I'm not stupid, Stupid!

Performance appraisal times are funny. (Or tragic, depending on which end of the curve you're on). One can sense hope, despair, confidence, and a lot more at the same time. 

There probably isn't a large enough body of knowledge to support it, but it is beyond doubt that not even 5 out of 100 surveyed employees would concede that they have been 'below average' in the past year. Typically, in what's called the Lake Wobegon effect, people tend to believe that they are better than then actually are, especially in comparison with others. 

This 'illusory superiority' doesn't extend only to job performance. Stupid drivers cause accidents, but we're better than them. Stupid people eat junk food and cause their own heart attacks, but we know exactly what works for our respective bodies. The bottomline is - people are stupid, we aren't.

Overall, people tend to believe in their being better at almost everything, as compared to their neighbours, relatives, peers and pretty much everyone else. Hence, except for a small segment of people who are rated at the very top of job performance, there is likely to be significant heartburn among the rest. The 4-raters would believe they were at least 5, the 3-raters would believe they were at least 4, and so on.

Therefore, many organisations face significant employee churn post-appraisal. Or, they find reduced employee engagement among employees who don't get rated as per their own expectations.

An ideal organisation would run much like a (relatively successful) football team. The way a set of 11 players plus substitutes and support functions (i.e. manager, medics, coaches and physios and everyone down to the janitor) come together to achieve a common objective - that of putting the ball in the opposition's goal, is representative of the kind of well-oiled machine that modern enterprises only dream of becoming.

However, what makes a football team tick? What are the key lessons to be learnt from watching a game of football, which could eliminate the Lake Wobegon effect?

1. Instant feedback - The manager is constantly watching performance in real-time and shouting out feedback. There is absolutely no way for a player to believe that he/she is doing a great job, when actually the truth is opposite.

Not to say that managers in organisations should drop everything and bark orders at employees in real-time, but they need to provide feedback in time for an employee to act and fix performance gaps, before they hurt.

2. Awareness of goals - At the outset, it is very clear to each player, what his/her role is - attack/defence/support. Depending on various factors, goals can evolve during the game.

Even in organisations, priorities change. It is important for managers to shift employee goals to stay in tune with organisational and team goals. 

3. Peer feedback - Football players are a vocal lot and a team member not contributing enough to the team cause is likely to get a fair bit of stick from the others, during and after the game.

It is critical for employees to be able to receive multi-rater feedback from peers, seniors, and juniors to identify what they're doing well and what they're not. The smaller their blind spot areas, the higher the chances of success.

Overall, an employee is much less likely to see himself/herself as higher on performance than he/she actually is, if this fact gets communicated during the year (multiple times), instead of right at the end.

Performance differentiation is a reality, and should remain one - to ensure that top performers stay motivated and people who are almost there strive for more. 

(Image source: Joseph Luft, 1969)

Clearly, the further you can reduce the blind area, and encourage the employee to explore the unknown area, the better is the performance you can expect.

After all, in the words of the wise Master Yoda, 

Hard to see, the dark side is

Not impossible, though.

(Cover image source: www.hbr.org)