Could your employees conduct their own performance reviews?

Over the last few weeks I have spoken to several people I respect who are doing a brilliant job in their field of work. A common theme I noted is their underestimating of their own performance. I look at them from the outside and know they are excellent, yet they are filled with self-critique and self-doubt. Many of them are waiting for their line managers to validate their achievements and confirm that they are doing well.

All the people I have spoken to are fully skilled and well able to rate others performance. Why then do they struggle to assess their own performance accurately and fairly?

Partly it is innate human nature, we see our own actions through the lens of our intentions, our feelings, emotions, and thoughts. It is normal and ok to need validation from others.

Another reason is that traditional performance management systems and business hierarchies have been built on the premise that it is the role of other more senior people to be the judge and jury of performance. Whilst this certainly makes some sense, there are flaws in this premise.

How would your employees respond if you turned the ownership on them completely? Gave them the power to rate their own performance?  You might be worried that poor performers would rate themselves too highly, and the control to deal with underperformers would be diminished.

But what is the knock-on effect of this top down approach to your middle and top performers?

According to most performance models, this is likely to be the majority of your people. Good business decisions are made with the correct data to hand and that includes performance and development. Your people will make good decisions about themselves if they have a true understanding of their performance.

Empowering others to measure their own performance well can be done in a variety of ways. Firstly, creating a culture of good quality feedback conversations, in and out of performance review settings.

Secondly approaching performance conversations as coaching opportunities to guide people to know themselves better, rather than being the judge and jury.

Finally, have clear and easy to understand methods of measuring performance. Help them see what you see, what others see and what impact they personally have on the business.

If you have ever sat down to have a difficult performance conversation with someone; and felt the relief when they speak first with exactly what you had been planning to say you will know the value of this approach.

But don’t forget those top performers, sitting there quietly undervaluing themselves. Don’t just tell them how good they are once a year – teach and enable them to know this every day.