Avoiding Perception Pitfalls

Have you ever judged somebody else’s performance based on how you feel about them or by comparing them to
yourself? It’s inevitable, but sometimes, we put our own filters on performance assessments and feedback
conversations. We call these filters “perception pitfalls.” They’re unconscious thoughts that may bias our review of our
own or someone else’s performance and make the assessment less about evidence and more about perception. So
what can you do to avoid these filters or ‘pitfalls’? First, it is useful to be aware of some of the common perception
mistakes that could appear:

Perception Pitfall How to Counteract

“Gut feeling” – in the absence of good performance evidence Collect evidence of at least 3 examples when you/the
or examples, you assess yourself or your supervisee on what person performed well.
“feels” right. No evidence of performance complements your
assessment.

Think about your own/the person’s performance only.

Compare/Contrast – you base your or your supervisee’s
Review the performance plan and the agreed
assessment on what others have achieved instead of based on
performance indicators and expectations. Find
what you or your supervisee have achieved.
evidence of performance and document it.

For each deliverable or competency, collect examples

Recency/Primacy – instead of considering the whole 12- of performance - at least one per quarter. Make sure
month performance period, you assess yourself or your you consider the entire 12 months of performance,
supervisee based on your or his/her most recent performance especially if the person did less well in the last 3
(“recency”) or based on early performance (“primacy,” meaning months of the performance period.
first).

Leniency/Severity –

Leniency: You assess the supervisee too softly. This pitfall could
appear both in the absence of evidence and in cases when we
try to avoid confrontation.
Severity: You assess the supervisee critically based your own
standards of performance rather than on the supervisee’s actual
behaviour.
Avoid “good or bad only” thinking. Don’t lower your
standards either to give supervisees the benefit of the
doubt or to avoid confrontation. Refer to the rating
system or to the competency behaviours for UNICEF
criteria for evaluating performance.

“Similar To Me” Bias – You assess the supervisee higher Base your performance rating on specific examples of
because he or she shares things with you, e.g. similar performance. Ask others for feedback to complement
background, age, gender, values, career progression, etc. your evidence.

Central Tendency – You assess the team or yourself as being Collect specific work performance information about
“about average,” a tendency that is often due to difficulty in each individual, including feedback from others to
collecting sufficient or specific work performance information. complement your evidence.

“Halo or Horns” Effect – You “extend” your or the Rate skills/competencies one-at-a-time. Review the
supervisee’s skills from one area to another, even though there behaviours related to each competency to ascertain
is no evidence to support that skill extension. what evidence you need to collect.
 Avoiding Perception Pitfalls
To Avoid Perception Mistakes, Ask Yourself:
□ Am I basing my appraisal on conclusions drawn from my first impressions, opinions and/or inferences instead
of facts and evidence?

□ Am I basing my assessment on what others have achieved instead of myself/the individual?

□ Am I giving undue weight to an occurrence which took place recently?

And, if you are a supervisor:

□ Am I assessing my supervisee/s based upon how I feel about them?

□ When reviewing a supervisee’s performance, does one particular trait or characteristic stand out for the
individual?

□ Might I be assessing a supervisee based on the fact that I am reminded of myself when I first started working
here or in a similar environment?

□ Are all my supervisees’ assessments just “about average”?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes”, then you are probably making one or more of the perception mistakes
noted.

This means that you are making assessments based on your preferences rather than making assessments based
upon observable and job-relevant behaviour/s. You will therefore need to make a concerted effort to consciously
avoid relying on your perceptions in performance conversations and the year-end appraisal process.