Self Appraisals

The posting ‘M.A.D. As A Manager’, got several comments. And these comments showed two things – that this is an extremely important subject, and that there is a lot of room for getting more out of Performance Appraisals. The comments also added more perspectives…the more, the better!

One of the comments suggested that we discuss ‘Self Appraisals’. Here we go, and I am sure this will stimulate more thoughts for all of us to ponder on.

Let us begin by asking what is the purpose of Self Appraisals?

Many a times, we as employees, use it for ‘posturing’, i.e., writing great stuff about ourselves and feeling good about it. There is an inherent belief that if we write something which is not grade A, then the manager may take ‘advantage’ of this and give us a low grade! The other belief, conscious or sub-conscious, is that if we are showing ourselves as the best, it would put pressure on the manager, and he/she would feel compelled to give a good grade to us, because who wants to upset a team member!

Ask any manager, and most will tell you this – that they do have their own assessment about each of their team members, even before they receive the self-appraisals. Please note that managers tend to make continuous judgment about the performance of their team members (they are human too :-) and that this does not depend on self-appraisals that happen once a year anyway. If the manager finds a self appraisal too high compared to their own judgment, they may feel some pressure because the employee is likely to feel upset. So they start thinking about how to convince the employee that their judgment is right. Only rarely would a manager change the rating of an employee due to pressure.

We all know that most companies have a ‘distribution curve’ to which the ratings of a large group must comply to. And this puts a constraint on the manager to irrationally change someone’s rating just because of a highly rated self-appraisal.

The general purpose of Self Appraisal could be seen us getting some form of benefit. It could be in the form of higher rating, recognition, higher role, promotion, reward or award or increase in compensation. These are all subject to the judgment of the manager as discussed above, and may not have a material impact on manager’s decision.

One other benefit could be to use the Self-Appraisal for Introspection, Reflection and Contemplation – sitting quietly, and looking at what worked well and what did not, what I want to achieve and where I want to go, and what changes I can make in myself to increase my chances and speed of reaching there. Such an appraisal would bring excellent results to the employee regardless of what the manager thinks! Because you can actually use you self-appraisal to make things better yourself. And, when a manager sees this type of appraisal, they feel very positive towards the employees and their energies get directed towards helping and enabling the employee in making things better, rather than making a plan to defend their own assessment.

Having looked at data related to tens of thousands of performance appraisals, I have seen that about two-thirds of best performers rate themselves same or lower than their managers! Perhaps, a candid approach to self-appraisals goes a long way in making an employee a best performer!

Being M.A.D. as a Self-Appraiser would certainly give better results in the long term. Why get sidetracked by inflating the self-appraisal, which even if it gives some short term results, will prohibit any long term gains! So the choice perhaps is with all of us in the role of an employee, whether to be M.A.D. or not. If we are M.A.D., we would be Making A Difference to ourselves, and to others around us too. Perhaps this is Leadership too.

As always, you can be M.A.D. too – by sharing your thoughts for everyone to benefit. It would be best if you directly post these on the blog.

What should we discuss next?