conversation. Sometimes the process goes smoothly and some-
times not. More often than not, the appraisal meetings do little
to meet the needs of the employee or the manager and neither
considers them helpful. Or worse, they dread them.
Performance appraisals can be valuable, but not on their
own. In fact, the many benefits of managing and appraising per-
formance are lost when managers focus solely on the appraisal
process or the end point. It’s like driving while looking in the
rearview mirror: you see what’s already past and beyond your
control. If we want to improve performance, we need a forward-
looking process so we preventperformance problems. And we
need some way of harnessing and coordinating the work of indi-
vidual employees so we increase the effectiveness of the work
unit and the company in general. After all, that’s what we really
want—for each employee to contribute to the effectiveness of
the whole.
The secret of success—for organizations, managers, and
employees—is to put more emphasis on making sure every
employee and every manager knows what he or she needs to
accomplish in the present and future. When an employee under-
stands what he or she needs to do to succeed, it’s much easier to
contribute. It’s also much easier for managers to do their jobs, to
improve productivity, and to manage proactively, rather than
have to spend time stamping out small fires after the fact. Clear
purpose helps everyone succeed and, bottom line, that’s what
we all want.
Enter performance goals. Like the bull’s-eye on an archery
target, performance goals specify what the employee needs to
aim at. Let’s look at how they can help.
4Perfect Phrases for Setting Performance Goals