Performance Management

One of the essential tools of performance management is appraisals. Appraisals are a regular review of an individual performance preferably at a work place, where potential is highlighted and training and development needs are identified.

Whilst I was working at Marks and Spencer I had regular appraisal meetings, where my strengths and weaknesses were identified. During this meeting the manager would usually base my performance on the results from the mystery shop that usually visited our store every month. They made it known what was expected of me and made it aware what they was going to measure me on. This was effective for the reason that they gave me suggestions on how to improve my performance.

The appraisal meetings I received helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and indicate how such strengths may best be utilised and weaknesses overcome. It was also beneficial for the reason that it improved communication between me and the managers; I was also comfortable on expressing what certain aspects of the business needed improving.

The out puts of the meeting was to basically identify where I needed improving, and ways I can go about doing this. Also it also allowed me to express my feelings as well towards the workplace.  

Management and Organisational Behaviour 5^th Edition – Laurie J Mullins

From reading the article the skills that would need to be required to be an effective mentor are that you will need to have good communication skills so that you will be able to interact better with other people and to cope with challenges. Another skill they will need to have is good listening skills so that they are able to listen to people effectively. They will also need to be empathetic and sensitive towards them, it is also important that they are good encouraging people for the reason that some people seem low and may need some encouragement.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece

When I was in secondary school I had a mentor for the reason that I always had bad attendance so my school provided me with a mentor to find out the reason why this always occurred.  I used to have regular meetings with mentor and these meetings we used to talk about for example school and family problems. The mentor was a good listener and always gave me good advice about problems I may have had. This was effective for the reason that it gave me the ability to talk about problems I may have had. It also helped me to improve my attendance for the reason I began to enjoy attending my lessons. My mentor affected my life for the reason I am now on time to my lectures and any other meetings that I will need to attend. My mentor also gave me understanding of how important it is to be on time for things for the reason that in the business world, attendance is vital.