Page 159 - Becoming a Successful Manager

150 BUILDING ON YOUR FOUNDATION

not done well, they can lead to hurt feelings or morale problems.
However, when you approach your staff’s performance reviews
with an attitude of “I am investing in my employees,” it will help
you overlook the drudgery of documentation or the fear of staff
members’ reactions to the process. So, take reviews seriously and

make them beneficial to everyone.

The Importance of

Performance Reviews

As a manager, one of your primary responsibilities is monitoring
progress within your department. Are you meeting quotas? Is pro-
duction on schedule? Has inventory been consistent? When you
measure these business metrics accurately and effectively, you can
take action to correct where necessary, modify where appropriate,

or reinforce where beneficial. Your employees are as important as
any other asset in your business. Therefore, you need to monitor
and nurture them as such. But they have an extra dimension; they
are people with feelings and egos, and they depend on you.
They entrust you to provide guidance and direction to them,
not only in their current role but also in their career. Therefore, to
help them, you to need to track their performance and construc-
tively communicate your fi ndings to them.
Conducting a benefi cial performance review begins with a
plan. You must be clear about what you want to track and how
you are going to track it, and you must confi rm that your results,
observations, and conclusions are correct. The best way to yield
an accurate performance review is to make it a process, not an
event.