Page 140 - my SUCCESS! my CHOICE

Deepak Gupta my SUCCESS! my CHOICE
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“We review individual’s Results and assess his/her Strengths and Improvement Areas. This

is reviewed in retrospect. Secondly, we help the individual create plan for the coming year –

actions and targets. Finally, we understand the Career Interests and help develop his/her

Individual Development Plan.” Replied Dan.

“Thanks for indulging me and stating the obvious. I ask this because there are two critical

points I want to make. First, we focus far too much on Improvement area. I am sure you

know the reason.”

“Yes Ron.” Said Dan with a faint smile, “This is our lever to justify why the person is not

yet ready for promotion or large salary increase. And we exploit it to the hilt”

Ron did not smile. “Absolutely. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst parts of our talent

development system. Instead of focusing on the strengths of the individual and hone them

further, we focus most of the energies of the appraisal system on the weaknesses or

improvement areas.”

“What does this do? It gives a message to the individual that his/her weaknesses are far

more important to the company than strengths. So, the individual starts to spend inordinate

effort in fixing the identified weaknesses, often at the cost of compromising the strengths. Net

result, the company ends up with well-rounded average performers rather than brilliant ones

with some rough edges.”