Creating an Appraisal Contract in a 'Mates Society'

Recently I had the pleasure of catching up with Michael Gordon - Australian Chairman of A4E - One of the world's biggest welfare to work organisations.

Michael and I have shared many discussions on responsible leadership and during our conversation Michael unveiled the important leadership concept of - "The Appraisal Contract" - a system that is well aligned with Australian psych.

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In my experience, a key element in demonstrating responsible leadership is the establishment of a simple but effective Appraisal Contract between the ‘leader’ and the ‘lead’.

Creating an Appraisal Contract is never easy - though in Australia it is easier - in comparison with other countries, largely as a result of Australian culture – in short, a more ‘open’ society with more honest sharing of views between all levels of society.

When first appointed a responsible leader thinks of him- or her-self as master of the team. In my view, you are most effective as a leader when you are the servant of that team.

The harder you work to satisfy the goals and ambitions of the people for whom you are responsible, the harder, and more effectively, they work hard to satisfy the goals of the company.

The Appraisal  must be take place in a simple form every three months. Why? Because a lot can happen in a ‘trimester’ – a deliberate allusion to the term used to describe the stages of pregnancy – that most important of all ‘career developments’! – and vitally important as women become more and more vital in the management of business. The basis of the simple appraisal is “I want to do something for you and in return I want you to do something for me. Between the two of us we end up with a simple contract which we will fulfil over the next three months. Can we agree that now? Let’s note the contract terms on one side of an A4 sheet of paper – review it in three months – and create our next simple contract.”

The normal ‘ask’ from the team member is for some enhancement of their resume by training accompanied by related experience; while the leader asks for some improvement in a specific performance factor before the next three monthly review. Discussion of salary is completely eliminated from the Appraisal Contract. Salary discussions are generally best on an annual basis when all relevant factors are taken into account – the health of the economy and of the company within that economy, the willingness or otherwise of the individual to take on responsibility to deliver demonstratively improved performance. The salary discussion is a contract between the company and the individual – the appraisal a contract between the leader and his or her direct report

This style of responsible leadership is easier in Australia than other countries like the UK and US. It sounds ‘corny’ but, in my view, that ease of agreeing such very effective‘deals’ comes down to mateship.

The well travelled Michael Gordon explains how - in the UK they are still bound by class and in the US they are bound by personal power and a more self centred approach to leadership. One of the positives of the Australian approach to life is that the ‘appraisal’ is much more likely to be a two-way process. The “leader” can expect his or her performance of the “Appraisal Contract” to be rated frankly by the “lead”! So responsible leadership is demonstrated more evidently in Australia.

To learn more about this process from Michael Gordon, Chairman of A4E - one of the world's largest welfare to work organisations - download the podcast here

For a personalised introduction to Michael Contact Us