Appraisals are not aircraft journey for elite. Everyone can easily navigate it – Find it how….

Employee always imagines the appraisal process as an international flight trip which is filled with complication. The fact of the matter being, it is an easy process to undergo provided the employee understand the requirements and goes through one step at a time until they successfully complete their journey.

There is always a disconnect between the views of the managers versus the expectations of the employee in an appraisal. Employees keep complaining about their appraisals and curse their managers for ratings. Managers try to put the blame on the bell curve and hide behind it. In order to have a healthy appraisal, one may need to start the pre-work as early, at the start of the year when the goals are announced. The article helps the reader understand the ways to get prepared for the year end appraisal.

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Know your destiny: The destiny refers to the goals to be achieved by the end of the year. Most goal settings even skip one on one discussion. If one such meeting happens, the employee blindly accepts the given goals without any introspection. Having unclear goals is like starting your journey when you are unsure about your destination.

It is the duty of every employee to spend time with their manager to clearly understand the goals. The employee should assess whether the targets set are SMART goals and any ambiguity to be cleared during the goal setting process. This gives a head start to the journey undertaken for the year.

Maintain Check list: A checklist on the documents and things to carry, is a good to have for an international travel.  As one gets prepared for the travel it is a good practice to take stock of the situation midway through the process. Whether the current pace of work will give them enough time to get ready for the travel is to be ascertained. This is exactly done during the midyear review as well. The employee is accessed against each set goals.

The employee should maintain a record of their achievements. A clear track of goals achieved against the set goals to be known by the employee. Self assessment is very important during a review process. It is bad on an employee to expect their manager to access them, when they themselves cannot do a proper assessment of their own self. The better way to start the review process would be to:

•   Narrate their own assessment
•   Targets achieved till date against each goals
•   Plans for the second half of the year
•   Positives in first half of the year and areas of improvement for second half
•   Summary of assessment

Such meticulous update given by an employee will make their managers dumb stuck. You have effectively done your manager’s job easier during the review process. Any Manager will appreciate such a detailed analysis and narrating the positives and areas of improvement will fetch you a thumbs up from your manager.

Carry your documents for the travel: A passenger role does not end with preparing the check list. They should ensure that they carry all the required documents on the day of the travel. This ensures a smooth passage to the international travel. Any lack of proof will lead to rejection or delay in your travel.

The “D” day will finally arrive. It is the day of your performance appraisal. A normal tendency is to go the year end appraisal with empty hand and clogged mind. This results in a tug of war, where both parties want to hold the same end.

The best approach for an appraisal to have documented evidence of the achieved goals. It is better to email these evidences to your manager. If all the achievements are archived into one single email and given as a summary then you would be amongst the few who would be doing that. You may also consider preparing a power point presentation with each slide speaking about every goal set for you. This will make you stand out in the crowd.

An employee who is confident about his achievement will never hesitate to document it. As your Manager handles many employees like you, rather than expecting them to remember your achievements, a neat documentation of your performance will refresh their memories. It will serve as a documentary evidence for your manager to project yourself to the top management.

Instead of whining, start acting smart. You take the first step rather than expecting your manager to do it. After all, it is your appraisal. The above highlighted steps will ensure that you have safe clearance at all counters and you get your boarding pass on time for your journey called “Career”. No more your manager’s can complain on the bell curve when you have such a professional approach. 

These steps assure you that, “You can bend even the bell curve”.

Use this article as Vade Mecum, Even you can “Bend It Like Beckham”