Writing Performance Reviews
Are you in charge of writing any Performance Reviews? If so, remember to think about your own DISC tendencies before putting your thoughts into ink. If you’re a D: Remember to compliment employees on the positives of their performance. Make them feel valued. Think about how they’ve done their job during this period, and not just the final result. Write the review specifically for them, so it doesn’t look like a generic review. If you’re an I: Make sure that you don’t just talk about how great they are. If there are performance issues, concentrate on how you can help them improve and develop. Your relationship can be strengthened as they see your honesty about their performance and your desire to help them succeed. If you’re an S: Make sure you don’t avoid performance issues. It’s not fair to the employee if you don’t address them—they can’t fix it if they don’t know what’s wrong. You are doing them a disservice by not alerting them to things that will hold them back (either from bonuses or from advancing along their career path). If you’re a C: Examine your standards, and make sure they are not unrealistic. Your employees are human and will make mistakes from time to time. If you feel that no one could ever be good enough to receive an Outstanding score in any area, your standards are too high to motivate most employees. (Most employees are more motivated to keep a welldeserved mark than to keep trying to reach an unattainable one.)
--Cynthia Beale www.StecinLeadership.com