Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

• Where has the jobholder exceeded expectations or 
shown real progress? 
• Which results have not been achieved? Can you suggest 
why? 
Make sure that you tell the jobholder what you are doing to 
prepare and invite them to prepare in a similar way. Ask them, 
well in advance, to consider their own performance over the 
appraised period, and to note successes, failures and anything in 
between! 
The essence of a successful appraisal is the comparison of the 
two sets of ideas: yours and the jobholder’s. You are aiming for 
shared understanding: an agreement about the jobholder’s 
performance and potential for the future. 
Holding the interview 
Don’t kill the appraisal off at an early stage by descending 
into adversarial conversation. Be ready with the Ladder of 
Inference (see Chapter 3) to take any potential controversy into a 
more careful examination of facts and feelings. 
Welcome 
Review standards, targets, the job description and any other 
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97 Interviews: Holding a Formal Conversation
aspects of performance that you have both looked at. Relate 
them: take comparisons and talk about what’s been achieved, and 
what has not happened. Stick to the known facts and make sure 
that you agree them. 
Your questions to the jobholder might include: 
• How do you feel your job has been going since we last 
spoke? 
• What do you feel you do best? 
• Where do you have real problems? 
• How relevant is the job description? 
Acquire 
Open up the interview by asking the jobholder for their views 
and withholding your own. Review the possible reasons for 
achievement or lack of it. Open up the interview to include 
matters of competency, skills, training and external 
circumstances. 
Questions at this stage might include: