Serena Williams and the terrible futility of annual appraisals

If you were to subject the tennis star Serena Williams to the typical annual appraisal, it would go something like this:

“So, Serena, what do you consider your key strengths to be?”

“My two-handed backhand. My serve.”

“Yes, they certainly are good. And what things do you think you need to work on?”

“Maybe my drop shot.”

“Okay, and what about your kit management?”

“My what?”

“Well, it’s just that some in the junior coaching team have mentioned that you tend to leave the changing facilities in a bit of a mess sometimes.”

“Oh, right. Really? Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“That would be great. In fact, we’re putting on a kit management course, and we think that if you can fit it in to your training schedule, it might really benefit the team …”

You get the picture.

However slyly, annual appraisals focus on a person’s weaknesses in a way that is divorced from his true accountabilities.

The terrible futility of this is that if I spent my career improving weaknesses, I would just end up with stronger weaknesses: in other words, mediocrity.

I explore the link between feedback and accountability here.