Today two blogger posted comments on the use of cookie cutter phrases in performance appraisals, references my books, and those of another writer. The two blogs are available along with my very very brief comments:
here and
Below is, again, one of my brief comments. I would LOVE to talk about this issue here on this blog. Seriously. I’ve written two of these “perfect phrases” books having to do with employee goals, and review comments, and I believe you’ll be quite shocked at what I have to say.
Please feel free to ask me questions on this issue. It’s an important one. It’s an issue that gets at the heart of why appraisals fail when done improperly. We NEED to have these conversations.
One of my blog comments:
I’m the author of Perfect Phrases For Performance Reviews. I’d LOVE to discuss this issue, and you’ll be surprised at what I have to say.
However, I think I’ll have to do it on my on blog at http://thetrainingworld.com/wp
The question that needs asking here is why managers and supervisors have bought these books in the MILLIONS. (I’m not exaggerating here), while NOT buying books that will actually help them make the process into something useful for everyone?
I’ve written both. Guess what sells?
I’m on twtter at @bacal (http://twitter.com/rbacal
Do you think there’s a “language” of performance appraisals that your phrase book might serve as the first step toward learning?
Of course, if you’re going to be more than just a “tourist”, you’re going to have to go beyond the phrase book. But it might be a good starting point.
I’m curious about the differences between the types of competencies an organization is looking to measure and the specific phrases you use in an appraisal. It seems to me that if you’ve planned in advance what competencies you want to measure, then these phrases become redundant.
If you’ve decided you want to measure “Attention to detail,” then how many ways are there to say how the employee is doing in that regard?
What I mean is – if you are managing your appraisals such that employees already know what is expected of them, then is it even necessary to come up with this kind of narrative?
First, a disclaimer – I haven’t read the original blog posts, simply because I’m behind a firewall and not allowed to access forums for reasons of information security. So apologies if I’m overlapping previous comments.
Having said that, I’ve been involved with design and deployment of PM for a number of years, and while I dream of the day where every manager can perfectly articulate his/her expectations and feedback, I don’t expect it to ever happen, and believe strongly that phrases, samples and shared statements are tremendously useful.
The analogy we use is greeting cards – is the sentiment less meaningful because someone else wrote the words? At the same time, it’s almost certain that the words in the card don’t capture your precise feelings. If you just grab the nearest card and simply sign your name, that might count as compliance with the process but I wouldn’t count on a big hug from the recipient. (I’m resisting the temptation to spin out the analogy.)
I really like the earlier comment here about managers as “tourists.” (Thanks Milan!) There IS a language of performance, and it reflects and nurtures the relationship between the manager and employee in the context of the organization’s culture.
Let’s help managers past the awkward, “blank page” stage. Our tourist needs to be able to order lunch and find the bathroom before s/he can feel comfortable with the finer points.(And if s/he ends up with fried beetles at the bus station, our tourist is never coming back.)
I would love to see competencies (and their related behaviors, performance statements, yadda yadda) become the organizational lexicon for feedback and coaching, complete with local idiom and individual fluency. Assuming the competency “dictionary” actually reflects the organization – if you are concerned about the impact and utility of phrase books for articulating feedback at the individual level, what about plunking a set of off-the-shelf competencies into an organization as – TA DA! – the definition of successful behavior (and KSAs, all that, before you jump on me with a competency tutorial)?! And we’re back to culture.
Robert, to the question of why so many more phrase books are sold than process books – Individuals can control their own contributions to the process, not necessarily the process itself.
I would be interested in more discussion of “why appraisals fail when not done properly.” I believe the issue is in clarifying what the appraisal is FOR, and hence defining what it means to “fail.”
That’s my nickel’s worth for now.
~ Eleanor
The reason cookie-cutter books sell is people are afraid to engage at a deep level with authentic sharing of ideas and feedback.
Managers are afraid of what will happen if people show emotions such as tears or anger through a genuine discussion – so they prefer to hide behind pre-packaged sanitised comments.
By using someone else’s words they can distance themselves from the impact and pretend that it wasn’t them saying the words. It is just a psychological sleight of hand to make them feel better about the feedback they give.
It is the same issue with experiential leadership learning vs MBA style learning. Experiential is transformational but it shakes psychological foundations – MBA style learning is safer, and as a result has less effect. MBA courses are funded within organisations 100:1 times more than experiential courses for that reason.
Until most organisation cultures support openness, sharing and the messiness of human emotions then cookie cutter books will continue to be your best selling performance review books.