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I withal remember the first performance review I ever got, even though it's been almost 50 years since Ray Moeller, my start boss at GE, chosen me into his role and handed me a document that he called a "performance appraisal."

I read it. It injure.

On GE'due south and then four-level rating scale, he rated me in the adjacent-to-bottom category. Ray didn't hesitate to point out all the areas in which I, a newbie trainee on GE's Manufacturing Preparation Program, had failed to meet his tough expectations. The review ended with Ray stating that, if he had to do information technology over, he wouldn't rent Dick Grote.

As negative as Ray's appraisal of my performance was, it certainly was accurate. I wasn't doing a good job. I was a contempo college grad who hadn't yet fabricated the emotional transition from the soft world of schoolhouse to the hard earth of work. Ray laid it on the line. My response was to immediately shape up and commencement earning my pay.

I might accept reacted differently if I'd felt the review was inaccurate or unfair. The appraisal would've been far more than painful and frustrating if information technology was off base. How should you respond if your managing director gives you a review that seems off the mark — that leaves out a significant achievement, or is strongly at variance with your own evaluation of the quality of your work?

What Is a Performance Appraisal?

Start by recognizing that a operation appraisement is not a testable, provable, verifiable document that can exist empirically analyzed and confirmed. It's not the end product of a negotiation between assessor and assessee. A performance appraisal is a formal record of a supervisor'south opinion of the quality of an employee'due south work.

The important word hither is opinion. As long as that stance is based on your managing director's honest assessment of how well you have done the job and is uncolored past personal biases and prejudices, the managing director has done the job that is expected of them, and the matter is settled. If the managing director and the employee disagree about the opinion, the manager wins.

A primary source of contention between managers and employees over operation appraisals results from the space human being capacity for self-delusion: We all recall we're amend than nosotros really are. Research has consistently demonstrated that individuals are notoriously inaccurate in assessing the quality of their own performance, and the poorer the performer, the higher (and more inaccurate) the self-assessment is likely to be. So the first step is to accept (as I did nearly 50 years ago) that the boss may in fact be right, and that their stance may indeed exist more accurate than our own.

Your Choices

With that in mind, when deciding whether to challenge a depression rating, you lot've by and large got iii choices:

  1. "My boss may well exist correct. I'm disappointed, but I'm going to take this and brand whatever changes are necessary to justify a higher rating next twelvemonth."
  2. "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! This rating is incorrect, and I'm ready to do whatever it takes to become it changed."
  3. "I'm out of here."

Make the choice clearly and and so proceed. Here's a question you shouldn't ask: "What exercise I need to do so that yous'll rate me as 'Exceeds Expectations' next year?" Your boss tin can't possibly respond that. You're asking them to predict the future. Instead, here's a question you lot should plan to raise later, during a coaching session or informal conversation, subsequently the dust has settled: "Do you see any ways in which I could exist making a more valuable contribution to the team?"

Merely What If the Manager's Opinion Is Wrong?

The easiest performance appraisal problems to become resolved may be those where the manager'southward opinion is based on factually incorrect information. For example, the manager could say "I rated you a three because your overall customer service score was a 74," when in fact your overall customer score was a 98. This may exist a example where the bad data is of sufficient importance to justify challenging the final issue.

Challenging a boss's appraisal, even in a articulate-cut case of bad data, is always a ticklish affair. Be cautious. Information technology's non easy to say to your boss, in whatever words you choose to use, "Yous're incorrect." Don't lose sight of the fact that your boss probably has a pregnant investment in the appraisal you've decided to challenge. For most managers, writing performance appraisals is a fourth dimension-consuming and emotionally backbreaking activity. Your dominate may have had to explicate and justify the rating he gave you in a calibration session with other managers, and a conclusion to alter your rating may force alterations of other employees' ratings, if your visitor follows strict distribution guidelines. Your boss may accept reviewed your appraisal in advance with their boss, and having to get back and admit that they got it incorrect the offset time around is awkward at best. Be sure information technology'due south worth it.

You and Your Team Series

Difficult Conversations

  • 7 Things to Say When a Conversation Turns Negative

Whatever you do, don't endeavor for immediate resolution. Say something at the end of the meeting like: "This assessment comes as a real surprise to me. I'd like to think well-nigh what you've said and written, and peradventure have some other conversation before this becomes official. May I get back to yous in a day or ii?" That lets your dominate know that you're concerned about the accuracy of the evaluation without having to attempt to achieve instant resolution.

Then sleep on it. Agree up a figurative mirror to your past year'southward performance to come across whether your boss's cess might be on target, or at to the lowest degree non so far off the marker that it's worth making a major fuss over.

When you do get back to your boss, do ane of ii things. Acknowledge the fact that getting the assessment served as a significant learning experience (or wake-up call), and ask for their aid in understanding how you tin make a more valuable contribution in the next 12 months. Or tell your boss that y'all have considered the appraisal carefully, and after serious idea you believe that an adjustment of the rating is justified. Produce the evidence and the examples that justify your position, keeping in mind that success — a changed rating — is probably unlikely, regardless of your evidence. As i boss I know put it to a subordinate who was taken aback past a low appraisement rating: "The message you've received from me is exactly what I intended to communicate."

No matter what happens, go along the conversation professional. Your manager is not responsible for your feelings, and your dominate didn't intentionally create the emotional reaction you're experiencing.

One important note: All of this communication assumes that your boss is non incompetent, deliberately lying, or acting with malice. Of form, that'southward not ever the case. If your poor performance appraisement results from the fact that your dominate truly is incompetent, envious of your success, or dishonest, you lot'll demand to make a unlike calculation about your choices. Just, fortunately, those cases are rare.

It'southward understandable to be unhappy, even upset, when you don't concord with your performance review, but proceeding advisedly rather than interim rashly is the best approach — and the one most probable to earn you a more favorable appraisal in the futurity.