Tough decision making

For me the difficult decision making comes when I do annual appraisal of my employees.Tougest ones are the border line appraisal cases, which are at the border line of Exceptional and On target, and the cases which are at the border line of On target and Improvement Required.

My learning is that do enough ground work, especially for these borderline cases, and then decide. But once you have decided, DO NOT WAVER UNDER ANY CONDITION. During the appraisal discussions, employee will try to justify to the best of his or her ability to get the best possible rating. Your brain will also might say that may be you are wrong. But rest assured, NEVER EVER CHANGE YOUR DECISION. Even if your change in decision is to give better rating to the employee, it is a disaster to change the decision. It will spoil the trust the employee has on the manager. Employees would also like to work under a leader who never wavers. Your intention might not be of wavering, but of giving best to the employee, but employees judge you by your behavior. They will see you as a weak leader, even if you change your decision in their favor.