Organizations rethink evaluations

I intensely dislike formal workplace evaluations. Created about a generation ago, these subjective ratings have turned out to be one of the most demoralizing aspects of working.

Because I am self-employer writer and speaker, I have escaped the horror of receiving opinions about my talents, or lack thereof, on a yearly basis. But guess what? I get evaluated every time I finish a seminar for a client – sometimes 20 times in a single month. “Your suit is ugly.” “Why don’t you have sugarfree candy?”

“You should tweeze your eyebrows.”

“How come we didn’t get a free lunch?”

“You were supposed to let us out earlier.”

These real-life comments, while important to workshop participants, give me zero information on how to improve.

OK, I did tweeze my eyebrows.

But, for the first part, the occasional negative comments I have received in the past two decades of entrepreneurship have fallen into one of three categories: cruel, cutting and downright hurtful. Hey, I’m just human. I suspect you, too, might feel a bit downcast, or at least flabbergasted, if an anonymous critic told you that the world would be better off if your mother had gotten an abortion.

That comment flung my way in the late 1990s was especially off the wall, considering my mom was a saintly Irish Catholic

who probably never even used the rhythm method of birth control.

What can I tell you? She loved babies.

Considering my mindblowing experiences with evaluations, you can imagine how delighted I am that companies such as Accenture, GE, Microsoft, Neflix and a handful of Chester County firms are rethinking the business equivalent of annual smackdowns.

They’re taking a second look because of recent research that, for the most part, yearly reviews rarely influence employees to make changes other than look for a new job.

Much more persuasive is face-to-face feedback given regularly throughout the year.

If an employee ignores a safety rule by standing on a swivel chair to hang a picture on the wall, for example, that person is most likely to avoid repetition if told on the spot about the dangers of falling.

Bringing up the incident at the end of the year is a colossal waste of time.

“Annual performance reviews are a curse on corporate America,” writes Samuel Culbert at www. ucla.edu. “They serve no good purpose.”

Like any change, the trend away from formal evaluations has not yet caught on with everyone.

More than 50 percent of employers still rely on yearly reviews as their main form of measuring performance, which then becomes the basis for raises and performances. Talk about pressure! “The annual performance review is the modern equivalent of a report card,” writes Caroline M.L. Patten at www.monster. com. “And, if you remember back to your school days, you probably recall anticipating it with a mixture of excitement and anxiety.” Excitement? Ha! Anxiety on steroids is more like it.

Chances are, though, they you may have to deal with institutionalized evaluations for a few years more, especially the newer, supposedly better 360-degree type soliciting opinions from colleagues on a variety of levels.

Here are a few ideas on weathering the not-quiteover phenomenon:

• Prepare yourself. And don’t wait until the last minute. Every Friday, make a list of your accomplishments from the preceding week. Be specific. • • Catalog the who-whatwhen-where-why of your achievements. Forget your mistakes. Someone-onhigh probably is tracking them with mathematical precision, thank you very much. When your evaluation rolls around, use your records to combat incorrect negative information dumped into your quivering lap.

• Analyze the evaluators. Despite the lopsided power inherent in workplace report cards, cling ferociously to your personal power. Refuse to let another human being define you. If an uneducated and unstable acquaintance announced out of the blue that you were dying of cancer, you would have the common sense to reject the unsubstantiated diagnosis. Sometimes, horrific evaluations are just as worthless.

• Consider the questions. In my world, feedback sheets traditionally have asked seminar-goers to rate presenters like me on a five-point scale ranging from “very poor” to “excellent.” Because the latter word often is misinterpreted as “perfect,” I prefer to use “among the best.” I see no reason to put myself at a disadvantage based on vocabulary. If you notice a similar issue in your organization’s terminology, push back on the powers-that-be.

• Stay calm. If you receive a disappointing evaluation at a meeting with one or more bosses, keep your cool. Flying off the handle will make you appear unhinged. Share your concerns in a strong, clear voice free of anger and sarcasm. Then leave the meeting on an upbeat note. Once back in the psychic safety of your workstation, plan your next step.

• Share your angst. As soon as you can, talk about your frustration with a trusted colleague, an outside friend or a beloved family member. Many people will relate. You are not the only person on earth who has left an evaluation riding a roller coaster of conflicting emotions. On one hand, you may feel outraged that your bosses are so wrong about you, On the other, you may feel terrified that they are so right. You have not lost your mind. Your confusion means only that you suffering from postevaluation stress syndrome, a malady officially recognized by the American Psychological Association. At least it should be.

• Search your soul. Even biased evaluations sometimes contain a microchip of truth. Say you received feedback that you need to contribute more at meetings. And you know your shyness often holds you back. In the future, plan to say something – anything – as soon as a facilitator asks for comments. Speaking first at a meeting usually ends an awkward silence and establishes your presence. The practice also eliminates the difficulty of jumping into the conversation once everyone else starts talking at once.

• Look to the future. Take solace that highly structured annual evaluations are fast going the way of fax machines and landline telephones. “In the future, when annual reviews are completely obsolete, managers will have greater influence on a more meaningful relationship with employees,” writes Kris Duggan at www.fastcompany.com. “There will be less fear and resentment among workers facing meaningless evaluations.” So, do you think I should stop tweezing?