
established that a client will discuss what is really bothering them. The good
helper respects the client for themselves and not for the problems they brings.

(a) Directive counselling:

The process may be seen in terms of three phases. Throughout, the helper must
attend to the client, both physically and psychologically and be “for” the client.
Phase 1: Responding
Client objectives: To explore their own behaviour
To examine their problem Helper skills: Empathy, concreteness, respect,
genuineness.

Phase 2: Stimulating
Client objectives: To seek action-orientated self-understanding
To own the consequences of self-exploration
Helper skills: Advanced empathy, self-disclosure, confrontation, and
immediacy.

Phase 3: Helping to act

Client objectives: To act on their understanding
Helper skills: Suggesting new directions, behavioural support, action
programmes.

(b) Non-directive counselling

Non-directive counselling operates by the client reaching their own decisions.
The counsellor establishes a relationship of trust by empathy and being
authentic. The counsellor can give relevant information about their credibility
and reacts honestly without imposing their own opinions. The counsellor’s task
is to facilitate the client’s own abilities and strengths so that they can experience
the satisfaction of having defined and solved their own problems. The counsellor
can provide additional information on points of fact or in situations where the
client is incapable of generating alternative strategies.

The two phases of non-directive counselling are:

Phase 1: Establish rapport
Reduce anxiety, listen, show empathy, show respect, increase the client’s
selfconfidence, be “for” the client.
Phase 2: Explore the situation
See world through client’s eyes, explore underlying problems, reflect, clarify
and summarise, sensitively confront; if necessary, explore alternative solutions,
allow the client to select the best solution, agree a realistic action plan.
Mentoring:
Closely allied to the role of facilitator is that of mentor. The term “mentoring”
implies a broader role for the manager than just counselling and coaching.
Mentoring involves supporting the employee in a wider sense.
A mentor is someone within the organisation who can guide a trainee in
applying what they have learned during training and then give them feedback on
their performance. The mentor can also act as a role model for the trainee and
become a symbol of what they could achieve in the future. The mentor’s
function includes their being involved in:

Counselling
Guidance and support
Assistance with sources of information.

The activities that they perform include:

Managing – by helping trainees to manage themselves

Encouraging – trainees to achieve their targets
Nurturing – their trainees
Training – where appropriate
Openness – between trainees and themselves
Responsibility – by being responsive to trainees.

Mentoring can provide benefits for both the trainee and the mentor and for the
organization. It helps trainees to find their feet more quickly and to establish a
clear sense of their career path. Some of the benefits include:

For the Trainee For the Mentor:

Improving self-confidence The challenge of guiding a less experienced

employee advice and guidance gaining a different perspective on
the organization access to sources of information. A greater knowledge and
understanding of what is available.

The mentor can help the trainee in a number of different ways, including:
Regularly reviewing the trainee’s progress

Providing opportunities for development, where there are gaps in the trainee’s
experience, knowledge or understanding
 Providing contact with other people or sources of information, or other help
for the trainee.

Mentoring need not take up a lot of time - about ½ hour or so per week can be
very productive - but it provides an important link between training and the
workplace, hence the mentoring role is a very important one.

SELF-APPRAISAL:

So far, we have tended to talk about appraisal as if it is something a manager

does to you. The alternative approach is to see the appraisee as the most
important person in the process and to empower them to carry out the appraisal.
In other words the manager becomes facilitator, asking questions rather than
providing all the answers. The advantages of self appraisal include:

Breaks down appraisee’s inhibitions

Promotes positive discussion
Makes appraisee active rather than passive
Reduces defensive behaviour by the appraisee and promotes openness
Ideas will come from bottom up rather than just top down.

CONTINUOUS APPRAISAL:
We have already looked at the frequency of appraisal but why not make it a
continuous process, with no particular structure? As issues come along the
appraiser and appraise would:

 Set objectives,
 provide resources and review
 Operational example:
 Manager wants a coffee

Identify and assess work related and development related problems

Manager: ‘Chris, is there any coffee left in the machine out there?’

Discuss and settle upon solutions Chris: ‘Of course. Would you like me to
get you one now, or do you want it after your meeting?’

Agree objectives Manager: ‘Oh, now please - milk no sugar.’

Provide resources needed-

Chris: ‘Do you have any tokens?’
Manager: ‘They’re on my desk.’
 Monitor progress -Chris: ‘I have put the coffee on your desk.’

Give feedback and a reward. (Later) Manager: ‘That was a great cup of
coffee - thanks for getting it for me.’

In other words, managers continuously set objectives, provide resources and

give feedback. In which case, why do we need an appraisal scheme? This is one
of the objections to appraisal voiced by managers; ‘I do these things all the time;
I don’t need you to impose a load of paperwork on me to make it happen!’
Others will say, ‘My staff know what I think of them without us needing an
appraisal scheme!’ (this usually means the staff loathe the manager).

The answer lies in distinguishing operational decision making from strategic

decisions. Managers use appraisal skills and techniques all the time; otherwise
they are unlikely to be good line managers. The value of the annual, bi-annual or
quarterly appraisal is to step back from the day to day decision making and take
a wider look at what is happening and what needs to happen in the future if
things are to be done better. In that sense, continuous appraisal is operational
whilst annual appraisal is strategic.