Appraisal Systems that feed the Corporate Psychopaths

Is your Appraisal System feeding Corporate Psychopaths?  Isn’t it time we all invested in a smarter approach to Performance Management?

Most of us dread the performance review anyway.  The whole process becomes counter productive when it affects the combined productivity of organisations.

Managers waste hours and hours form filling, while employees spend time worrying about how they will be rated.  And please don’t get me started on the as the Bell Curve approach to Performance rating.

Yet we still try to improve businesses by holding individual performance reviews? Perhaps we could all do with investing our efforts elsewhere?

However, there is another worrying factor in traditional appraisals processes in that they allow the wrong sort of people to climb the ladder of success.

Corporate Psychopaths

When conducting a traditional appraisal, a review or a 121, we tend to focus on individual achievements.  We don’t tend to consider how employees work with, and treat, their colleagues.

For employees, in a traditional organisation, gaining promotion is often down to the ability to favourably impress the direct manager.

Charisma and charm are often mistaken for vision or confidence and, in these cases, the individuals ability to ‘perform’ in one-on-one settings helps them get ahead in the business world.

This is why the traditional approach allows those with low emotional intelligence and toxic behaviours to claw away at gaining more power and influence, causing reduced productivity and resignations in their wake.

The traditional system feeds Corporate Psychopaths – for want of a better term.  People with egocentric, grandiose behaviour, or those completely lacking empathy and conscience, who rise up the corporate ladder and don’t give a jot about their people.

Behaviour really does matter and the way that people deliver their work matters just as much as the end product.

Giving feedback without being unkind

Here at the Smart Working Revolution, we believe that there are 3 factors that matter when conducting a Performance Review

  1.  How we contribute to a healthy business culture,
  2.  How we support co-workers to do their best work
  3.  Individual performance standards.

This smart approach telegraphs a clear point – How you work is just as, if not more, important than the outcomes you deliver.

Here at the Smart Working Revolution, we’ve been implementing smarter ways of working for 20 years.

To hear more revelations, join our Autumn Masterclasses in Brighton and Cornwall or make contact with us now here