Recognising that emotion within yourself takes practise and requires you to examine the breakdown of that vexation. Is it irritation that your expectation of that person has been thwarted and more supervision was required than what you estimated? Is their attitude not syncing with the overall work culture and you are irritated because it should have rubbed off by now ? Or is inappropriate workplace behaviour continually occurring despite numerous displeasures being signalled to that employee? And this is why we need to teach our staff consistently. Daily, weekly and monthly. Just like a coach of any footy team. Footballers desperately want to improve their performance so feedback has to be regular and personal but without emotion.
Annual performance reviews should never be seen as more of a behaviour changing method than consistent daily feedback about performance. Feedback that is immediately relevant and task orientated will see employees interpreting this as credible and caring if practised in the right way.
Dealing with a teachable event in isolation, and only that , will correct the action and spare you and the employee of delving into the murky waters of character assessment.
Develop a workplace where immediate feedback on specific daily events is expected and celebrated. Encourage employees to enquire “could I do this differently, how could I improve my interaction with colleagues/customers, do I appear to be actively listening to customers describing what they need, do I adjust my body language and voice tone to different customer types, do I look energetic and enthusiastic, do I communicate expertise without being condescending ?”
If a list of proposed questions can be produced so that employees can enjoy an environment that is based on everyday coaching and daily knowledge seeking , the yearly review takes on a different role , one of consolidating what has been identified as a specific area of ongoing learning. It will provide a proactive awareness for the employee to become more organically motivated to contribute more meaningfully to the team.