might also both review the employee’s job description to see if it
is still accurate and review the appraisal form you will be using in
the meeting. Add preparation elements as you see fit.
Take on a Facilitative Role in Evaluations
During performance appraisals, you want to create a state of
affairs that encourages each employee to evaluate his or her per-
formance. One reason we use performance goals is to make it
easier for employees to do so, during the year and at appraisal
time. So, you need to take on the role of questioner and enabler
rather than judge and jury. That’s not to say you can’t offer opin-
ions, suggestions, and an occasional judgment and it doesn’t
mean you have to agree with the employee’s self-evaluation. It
means that your starting point in evaluations is to ask the
employee to assess how well he or she has have done in achiev-
ing his or her goals.
Base Discussions on the Performance Goals
Since you’ve gone to the trouble of creating performance goals,
use them. Most of the discussions during performance appraisal
should relate directly to whether the employee has achieved his
or her goals and what factors have impeded or helped. That
means that you shouldn’t introduce extraneous observations
about performance during the performance appraisal meeting.
It’s not fair, for example, to criticize an employee for doing or not
doing something, when there is no reference to that thing in his
or her performance goals.
Focus on the Discussion, Not the Form
While you may be responsible for completing an evaluation
form, don’t let that drive the appraisal process. Remember that
the ultimate purpose of the whole thing is to improve perform-
27Getting the Most from Performance Goals