Is your annual approach to APPRAISALS bringing real value? Maybe its time to think about G.R.O.W.ing your appraisal system.

“The best teachers are those who tell you where to look — but don’t tell you what to see.” — Alexandra K.Trenfor

Annual Appraisals — Do They Work?

On the 12th August 2015, Accenture — one of the world’s leading professional services companies — made headline news by announcing it was shifting away from traditional annual employee performance reviews and moving its more than 336,000 global employees to a new, more adaptive staff review approach.

APPRAISALS have been around for decades. People still see their value differently. Some view them as a great way to steer workers towards the efficient achievement of personal objectives, sometimes cascading up to a business scorecard that articulates the outcomes the enterprise wants to achieve in the current year. Others see them as an instrument for the worker, to help them grow and become better people and more useful assets. In the corporate world, many organizations link appraisals to staff rewards and bonuses.

I did a quick straw poll recently at a social event, talking to people I know in corporate roles — some managerial, others on the ladder somewhere — and I asked them the obvious question, ‘Are appraisals working in your organization?’ As a fan of professional Human Resources management, the results were at best disappointing, if not down-right depressing! If my straw poll was any test of the broader reality, organizations need to re-think appraisals. I’m not just talking about little tweaks, I mean root-and-branch ‘let’s start from ground-up and debate why we’re doing them at all.’

How realistic is it in a world of matrix management and project based activities that three objectives set on the first week of January will still have currency with the individual or the business by the year-end? GET REAL!

What’s Wrong with Annual Appraisals?

Left to fester, appraisal systems become just another admin burden for managers and workers to fulfill every year. Take my example, working last year for one of the world’s largest tech companies. Sure, I had a list of things to get done in the year for my role (doesn’t everyone?) but I didn’t really need to lean on my manager to get them done much at all. He knew that, with a bit of informal coaching, we could agree on what needed to be done every now and then, discuss the obstacles, work out best ways to move ahead — and we’d get the job done. The annual appraisal? Yep, sure I needed to get it done to receive my bonus. My manager filled in his form on the 10th December and I completed mine on the 12th of December. Another annual appraisal process is done and dusted!

When I work for (or with) companies, I take the G.R.O.W. methodology with me in my kit-bag. And it ALMOST ALWAYS gets adopted by the directors and managers I coach as an alternative to ANNUAL APPRAISALS that works or them.

I’d describe G.R.O.W. as a coaching/mentoring approach. It. was created by ‘someone somewhere’ (people can’t agree) but my take on it is Sir John Whitmore had more to do with applying the approach than anyone else.

For me, G.R.O.W. is about not leading the witness or doing the job of thinking for them. It’s about helping someone to OWN the challenge of setting a goal, establishing what’s preventing them from achieving it, working out what options they have to overcome obstacles, and then determine for themselves (with a bit of guidance) what they’re going to commit to doing about it.

Why Organizations Need to G.R.O.W.

Supervisors, managers and leaders are characterized by their ability to frame a problem, set a goal, overcome obstacles… get the job done! It’s in our DNA. I’m not convinced that everyone can be a leader, but I always work on the basis that they could or might be able to develop these skills with some encouragement. Businesses are desperate for people with leadership skills (at all levels of the enterprise). People WON’T develop leadership skills if you don’t give them the opportunity to think things through for themselves.

Time and again, I hear managers jumping into what are meant to be coaching or mentoring sessions and TELLING their subordinates what to do, how to do it, what to do next. And I get it. Managers want to get the job done and out of the way. Move on. But you’re not helping. That person will never learn unless you give them a chance to step into your shoes and have a go themselves.

G.R.O.W. encourages managers to act as managers. Let me give you my perspectives on the duties of people who are appointed to manage other people.

Your job is NOT to:

• Set your own agenda
• Do the job yourself (that’s not what you’re paid for)
• Tell your people what they should be doing
• To criticize or create a climate of fear ‘to try’ or fear ‘to question’
• Make people feel like they’ve no contribution to make
• Act like you’re a god and they’re just lemmings

Your job is to:

• Get ‘the job’ done
• Ensure the work your team is doing aligns to the desired outcomes of the enterprise
• Set a level playing field and formalize acceptable norms of behavior in the workplace and beyond
• Hire people that want to do the job you have for them because it develops them; ideally people better than you
• Encourage a culture of curiosity where it’s not wrong for people to question the norms of behavior and processes that exist today (to compete organizations must always seek to do better things, not just do things better!)
• Help your reports to grow to be better than you if they’re not already by equipping your people to achieve the goals they commit to
• Create a supportive, nurturing and efficient work environment and culture to encourage the right outcomes
• Offer advice, support, and encouragement when they ask for it
• Give them the energy, stimulus, and encouragement to act

Nothing ever happens in business without a human somewhere committing to take an action. To do that, the human involved has to be motivated to do it. Building motivation is one of the most important duties of a leader.

How the G.R.O.W. Method Drives Workforce Performance

Crudely, G.R.O.W. works like this: The session leader (manager) asks a series of open, thoughtful questions to steer a conversation that encourages the individual concerned to think for themselves, frame their own goals and work out how to achieve them.

It begins with the Goal (G). The Goal is the end point, where the client wants to be. The goal has to be defined in such a way that it is very clear to the client when they have achieved it. The manager has to give the individual the time to think through what their goals are and how to articulate them.

Once this is clear, we move on to the obstacles that are preventing the goal from being achieved, i.e. what is the Reality (R) now? If there weren’t obstacles, then presumably they would’ve achieved the goal by now! We need to help the individual to appreciate those factors that are preventing the outcome being achieved today. (Hint: I always use the phrase — ‘Is there anything else you can tell me about the obstacles you are facing?’ — to really encourage individuals to think deeply about their answer.)

We now move onto the third phase of the discussion, what are the Options (O) being considered to overcome the obstacles.

Finally, we need to gain consensus on the Way (W) forward (although I tend to call this the (W) Wash-up because in England, once you’ve had your meal, you wash-up the dishes!

Almost inevitably, when an individual walks through these steps and knows they’re going to have to do the whole thing again in a couple of weeks, they prepare better for review meetings and claim more personal responsibility for thinking through what they’re being paid to do.

Systemizing G.R.O.W Appraisals

There are several software companies around the world now (examples include www.ustechsolutions.com, www.evoludata.com, www.encanvas.com) that offer made-to-measure G.R.O.W appraisal systems. Creating a tailored solution in this way helps an organization build best practice G.R.O.W. coaching into the business-as-usual for managers across the business, and to tie appraisals into annual remuneration schemes. I for one think this is the way ahead. That said, if you have other opinions on the evolution of appraisal programs, I’d welcome to hear them!

Ian Christian Tomlin is a virtual CMO, strategist and business books author with a track record of leading innovative technology and consulting firms. He works as an independent advisor (www.newtonday.uk) to a number of tech business management teams around the world.