Capstone Paper

An accomplished leader is a strong communicator, motivator and problem solver. Building teams, motivating employees, measuring client needs and managing conflicts are some of the critical tasks of a leader. The definition of leadership is â€Å"the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals† (Durbin, 2). This is the primary goal of a good leader however I believe the leader needs to have a certain number of characteristics or traits in order to provide this to his/her employees. Loud have to say that the most important traits of a good leader are a passion for the work and the people, self-confidence and trustworthiness. I think that it is crucial for a great leader to be passionate bout the work that they do as well as the team that they are leading. Within my current role as a Senior Business Support Coordinator, we're required to take on a leadership role on an almost daily basis. One particular instance that re call of which I had to take on a complete leadership role was during a snow storm. I was one of the only seniors or management that was actually able to make it into the office.With the few of us that were actually able to make it into the office, took control and distributed all of the cases that needed to be handled that day. I made sure we had appropriate phone overage and triages all incoming work that was received. On this day with short staffing we were able to handle all of the cases that were due for that day and we had not late reports to our home office or the FDA. The association amongst effective performance evaluations and employee morale is very close. Actually, one of the core reasons to evaluate employees is to encourage them.As a leader, this is an opportunity to reinforce things an employee does well and provide correction and planning for areas that need improvement. It is important to understand that performance evaluations re definitely a necessary evil, however the process chosen to evaluate one's employees needs to be considered very carefully. Problem Statement The issues with performance evaluations are not within the systems themselves but in how they are administered. It is hard for an employee to deal with a negative performance evaluation in general.However, it is even harder to deal with a performance evaluation that one would consider average when the employee may feel that their work performance level is really much higher. Research Design This capstone paper will consist of taking a anonymous poll within my apartment of my co-workers in regards to how they feel about how the process of performance evaluations are handled with our organization. How these performance evaluations and promotions affect their work performance and feeling about the company. Results of Study Within my company we have a system in which we used called the UP system.This system has all of our goals that are cascaded down from out managers. Within the pro duct safety department the majority of all our goals are group goals so it is extremely hard to stand out individually. It allows for a â€Å"loafer to receive the same rewards because the other's pick up the slack and still hey look good in return. In December and January of each year the employee lists their progress, weight goals, lists any accomplishments, year- end self-appraisal on UP/LDAP (Individual Development Plan) and we submit them to our manager.The manager and employee then discuss to ensure everything is clear and accurate. The manager then obtains feedback and input on the employee's performance and behavior from others and participates in calibration. Calibration is a system of checks and balances that ensures the employee's performance is rated as fairly, objectively and equitably as possible. The next step to the UP process is to have the manager draft UP year-end appraisal considering employee's self-appraisal, input and managers own observations. Here is where the issue in my opinion comes into play.It is understandable that feedback is necessary in order for managers to make an accurate assessment of the employee's performance and behavior. When the managers meet to discuss ratings they are allowed to provide input on each employee even if they do not directly work with that employee. How is it possible to make an assessment on an employee's performance or behavior if a manager is not directly working with them at any time? I believe the feedback should come directly from those that work directly with the employee so that a true assessment and feedback Can be given.We are also required to attach to our UP system is a form that is called an DIP or Individual development plan. The purpose of this form is to set long term goals for your career path and your manager is supposed to help you GU did. After all this has been performed at the end of the year and an assessment has been performed a rating is applied to the employee.