It’s the year end time and most of you might be preparing for your performance appraisal and some of you might have already finished it at this time. Getting your self appraisal done and finishing your team members appraisal. Busy times.

Well, how did it go? After all, the year long effort has been validated and summarized in 15 minutes of discussion! And if you think it is just a matter of entering some feedback in the system then that is why your Performance Management sucks and your employees don’t give a damn about it especially if your feedback doesn’t make any sense! And it won’t boost productivity at any cost.

Your employees deserve more than a one day of judgement. They expect you to be their mentor or coach who provides constructive feedback that inspires them do better. They want you to be more transparent and help them succeed in their career.

Now, if you want to reap productivity out of your Performance Management process then I would suggest you this:

Continuous Feedback for improvement

You know what I laugh about!  Managers who say during the appraisal time that ‘you were outstanding and you did everything perfectly except this one single thing that you need to improve on. And if you work on that one single skill I see you becoming a top performer next year’! Come on! What is the point when you are not helping your employees by showing them what needs to be rectified when a mistake is done? And you saying it after a few months or at the end of the year is not of any great use. Feedback should be constructive and continuous and doesn’t need to wait for the appraisal time to come around to help your employees work on it.

Trust your team

Productivity doesn’t increase when you dictate every single step and don’t give a chance for your employees to stand on their feet. Get out of their way, and trust your team that they will do what it takes to get the work done. Appreciate their ideas and encourage them to get to results in their own ways. Showing that you trust your team makes them take the ownership and become more accountable and loyal too. Which obviously leads to better performance!

Communicate often

Again and again don’t wait for the stage to be set for appreciating one’s achievement or sharing updates with your team. Share openly! Communicate what level of outcome you expect from your team, how their work contributes to the business and how you as a team can work together to achieve a group goal. You need to welcome their ideas and suggestions & involve them in the decision making process as well. As much as you roll up your sleeves and describe what went wrong you need to be a mentor who can help them achieve their career goals.