Leaders today have the daunting responsibility of motivating their people to combine vision with action to produce dramatic, positive results for their organizations. One dimension of this task is performance evaluation. The purpose of these efforts over a given period of time is to learn what is already working well and to identify areas where individuals and teams (parish staff, school faculty, Board members, etc.) may be struggling.

Too often, leaders view performance evaluation as drudgery and avoid it at all costs. But effective leaders use evaluation opportunities as a way to improve performance. The Reid Group believes that performance evaluation over three- and six-month cycles is an invaluable tool for leaders to reinforce the positive and address the negative.

There are two approaches to organizational evaluation that we have found to be user-friendly:

1. Criteria, evidence, assessment
Identify a set of criteria for measuring performance and assemble evidence showing the degree to which each criterion has or has not been met. Based on the evidence, give performance in each area a rating, using a +3/-3 system:

+1 Performance meets criterion to a minimal degree.
+2 Performance meets criterion to an average degree.
+3 Performance meets criterion to a high degree.

-1 Performance meets criterion to a marginal degree.
-2 Performance did not meet criterion.
-3 Performance is having a negative impact.

2. Ask a series of questions
Conflict

• What is causing conflict, stress, or struggle in the organization?
• What is being done to reduce conflict?
• Which of those strategies is helping the situation, and which is hindering it?

Achievement

• Where are we achieving beyond our goals?
• Where are struggling to achieve our goals?
• What can we do to support success?
• What do we need to do to boost performance in areas that are struggling?

Managing change

• What are the major changes facing us now?
• How well are we managing those changes?
• What actions can we take in the future to be more effective in addressing change?

Regular, effective evaluations are not only a tool for effective leadership. They also enhance organizational learning, fostering greater focus on the mission and vision of the organization and enabling it to be more focused on the future.

John Reid, Consultant, Mediator, Coach
The Reid Group