The idea of performance appraisals is not new at all, but our approach has to be both interesting and motivating in order to get people to do them, and to do them well. There are managers, supervisors, and front-line employees who grumble as the time for appraisals approaches, and who procrastinate about doing them in order to avoid what many of them perceive as additional work or tedious meetings.

Instead, we advocate that you use the appraisal as a time to share highlights of the evaluation period (usually six or 12 months) and to adjust any goals as needed, while working toward the future. Avoid the trap of doing appraisals at the last minute because you have to, and prepare for them throughout the appraisal period so that you don’t have to spend hours at a time writing to prepare for a short meeting. This practice will also help you to remember what happened throughout the appraisal period, so that you do not mistakenly mention things from a previous period, or fall into remembering just what has happened immediately before the appraisal takes place.