Having checked in regularly throughout the year
Discovering during the course of an annual review that a
co-worker has encountered obstacles (be they real or imaginary) to
attaining an objective is detrimental to everybody, since all that
can be done is to confirm the failure. That is why it is
essential, once a goal has been set, to plan several checkpoints
throughout the year: "Where are you in your progress toward this
goal? What difficulties are you encountering? What could we put
into place...?" In this way, any possible lack of means will be handled
during the course of the year and will no longer be a
reason for failure.
Hearing the external causes
A co-worker will sometimes attribute failure to external causes
("there was nothing I could do") and this blocks all progress because he
does not perceive himself as a responsible agent. It
is thus useful first to have him develop his point of view in
order to understand the reality of these causes (of which some might be
real obstacles). This stage of listening without
preconceptions allows you to identify the true difficulties and
to determine upon what the co-worker will probably be able to act, after
stepping back and analyzing things.
Asking about the "internal" causes
Once the external causes have been heard, it becomes legitimate
to ask your co-worker about what depended, at least in part, upon him:
"In this situation, where did you have room to maneuver,
even slightly? Where might you have been able to find leverage?
What action, even a risky or unusual one, might you imagine for...?" The
goal is above all not to show that he acted poorly but
rather to emphasize that there is room for agency.