The document provides guidance on how to make performance reviews less stressful for both managers and employees. It recommends that managers lead with positives from the review period, provide objective evidence of progress, and set realistic targets. When delivering criticism, managers should do so in a soft, clear, firm, flexible, critical yet encouraging, and honest but polite manner. The focus should be on specific goals and results to make the process less anxious and more productive. Managers are also advised to collaborate with employees and offer incentives and strategies to achieve targets, while being clear about potential consequences for improvement or exemplary work.

1. MAKING PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
LESS STRESSFUL – FOR EVERYONE
INDIVIDUAL TASK
EMM 219 KNOWLEDGE BASE MANAGEMENT
LECTURER BY ANDRE V WENAS
BY MUHAMMAD HANIF - EMBA MARCH 2015 CLASS

2. Context
Many managers responsible for writing
evaluations view the process as an
unenviable task fraught with the possibility
of miscommunication and misinterpretation
Reviewer often set themselves up for
trouble out of a desire to avoid offending
employee sensibilities

3. Context
Most people are not comfortable being judged
themselves and tend to err on the side of caution when
they have to put their personal assessment of a
colleague in writing.
An Excess of diplomacy can actually produce
consequences just as damaging as those created by an
unduly harsh approach. And turn the process into an
exercise in futility and a time-consuming.

4. Expectation
Valid criticism on performance that deliver in
Soft and clear
Firm and flexible
Critical and encouraging
Honest and polite
Personal and professional
It shall create a positive improvement
Keeping the focus on specific goals and desired results
will make the experience less anxious and more
productive for everyone involved

5. How to achieve that?
Always Lead with the positives
Start out on positive note to makes him/her
receptive to the recommendations for
improvement that follow
Provides objective, tangible evidence of
progress
Create a sense of fair play to make the employee
understands in advance the specific criteria by
which he is being assessed

6. How to achieve that?
Summarise the deliverables and performance
in numbers and checklists and combine it
with the specifics accomplishments. It
include
Personality traits and behaviours that made
those result possible
Greater pride and incentive on the part of
the employee

7. How to achieve that?
The Sky’s not the limit
Stake out realistic targets for the next
evaluation phase.
Communicate and describe in balance specific,
quantifiable objectives, overarching goals
Phase the target with range of potential
accomplishments
Provide an incentive to outperform achievement
Provide and address areas to improve

8. How to achieve that?
Strategies; how to reach the target?
Describe actions, resources and plans of action
in terms as specific as possible
Develop a philosophical overviews for the
concluding summary and set up next review
cycle

9. How to achieve that?
Areas to improve; Collaborate, Don’t Assassinate
1. Emphasise the positive within the negative
2. Couch your criticism in terms of the shared
greater good rather than framing it as a
personal indictment
3. Enlist your employee as an ally in
troubleshooting a vexing issue
4. Offer the employee flexible options in resolving
a shortcoming

10. How to achieve that?
Consequences and Incentives; Offer Carrots, but don’t be
afraid to use a stick
It is reasonable to outline what the future might hold
If there is a largely negative job performance into shape, you should
offer a note of encouragement but state unequivocally the range of
possible outcomes
If there is largely to heap praise on an exemplary employee, this is the
place to focus on incentives and longer-range career development
If there is a mixed bag of accolades and critiques, end it with a brief,
balanced summery
The writing of a review is not to punish nor to dispense empty praise,
but to improve performance so that both the company and the
employee benefit.