The Daily Drucker

6 September Performance Appraisals

Appraisals—and the philosophy behind them—are far too much concerned with “potential.”

Effective executives usually work out their own unique form of performance appraisal. It starts out with a statement of the major contributions expected from a person in his past and present positions and a record of his performance against these goals. Then it asks four questions:

1. What has he [or she] done well?
2. What, therefore, is he likely to be able to do well?
3. What does he have to learn or to acquire to be able to get the full benefit from his strength?
4. If I had a son or daughter, would I be willing to have him or her work under this person?
   1. If yes, why?
   2. If no, why?

This appraisal actually takes a much more ...