Give My Manager Feedback? Are You Serious?

You re-read the email from HR in disbelief: “As part of this year’s performance appraisal process, employees will be asked to evaluate their managers.” As if performance reviews weren’t painful enough; hiding out under your desk sounds more comfortable than giving your boss feedback.

Regardless of how you — or your manager — feel about this new process, you’re both expected to comply. So crawl out from under your desk and get underneath your fear. Better start identifying your assumptions and planning a strategy:

    ·  My manager’s not open to my feedback. It’s hard to know if your input is welcome, since the directive came from HR and not the manager himself. Ideally, your manager would initiate the request and create an environment of safety for your discussion. Absent his doing so, it’s up to you to determine his receptiveness. Ask your manager how he’d prefer to receive your comments. If you sense disengagement, peppering him with constructive feedback will fall on deaf ears or may even be turned against you. Better to play it safe and stick with positive statements. If your manager genuinely supports the process, ask him where he’d like you to focus your feedback —

ü  Is there an area of development he’s working to improve?

ü  Was there a past project he was involved in that could benefit from your input?

Knowing specifically what type of feedback your boss is looking for will help you frame your response in a way that resonates well when delivered.

·        It’s not my role to coach my manager. True, your manager’s boss is primarily responsible for her development. But for organizations using a 360-degree feedback process, gaining a full spectrum of performance insight typically includes direct reports. So now that you’re involved, be sure you understand how the process works:

ü  Will you be asked to complete a manager assessment form?

ü  Will your responses be open or confidential?

ü  Will the feedback be delivered at a skip level or directly to your manager?

ü  Should you expect to have a face-to-face meeting with your manager to present or review your feedback?

Once you have a handle on the process, follow it:

ü  Answer questions honestly and professionally.

ü  Focus responses on your own perceptions and avoid acting as a spokesperson for others.

ü  Use specific examples of performance.

ü  Provide recommendations for improvement if requested, but avoid telling your boss how to do her job.

Your feedback, when combined with others, will help your manager to develop and improve her leadership skills, which ultimately benefits you.

·        Why does my feedback matter, anyway?  In short, because it’s in your best interest to tell your manager how you want to “be managed.” Your manager plays a central role in the company’s performance management process. Beyond just reviewing the performance of his direct reports, he’s also expected to understand the unique motivational triggers of everyone on his team:

ü  What do employees expect from him as a manager?

ü  How does each employee prefer to receive coaching and direction?

ü  How much oversight does the employee need and how can they best be challenged?

By collaboratively participating in an exchange of feedback, you’re improving your chances for a successful and supportive working relationship between you and your manager.

As with any new process, start by getting answers to your questions and understanding the process. You’ll alleviate your fears and be in a better position to focus on feedback that benefits your manager and, ultimately, you.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall — Reflections of Performance: Five tips for writing an effective self-assessment.

There it is — the email invitation from your manager suggesting a date for your next performance appraisal. No sweat, you think. You’ve been killing deadlines and kicking the competition for the past six months. But what’s that last sentence? “A self-assessment should be completed prior to the meeting.”

Unless you’re a practicing narcissist, the idea of assessing one’s own performance leaves most employees either cold or confused. “What if I underrate my performance and negatively influence my manager’s assessment?” “If I toot my own horn, won’t it come off like I’m boasting?”

Employee self-assessments have been widely accepted for some time, and for good reason. Asking employees to evaluate their work against their own standards of performance gives the manager insightful perspective to use when preparing feedback.

Don’t leave employees scratching their heads, not knowing what to expect from the process. Share these best practices to help them reflect honestly and accurately on their performance:

1.      Tap your long-term memory. It’s easy to forget about the accomplishments or learnings from long ago. Cite specific and relevant examples of performance throughout the entire time frame under review.

2.      Be confident. This isn’t the time for modesty. Your manager has asked for specific examples of your performance, so highlight your accomplishments with professionalism and humility, and distinguish between “I” and “we” when referring to team-based assignments.

3.      Request development. Consider areas where you might benefit from additional learning or development. Be prepared to suggest specific training or developmental activities that will improve your performance and help you to contribute in your role.

4.      Focus on results. Present accomplishments that best support the company’s key business drivers. Use objective data for support, such as delivering early on completion dates, bringing costs in under budget or achieving high customer-satisfaction scores.

5.      Stay open minded. Remember that your perception of performance represents a single, biased viewpoint. Self-assessments and performance appraisals rarely align perfectly. Use this as an opportunity to explore and learn from differences of opinion related to your performance. 

Fair, Square and on the Level

Five Tips for Using Calibration to Uncover the Truth of Your Company’s Talent

One of the chief complaints heard from employees working in a pay-for-performance culture centers on questions of fairness: “I’ll never receive the pay increase I deserve because my manager rates tougher than others.”

Sound familiar?

If only Human Resources had an Automatic Calibration Analyzer 3000. Tweak some knobs, flip some switches, and performance could be automatically measured and rewarded across the entire organization. Despite technology advances, such a concept is still a thing of futuristic talent-management fiction.

Human Resources is responsible for creating compensation and reward strategies that are fair, square and on the level in the minds of both business leaders and employees. Including calibration as part of your performance assessment process ensures that similar effort and success receive similar rewards. Follow these five tips for using calibration effectively in your organization:

1. Calibrate across units. Managers should come prepared for the calibration meeting with preliminary ratings and merit recommendations for each of their direct reports and be prepared to defend, or adjust, their decisions against the scrutiny of their peers.

2. Use a facilitator. An unbiased facilitator, such as an HR professional experienced in calibration techniques, keeps the discussions of performance objective, balanced and constructive to the overall process.

3. Dig deep. Insight gained from calibration should extend further than stamping a performance rating on each employee. Take this opportunity to discuss leadership readiness, developmental needs, and explore potential talent gaps or retention concerns.

4. Make it known. Don’t shroud the calibration process in secrecy; keeping the process a mystery only adds to a perception of unfairness or distrust. Make employees aware of the calibration process; yet assure them that any discussions regarding individual performance will remain confidential.

5. Own the results. Since the intent of the calibration discussion is to ensure a level playing field of performance assessment across the organization, adjustments to managers’ initial ratings or merit-pay recommendations may result. Establish ground rules early on asking that managers take full responsibility for communicating appropriately with their employees.

Forget fancy futuristic gizmos; instead, use proven performance calibration techniques to uncover the truth about your organization’s talent.

Focusing a Wide-angle Lens on Performance Assessments

Assessments of talent are important, impactful decisions. Whether they’re used to support work assignments, performance appraisals or succession planning, judgments by others on the measures of our work can leave us either motivated or miffed.

Employees expect, and deserve, performance assessments that are accurate, honest, and provide valid and balanced feedback. But with cross-functional project teams and remote work assignments being the norm today, it’s challenging for managers to have a complete and current view of an individual’s performance at all times.

Using a multi-rater, 360-degree feedback process can equip managers with a wide-angle lens to more effectively evaluate employee performance. A 360-degree appraisal collects information from a variety of people with whom the employee has frequent contact, and assesses the skills, behavior and knowledge of the employee. The insight can then validate, or present contrary evidence to, the manager’s own view of the employee’s performance.

Most talent management experts agree that including a 360-degree feedback process can be a positive addition to a company’s strategy of performance management. But before you swing into action and start soliciting performance feedback, there are best practices to consider — and, of course, land mines to avoid. A 360-degree feedback process that isn’t carefully introduced and implemented has the potential to backfire and deliver a negative blow to employee morale.

Consider the following best practices when designing a 360-degree feedback process for your organization:

• Involve senior leaders — gaining their support to champion the process will build a strong culture of communication and trust.
• Marry the process to the culture of the company — decide early on whether feedback should be open and transparent or remain anonymous.
• Invest in training — for managers and employees alike, be sure everyone understands the process and expectations up front.
• Bridge to development — beyond performance appraisals, link 360-degree feedback to individual development planning.
• Size matters — include enough raters — ideally six, but no more than 10 — to provide a complete and balanced perspective.
• Summarize — if you’re using an anonymous process, provide the employee with broad themes of feedback rather than specific comments.
• Automate the process — an automated 360-degree software solution can bring added efficiency to the entire process.