AFS Consulting

a formal performance review process is still critical to organization effectiveness, but maybe not for everyone, especially if pay is not linked to performance

Performance reviews of the CEO by his/her chair, especially under ‘Carver’ governance rules, is often flawed in at least two ways:
First, the performance of the ED often is undifferentiated from the performance of the agency as a whole.
Second, the adequacy of the information upon which a judgment must be based.

Despite the criticism of the annual performance review ritual, employees still want to know, on the record, where they stand. This is especially true for any employee in a management or leadership position. As my friend Donna Morris describes the Check-In system in Adobe, there is a case to be

For years, performance reviews have been criticized. There is a current movement in the literature decrying the annual performance review ritual as archaic and ineffective, irrelevant, and possibly even counterproductive . This despite the fact that employees frequently report in surveys that they lack adequate feedback on their performance and behaviour.

And it’s unfortunate. Because the annual performance review is a key event in the ongoing cycle of managing expectations.

It comprises four components: …