Appraising Performance: The Slideshow

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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 18, July 2004

Imagine your vacation: seeing sights, appreciating nature, trying new activities, taking part in fresh adventures. If you’re like many vacationers, you travel with family members or friends, and you take photos. Once back at home, you enjoy reviewing your photos with your travel companions—perhaps in a slideshow of shared experiences.

That slideshow is our model for appraising performance. It's a no-stress meaningful, well-planned get-together that features the highlights of a certain period.

Here are five guidelines for performance appraisal discussions (and slideshows).

Guideline 1: Be Specific and Descriptive.

• Imagine a slideshow with nondescript images—a "generic" hillside, an unidentified cathedral, a mystery animal, a blurred tree branch. A participant in a slideshow like that might leave untouched, unimpressed, and with little clear information about your vacation. In contrast, a slideshow with specific, vivid, identified images would make a clear impression.
  
• Like slideshows, performance appraisal discussions come alive with specifics. Effective discussions include specific facts that support conclusions and point to suggestions for improvement. They avoid unsupported, vague comments. They are clear and descriptive.

Guideline 2: No Surprises.

• Imagine showing your travel companions slides of sights they knew nothing about, even though they traveled with you. They might react with disbelief and some annoyance, asking, “When did that happen? Why didn’t you tell me about it? Why wasn’t I included?”
  
• The same is true in a performance appraisal discussion. It should be a review, not a revelation. Make sure it is a discussion of events and feedback that you and the employee have already shared. It can be very destructive to save up feedback—particularly constructive comments—to deliver in a dump during the appraisal discussion.

Guideline 3: When in Doubt, Leave It Out!

• Many of us have sat through slideshows in which the presenter dithered back and forth: “This was taken at Orlando—no it was Anaheim. No, Disney World. I’m not sure. No, I know—it was definitely Sea World.” These kinds of comments ruin the experience. The audience may become numb or may argue about the subject of the slide. The rule for slideshows should be “When in doubt, leave it out.”

That advice is essential in performance appraisal discussions. If you aren’t sure of a “fact,” don’t mention it. If you don’t know the source of a complaint, leave it out. If your feedback is based on hearsay, don’t say it and don’t consider it. If you don’t know whether you told an employee about a certain job expectation, don’t evaluate on it.

• You must be 100 percent confident that comments you make in an appraisal are accurate and factual.

Guideline 4: Encourage and welcome participation.

• If you traveled with other people, you would count on and appreciate their full participation in a discussion of your trip. You would invite them to bring photos, memorabilia, notes, and memories to the slideshow event. Certainly it would be strange to ask or expect them to come unprepared, keep quiet, listen docilely, and agree with your statements.
  
• Like the slideshow, the performance appraisal discussion should be a lively exchange. Create the expectation that the employee should come prepared and participate fully. Encourage the employee to complete a self-appraisal, review the job description and goals, and list his or her strengths, accomplishments, and challenges.
  
• Allow plenty of uninterrupted time for the conversation, just as you would for a slideshow with friends and family.

Guideline 5: Link expectations with results.

• Talking about your travels, you would be likely to use a chronological or thematic approach rather than a haphazard one. For example, you might talk about and illustrate the demanding trails you hiked or the marvelous museums you visited. No doubt, you would talk about what you had expected the terrain, people, or culture to be like and what you actually experienced. You might also think about what you hope to do differently on your next vacation.
  
• In performance appraisal discussions, it’s also important to examine important themes and to make the link between expectations and results. When you do, employees see the connection between job standards, team and individual goals, and the results they achieve. They see more clearly how their performance contributes to the success of the organization.
  
• Linking expectations with results also helps employees recognize what they want and need to do differently. It helps them set new performance goals.

More on Slideshows and Performance Appraisals

• The balanced approach. Can you envision a slideshow that focused on the negative aspects of a trip, touching only fleetingly on the positive parts? It’s hard to imagine enduring that discussion.

The same holds true for performance appraisal discussions that discount accomplishments while zeroing in on areas for improvement. Employees need acknowledgment of what they are doing well, along with their areas for development. It’s easy for supervisors to be influenced by a “horns or halo” effect, but employee behavior is usually more complex.

• Seeing the whole. Another slideshow that’s hard to imagine is one that focused on only the very end of a vacation, for example, the day before flying home. Participating in that show, you would wonder, But what about the rest of the time?

Although recent events are usually more vivid and easier to remember, it’s crucial that supervisors and employees talk about the entire performance period. Just as snapshots taken over several weeks are more revealing than a video snippet from one event, a review of the entire performance period gives a clearer picture of how the employee is doing.

Planning Your Performance Appraisal Discussion

• The next time you plan to meet with an employee for a performance appraisal discussion, take some hints from effective slideshows. Think about the positive event you want the discussion to be for you and the employee. Review the five guidelines. Gather data just as you would gather photos, mementos, and notes. Solicit the employee’s involvement. Prepare. Rehearse. Then get together and have a productive, meaningful review of the performance period. Don’t forget to set goals and expectations for the next trip—that is, the next performance period.

Note: This article is based in part on the NetSpeed Leadership module Appraising Performance. The module also features experiential exercises, discussion, and practice on key topics: best and worst appraisals, writing effective appraisal comments, choosing reliable sources of information, preparing for the discussion, sharing constructive feedback, and using a six-step model to conduct performance appraisal meetings.

Contact us for more information about Appraising Performance at your company.