Coaching and Evaluation Overlap
During both the evaluation process and the coaching process, information is gathered about a person. How can you keep information gathered during one process from influencing/interfering with the other?
Tipton,
I agree with you that performance evaluations can be a great opportunity for coaching & goal setting. I think a key here is to make sure that if we are using coaching to help stretch another for their development, let's say in a cross-functional job, we have to make sure that we account for that in the coaching/review process. Their success will probably not be as great, at least for a while, in a totally different role. This is where coaching can help them stick to it & not give up, as long as they don't feel they are being "punished" in a performance review format.
Ryan
There is certainly overlap between coaching and performance evaluation. Remember coaching is about future improvement and evaluation is about past performance.
In my military career we had annual performance evaluations and also conducted mid-term counseling (coaching) sessions with members to discuss/review benchmarks and goals that we had established. During the sessions no performance marks (numerical marks based on averages) were discussed alleviating anxiety on the member. Another time that coaching is often overlooked is during the performance review with the individual. It is a great time to outline goals for future improvement.
I consistently tried to keep notes (confidential) based on the observed behavior of my members. It is extremely important that we keep both the positive and negative observations for feedback. This reduced the tendency to find fault with performance which is usually based on a perception of measuring others by our own perceived performance yardstick.
The clarification of separating coaching and evaluation is helpful. Often times many aspects in the work or learning environment overlap and it is important to not let them blend together or influence the other.
Excellent question Z, as I was wondering the same thing. Thank you for the clarification Dr. Meers, the last sentence really sums it up well.
Good question & I will admit that probably the information will influence in both areas. However, when I recommend keeping them separate I am referring more to goal setting ,etc.
For instance, if I am coaching an employee on their further development & they set a goal for themselves to finish their degree by the end of the year. If for some reason they are unable to finish the degree, but they are still an excellent employee & performing well, then they should not be punished in their performance review by their inability to finish the degree. The purpose is what is different, coaching is for further development, evaluation is to look at actual job performance. I hope this makes sense.
Ryan
