Dealing with hard appraisals
YOU HAVE just come out of a meeting where you got chewed based on your performance during the first appraisal period (month, week or year).
While you thought that you would get rated as excellent or good, your boss gave you an average and that too grudgingly. What is your reaction? If it is bitterness and loss of motivation, you are not helping the situation. If you resolve to untangle the situation, plug the loopholes; you could be setting yourself on the road to success.
The boss obviously does not know all the hard work that I did. The management's thinking was coloured by the people who have done some serious kowtowing? I think I need to look for a job in a place where I am more valued'. All these thoughts are natural. But they could distort the reality. You may be right and you may be wrong. Here are some tips to help you handle this stress.
Do not react at first
Take a deep breath. Count to ten, do whatever you want to but do not react. Indulging in a mundane activity can help create distance between you and the immediate situation and can help put things in perspective. Do not become defensive or aggressive. That is what some bosses expect you to do. Do not humour them with the reaction that they expect.
Find out why
Do not react to the rating. Throughout one's career life, one gets evaluated in different ways and receives different rankings. It's part of life. However, be concerned about the chasm between your expectations and what you have received.
This is true because you are then obviously not in sync with what the management expects of you. Try to unearth the reasons why there was a shortfall in your performance. Is there a misunderstanding? Or, is there a flaw in the management's perception?
Be positive
When you make inquiries, do not say, "What did I not do?" Or, what did XYZ do to get a better rating? Instead ask, "What could I have done better?" "How could I have performed better?" If expectations in the interim were set in a different manner, let the management know what the expectations were but in a simple manner. Refrain from shouting, ranting or raving.
Be proactive
Find out what you can do to make it to the level that you think you need to be at. Initiate change in your behaviour and work habits rather than go on the defensive. Be forward focused. Ask your manager how to progress from there.
Make some professional and personal commitments. How can you improve? What can you do more, better and different? Involve your manager in chalking out a new plan for yourself.
Develop an action plan
What do you need to start doing, stop doing and continue doing? More often than not it is just a few small changes in our work strategy that make a large difference. Your work emphasis on certain issues could be inaccurate, in other words you may have to stop certain activities.
You might have to make a new start at a few others and might need to continue the fruitful ones. In an effort to make a new start, do not ignore all the good work that you have done till date. If you have a comfortable rapport with your boss, get inputs from him regarding the action plan.
Set up a mid- term review
A mid- term review helps you in go back to the goals, to what you have achieved and thus helps you get an insight into the appropriateness of your action plan.
There usually emerge some glaring loopholes that can be plugged then and there. Even weekly reviews will help you get a hold on where your performance is headed. At an individual level, one must aim at forming a habit of reviewing one's performance of and on.
A hard performance appraisal can cause a lot of unrest and turmoil at an individual level. It could have serious effects such as loss of motivation, deterioration of workplace interactions and relationships, etc.
However, it is also true that an appraisal that provides you with an insight into your strong and weak points will help you make corrections in your action plans in future. It could provide you with a push in your work life or could make things worse by giving way to bitterness and resentment. Using it to your advantage is contingent on your positive perception of the event.
DEEPSHIKHA MEHTA
faqs@cnkonline.com
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