Appraisals...

The last time I posted about appraisals, I was discussing about my birthday and how I review the past year. This time, my sharing is about the appraisals which happen in the corporate world.
This is the time of the year when you can see drastic changes in the atmosphere of any organisation. After the appraisals are out, you can easily categorise the entire population into 2 groups - the ones who are smiling and the ones who are not.

Lets use this post to look at things from a different angle, understand things better, understand how people think, understand how to handle success and rejections, find answers as a manager, find answers as a team member and maybe find some peace in the process.

Before complaining about how your appraisal went, have you ever placed yourself in your manager's shoes?Those of my readers who have been in any senior position will agree that Annual appraisals are a more stressful period for the managers / HR than the employees themselves.  Infact, in my earlier job, I was always more scared about the appraisals which I had to do for my team, and not so much worried about my own appraisal. After all I was made responsible for their growth.

Just imagine the kind of questions a manager would have to answer within his head before he takes a decision on anybody's appraisal. For every single team member, the manager has to ask:
What has he done during the year?
Where does he need to improve?
Has he contributed enough to justify a promotion?
If not, do I see enough promise to justify a promotion?
If I take a risk and give him a promotion, will he be able to rise up to it?
If I don't give him a growth, how will it affect his career path and future?
What are the HR risks associated with promoting / not promoting him?
How will I handle a peer comparison?
All these guys are equally good but I have only limited promotions... what do I do?
And so many more questions which can take agonizing hours to resolve...
Trust me... most of the time it is much more than just having a list of names and writing % in front of them.

Now, lets look at it as a team member:
All of us expect to grow on the job... get promotions, receive increments etc. but what we need to understand is that promotions and increments are not something that comes by default. Just the fact that I have stayed in the organisation for so many years doesn't mean I am eligible for promotions. Just because inflation is growing at 13% doesn't mean that I should have to grow at that rate.
If I have not received a growth in this year's appraisals, I have one of the 3 options:
I can sulk about it and complain with every other person about it.
I can take it quietly and just continue to live my life as it is.
Or, I can have a frank discussion with my manager about it.
Now, be careful, frank discussion doesn't mean walking into your manager's cabin and asking "Why didn't I get a promotion"
What I'm going to tell is something I have done before and it has given me results, everytime I missed a promotion or an opportunity, I meet my senior and ask him these questions:
1. I was expecting a certain growth because I have achieved so much so much during the year. For some reason I didn't get it. I want to make sure I get it next year. For that, what do I need to do.
2. I want to be at this level in 1 year's time, what do you want me to do in order to achieve that.
3. What are the areas I'm lacking in? How should I work on them so I don't lose out because of those areas again.
4. What other areas do you see me potentially growing in?
And most important, celebrate the success of your colleagues. Releasing negative thoughts will anyways not help anyone.

As important it is to handle the failure gracefully, its equally important to handle the successes modestly.
Every success calls for a celebration, but just because you got a growth doesn't mean you have to go for a victory lap and rub it in the faces of your colleagues.
Instead, one should realise that a promotion is not a status but a responsibility. More than being happy, you should be working to make sure that you meet the newer higher expectations.
I've seen tons of people (including myself) who become complacent and over confident on receiving a promotion and that is the first step towards stagnation and possibly decline.

Over a period of time, I have figured out a few powerful questions which I would ask myself if I'm not satisfied with my promotion.
If I think someone else has got a growth I should have received, I ask myself:
Do you ask more questions than that person???
Do you provide more answers than that person???
Do you show a greater degree of independence than that person???
Are you more efficient than that person???
Did you come forward and take up more responsibilities than that person???
Are you the one who waits for work to come or do you come forward and take up work???

And even if your answer to all the questions is still in your favour, then take this up as a personal challenge and make sure that in the coming year, you display all these traits so prominently that your manager will have no choice but to give you a growth.

But Gulshan, its easy to say all this in theory, practical life is very differnt.

Darling, do you really think I have never received a setback???
Infact, I have been on both sides of the table and I can still promise you that in 12 years of my worklife, nobody has ever heard me complain about my appraisal.
Everytime that my appraisal was not good, I took it up as a personal challenge and over the next one year I  outperformed every other person and claimed my next growth based only on the results I produced.

Smile... Its possible...