How to Hold Winning Appraisals
When you sit down with your team members for their annual appraisal, what’s your first question?
Managers often start with: “So, what would you like to achieve next year?”
That’s a big question. Faced with that enormity, many people go blank. Even long-term team members who know what to expect. Especially if they don’t know what the company’s next year’s objectives are.
Providing appraisal forms a week or so prior to the appraisal gives people an idea of what will be discussed and time to consider the questions. One question could be: ‘What have you achieved this year?’, helping them consider where their milestones were and setting expectations.
Using that approach alongside my step-by-step process will help the appraisal go well. Your coaching skills will also help people feel heard, supported and understood.
Step One – The Coaching Session
- Use open questions that need more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer whenever possible. *
- Begin with some small talk. This is a great opportunity to get to know people and build trust levels, especially if you have a large team and little time to spend with individuals.
- Often, managers forget to reference previously agreed goals. This can be frustrating for people. So, check your notes on their last appraisal, forming your questions around them.
- Ask about their successes:
- What’s gone well since their last appraisal?
- What did they do that they’re proud of? Relate this to the goals set in the last appraisal.
Discussing the achievements they’re proud of starts the meeting off on a positive, motivational note. This coaching style gets them in a relaxed mindset, eventually becoming open to talking about areas that may need improvement.
Step Two – The Coaching Session
As leaders, we have a duty of care to our staff to ensure their wellbeing is good.
Using open questions again, ask if they have any concerns about work or at home. This is important if they are noticeably stressed.
Avoid the word ‘struggling’ — ‘concerns’ is less negative. If work is a concern, that should be straightforward to solve. But if there are stresses at home, ask how you can support them. Help could involve financial or health advice via your EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) or allowing flexitime to help with a family issue.
Your employees’ purpose may be linked to their inspirations or concerns. Perhaps they’re keen to rise the career ladder but perceive obstacles. Or maybe they want to book a once-in-a-lifetime family cruise, build a conservatory, or buy a new car, and need to know there are opportunities to earn more, or that their jobs are safe.
People can be inspired to want something — a promotion or a cruise — but may not feel motivated to achieve it. That’s why finding that motivation is essential for our success as individuals, in teams, and within our organisations.
And where does motivation come from? Your purpose. That indicates where your efforts are needed.
But what if your people don’t know what their personal purpose is?
That’s why I designed my Purpose Triangle. To help your team define their purpose, email me and I’ll send you my PDF: ian@ianrose.co.uk.
Step Three — How to Set Goals
As you guide people through the company objectives, considering both the long-term and short-term goals, ask open questions about their own aspirations.
1. Long-term goal: what they need to do to achieve the main objective of your team or the organisation.
2. Short-term goal: break that long-term goal down into manageable chunks. Set up regular check-in conversations — monthly, weekly, or whatever works for you. Create motivational goals that relate to:
- getting the job done
- the issues that keep them awake at night
- making them feel proud of their achievement
3. Each goal has a 3-step process:
- By when? The date of your next check-in conversation, or a specific project start date.
- What will I achieve? A tangible result, e.g. 100 calls a week to prospective new clients.
- So that a positive result and feeling are received, e.g. a list of potential leads, feeling proud, and sleeping better.
Goal setting is primarily for the good of the company. But when goals are personalised, that helps the individual, too. As their skills improve and their career progresses, concerns reduce, and the company benefits from their loyalty and expertise.
Step Four — What does success look like?
Depending on the goal, success could be 10 new customers or 10 new leads to hand to the sales department. Success might be a pay rise or career progression. Or even less stress.
But how do you measure less stress? It may be sleeping better at night, more time with family, or improved work/life balance. Reduced stress is obvious when your mood is improved, you’re relaxed and less snappy with people.
There are many ways to measure less stress. But everyone’s different. It doesn’t happen overnight. Often, it takes others to notice that you’re less stressed and succeeding in your ambitions.
In summary…
Motivate and relax people first by discussing their successes. That provides the chance to have open conversations about what hasn’t gone so well. In turn, this helps them see a clear pathway to improvement in line with their expected goals and objectives.
This way, everyone wins – the individual, the team, and the organisation.
* Need some guidance on how to ask quality questions? Then email me for a copy of my Grow Model technique.
