November 10, 2010

Credit Union Management’s online-only “NextGen Know-How” column runs the second Wednesday of every month.

Think back to your first performance evaluation as an employee. Chances are you weren’t jumping for joy to sit down with your manager to receive your evaluation. My first performance evaluation was just out of college at my first professional job. When my manager set up a meeting to conduct the evaluation, I dreaded it and felt nervous for days. I didn’t know what to expect. What was he going to say? What if he said I was doing a poor job? Even though that performance evaluation turned out great, I still felt nervous every year in anticipation of the meeting, no matter where I was working.

When I work with credit union leaders, one of the biggest complaints I hear from managers is that they hate writing performance evaluations. Managers dislike giving them and employees hate receiving them. Not only are they time consuming for managers, they can often feel uncomfortable to discuss with the employee. There is anxiety around how to handle giving honest feedback and assessing another person’s performance. This anxiety also extends to the employee who feels like he’s in the spotlight and doesn’t know what to expect. The result of this anxiety is that, more times than not, managers avoid giving constructive, honest feedback, and instead choose silence. This begins a cycle of managers not being honest with employees and employees not having the appropriate feedback to learn and grow.

As a leader, delivering performance feedback is one of your most important responsibilities. It may seem like an unpleasant task, but honest feedback can improve your employee’s performance and develop them into even better workers. You will only be a great leader if you consistently engage your employees in honest dialog for the sake of improving individual and organizational performance. For employees, receiving feedback can enhance their career and make their job more rewarding. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow their knowledge and skills and to take on more challenging roles.

Think back to when you were an employee. Would you have preferred your manager to provide you with no feedback, or to be honest and give you feedback that you could apply to be an even better performer? Feedback is a gift you give your employees.

Below are nine tips for effective performance evaluations:

Be honest. As an HR executive, I saw many performance evaluations that were “flowery” and didn’t provide specific, constructive feedback. Many managers are afraid of the employee’s reaction, so they omit anything negative. Being honest doesn’t mean being brutal. You can discuss development opportunities and needed improvements with employees in a respectful way. Ignoring problems will never make them go away. Being honest allows you both to confront the issues head on and develop a plan of action for improvement and support. And by all means, give positive feedback as well! Employees need to know when they are doing a great job too.

Feedback should be ongoing. Performance evaluations should not be a once-a-year event. Most managers wait until the credit union’s formal performance evaluation time to gather data and meet with employees. Meeting with your employees on a regular basis will not only make your job easier, but it will allow for ongoing development and discussion for improved performance. The formal evaluation process will be much more pleasant for all parties if you are regularly engaging with your employees and providing them with positive feedback and areas for improvement.

Provide the evaluation before the meeting. Don’t wait until the formal annual evaluation meeting to give the paper evaluation to the employee. Not only is this uncomfortable for him, it doesn’t allow the employee to absorb the information and reflect honestly. Give the employee a chance to read the information and come to the meeting with well thought out questions and comments.

Talk less, listen more. Many managers feel pressure going into a performance evaluation meeting because they feel they need to “direct” the meeting. The evaluation is not about you—it’s about the employee. Rather than go in with a take-charge mentality, go in with a mindset of curiosity. Allow there to be back-and-forth dialog rather than a one-way lecture. Ask the employee questions to bring out her thoughts and ideas.

Ask questions. Instead of “presenting” the evaluation to your employee, ask questions to open up the dialog and create an engaging discussion. Some examples of questions could be:

• What did you think of the evaluation?
• How might you improve in this area going forward?
• Where do you see your growth opportunities in the next year?
• In what areas do you feel you excel?
• What can I do as your manager to better support you?

Asking questions allows for a more honest dialog where the employee feels part of the process. It also takes the pressure off you as the manager to “fix” problems or come up with solutions on your own.

Focus on behaviors, not the person. When articulating development opportunities, focus on behaviors, not the employee. For example, instead of saying, “You are always late and I can’t trust you” say, “In the past month, you have arrived late six times and I am concerned about the impact on the team. What’s going on?” Following up with a question prompts the employee to respond and explain.

Develop options and goals together. Instead of writing future goals and improvement areas in the evaluation ahead of time, come to the meeting with your thoughts and open it up for discussion. Ask the employee what ideas she has for improvement and brainstorm together. Let her know once you develop the options and goals, that you will add them to the formal evaluation. This allows the employee to be part of the process, which will ensure you get her buy-in.

Define key result areas. Take some time in the meeting to discuss the key result areas for the coming year. What areas should the employee focus on that relate to the strategic and departmental goals? Lay the groundwork for the coming year by being clear about goals and expectations. Ask the employee questions to gather his ideas for meeting the goals. Make sure you come to agreement on specific, measurable performance outcomes.

End on a positive note. No matter what the content of the meeting, end by offering your support and encouragement. Let the employee know that you are confident she will accomplish the goals and actions you jointly identified in the evaluation. Reinforce that you are available to support and guide the employee in reaching the goals.

One of the most important areas you can focus on as a leader is employee development. Taking the time to regularly meet with your employees to provide support and feedback will yield excellent results. Your job will become easier when you develop an ongoing relationship with each employee. You will also build a reputation in the credit union for developing exceptional talent and position yourself for greater opportunities.

Laurie J. Maddalena,  MBA, CPCC, PHR,  is a certified executive coach, consultant and founder of Envision Excellence, LLC, Rockville, Md. She was also an HR executive at a $450 million credit union. Contact her at 240.605.7940.