Seminar & Training · Leadership
Holding appraisal interviews – professionally and effectively
Training and seminars for appraisal interviews: holding appraisal interviews is far more than a tiresome obligation. Regular, professionally conducted conversations between manager and employee form the basis for trusting collaboration, open communication and the continuous development of staff and of the whole team.
In these confidential conversations you gain valuable insight into your employees' strengths, goals and challenges. You can recognise conflicts and problems early and find solutions together.
But effective appraisal interviews require preparation, sensitivity and communication skill on the manager's part. Professional training in holding appraisal interviews teaches you proven methods and techniques in order to:
- to create an atmosphere of trust in the conversation
- to communicate objectives and expectations clearly
- to respond sensitively to criticism and concerns
- to give constructive feedback
- to encourage motivation and potential in the best possible way
What does leading people mean – in general terms?
Radically shortened, the aims of leading people can be put like this:
- a level of overall performance from the team you lead that is worth striving for
- employees who, under your influence, surpass themselves & feel good doing so
The most important and probably the only vehicle for carrying these intentions & goals into employees' heads & hearts is the appraisal interview. The open, clear, constructive and appreciative conversation is the decisive medium and forum for obtaining employees' commitments, or making sure of them. Because without those commitments leadership ultimately comes to nothing.
Not convinced yet? Put us to the test in a free initial consultation:
You are working in a training field in which you achieve the following goals:
- You gain (further) confidence in leading the conversation, even when it becomes difficult;
- You practise clarity in the message you want to deliver;
- You bring about an improvement in the way your people are organised;
- You gain further clarity on how to improve staff development;
- You improve and deepen the way you lead your people overall;
- You thereby improve your team's productivity;
- You create an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable and the team's goals are met at the same time;
- You receive a solid set of instruments with which you and your staff can prepare and hold the various conversations.
Our approach: 3 occasions for a conversation in the training
This is what you learn in the training on holding appraisal interviews:
- Holding a systematic, structured feedback conversation about your employee's strengths and potential
- Holding an appraisal interview about a necessary correction of behaviour
- Giving a (motivational) address to your team
Three typical and important occasions for a conversation are practised – all with video feedback and feedback from the participants and the seminar leader:
General feedback on the employee's strengths and potential
In round 1 two participants pair up as conversation partners – the remaining participants and the seminar leader give the feedback.
A conversation about correcting behaviour
Round 2 has the same setting but different content: the "employee" has shown unacceptable behaviour – an example from the real working life of whoever is leading the conversation – and this behaviour is to be stopped.
(Motivational) address to the team
And finally, round 3 is about motivating your own team (= the other seminar participants) for a particular undertaking (a project, an important business initiative or similar).
Our training approach
- Anyone who objects straight away that this is after all "only" an artificial role-play atmosphere, which then also causes tension in front of the camera, is very much mistaken:
- Astonishingly, it always (!) happens, demonstrably (!), that the participants in the conversation find themselves almost immediately in a conversation they experience as real.
- What is more, they lose the usual camera shyness in no time and are on the contrary highly grateful for this opportunity to see how they come across to others.
- The use of video feedback is therefore far from outdated; on the contrary, it has had a renaissance. Apart from that, younger participants in particular hardly see it as alien any more, given that their affinity with social media has made them familiar with visual digital recordings of every kind.
Managing Consultant · initio Organisationsberatung
- Keep reminding yourself: the appraisal interview is your main leadership instrument – what else would be? So mastering this instrument properly is not merely sensible, it is indispensable.
- In a protected atmosphere (you cannot make any mistakes here!) and in the smallest possible training group, you have the chance to really practise. So not the usual thing: a theory-heavy seminar in which little actually happens, with a short role play at the end. No, instead:
- A short (!) introduction to the subject – because experience shows that participants already know the theory well enough from earlier seminars – and then: training! That means every participant practises a real appraisal interview from their own working environment and receives video-supported feedback from the other participants and the seminar leader: constructive, clear, appreciative.
Your trainer
The trainer is Dr. Jürgen Wonde – for more than 25 years a trainer and coach on every aspect of leadership and collaboration.
What our clients say
What participants say about our seminars
Excellent. The workshop participants gave us a feedback grade of 1.6 [where 1 is the top mark] — I hope we can continue this constructive and very enjoyable working relationship.
The seminar was very helpful and will stay with me for weeks and months.
Thank you for the excellent training. You set a lot of thinking in motion for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with you, personally and professionally, and it was a great pleasure to run this workshop with you.
We are all delighted with your seminar — thank you very much. I have already put the first ideas into practice and can see them working. I am looking forward to trying out more.
Thank you once again for a thoroughly successful workshop day. We could not have managed it that way without your support. The work paid off.
That was a very efficient process, and it gave us valuable insights and results. I am looking forward to the next stage.
Your sharp analytical mind was impressive and genuinely useful.
That was really good. You know your craft.
I will be borrowing several of your methods for my own workshops.
I have rarely experienced a process that produced so much.
Thank you very much for your outstanding support. With your help we have taken a real step forward.
Free initial consultation
Contact.
We have more than 21 years of experience and would be glad to advise you. Book your free initial consultation – we will get back to you.