Performance interviews should be made illegal

Whether or not you have been working for the same company for 6 months or for 6 years, the moment your performance interview comes up you will feel stressed instead of relieved.

The performance interview only provides an illusion of giving feedback to an employee to drive individual performance.

The actual reason why companies carry out periodic performance interviews with their employees is to check if the employee is still 100% committed to the company.

So, don’t feel mistaken that this interview has anything to do with your personal growth or growing of your individual competencies. It is just to make sure that the employer is still satisfied with you and not the other way around.

“Only 8 per cent of global organisations believe their performance management process is worth the time they put into it. – Josh Bersin”

There is a solution to this problem!

What companies should be doing these days is abandoning performance interviews all together. They should take a step back and rethink what their values are.

When you are aware of your core values, as a leader or entrepreneur, then rethink how you ‘as a person’ would like to be engaged by other people.

In some occasions, I would even say, forget that you are in a leadership role and try to talk to somebody as a real person. What is going on in this person’s life? What are the things that make him/her tick?

You will now have an idea about that person’s characteristics. What is happening in his/her personal life and what motivated him/her to come to work every day.

After understanding these personal things, you can say you are starting to know someone.

At this moment you are in the position to engage with this person. Ask him about his work and if he has a certain thing, he needs help with.

The moment you get to know somebody listening to them will become easier because you can relate to what somebody is telling you. This is the moment the other person also starts to trust you.

You can now start building a coach versus student relationship. As a coach, you will help this person to reflect and grow as an individual.

This process of coaching will have such a positive effect on the employee as a person that can only affect your company in a positive way.

Try to always help your employees and coach them instead of rating them on a piece of paper.

Do you agree?