It is befuddling that organizations continue to engage in age-old annual review processes that offer little employee input, are sprinkled with surprise ratings, have barely a discussion about skill development, and contain no clear-cut future success path for the employee. 

While I could state many enhancements to current systems, I will share one area that stands out. No Surprises. Organizations should demand a “no surprises” commitment from the leaders conducting the annual evaluations. There are several items that if executed properly will lead to no surprises come review time:

Coaching. Daily and ongoing coaching is paramount to high level team member performance. For more on this topic please review some of my recent newsletters, newspaper columns, and blog entries.

Informal Quarterly Reviews. Dovetailing on coaching, leaders should consider informal, individual meetings with each of their direct reports on a quarterly basis. These reviews should serve as a compass to ensure that both parties are pointing in the same general direction.

Self-Assessment. Without input from team members the entire review process is a sham. Prior to each quarterly review, request that the team member mark up a copy of their annual performance plan. In this regard, realize that often team members rate their performance more critically than you do.