Most local governments know their appraisal process needs improvement. The challenge is figuring out what actually needs to change.

In LeaderGov’s recent workshop, we spoke with Ms. Stacey Inglis, Deputy City Manager for the City of Milton, Georgia, about how her team redesigned their performance management approach—and what others can learn from it.

The biggest issues aren’t what you might expect

During the session, participants identified their biggest challenges with appraisals. Two issues stood out clearly:

• 48.7% said their biggest problem is a lack of periodic coaching
• 25.6% pointed to poor integration of employee goals

Together, those two issues made up nearly three-quarters of all responses (74.3%).

That’s a powerful insight.

For many organizations, the problem isn’t just the appraisal form—it’s what happens (or doesn’t happen) throughout the year.

Why Milton decided to make a change 

As Ms. Inglis described it, Milton’s old system had become a “check-the-box ex...

Feedback is a great way to support, re-direct and encourage your employees.  But as leaders in local government you can take those 1-on-1 feedback sessions one step further by asking your employee “what can I do differently to better support you or make your work more effective?” This simple feedback question allows the employee to share their concerns, it models your authenticity to them and helps you improve as a manager.

Monthly or quarterly “sit-down” feedback sessions are great, but another type of feedback called 360 Feedback can be even more transformative.

The public safety model

In local government, public safety teams regularly hold “after action” reviews of emergency calls to discuss lessons learned from an event.  In those feedback sessions the group reviews the call and then determines how to reduce errors and challenges in future calls based on what they just experienced.   This idea of getting a broad range of input or feedback on a situation is vital for real change ...

There are some great coaches that have influenced athletes over time.  You probably can think of some examples.    

In local government, you're the coach and the players are your employees.   As with all coaching, it’s the athlete who has to carry out and execute the plans.  You're not "on the field" and shouldn't be….you're on the sidelines encouraging, cheering and directing, just like a coach.   

Coaching is based on the idea that you believe the person is capable of solving their own issue.  Your goal is to help them develop a path to address a need by asking great questions.

Coaching is not a few things….

• Coaching is not an annual review
• Coaching is not feedback per se
• Coaching is not being someone’s friend, although you may like the person
• Coaching does not rely on your inspiration, but rather the person’s
• Coaching is not directly telling someone what to do

Coaches facilitate, they don’t offer direct input per se or micro-manage.  Mainly they ask questions to get to ...