How a company performs a management evaluation often depends on what they want out of that manager. Most companies focus mainly on the manager's ability to meet performance goals, but if a company trains its employees well and expects them to stay in their jobs, the manager's ability to communicate with his employees can also be a key part of the management evaluation. A manager performing a self-evaluation can also benefit from looking at both the performance and satisfaction of the members of his team. If the manager deals directly with customers, customer satisfaction should also play a part in his management evaluation. Generally, the goal of a management evaluation is to improve the manager's performance by rewarding good performance and holding him accountable for poor performance.
Evaluations of a manager's effectiveness in completing the assigned projects is mostly based on empirical data. The manager being evaluated should be given a set of goals to meet and part of the evaluation should be focused on whether his team completed the assigned tasks and how well they did it. Things to consider when determining whether a manager performed well on his assigned tasks include whether the team completed the project on time, within the budget and in the right way.
Though business often focuses on empirical performance, a manager's ability to communicate with and motivate the members on his team are key. Since poor communication can often create problems in achieving goals, it can sometimes show up in empirical performance data when a manager communicates poorly. Other times, it can show in the attitudes of the members on his team, in the form of low motivation, frustration, and frequent illness. Companies that focus on meeting performance goals without regard to the manager's ability to lead a team will generally experience frequent turnover that will eventually cost the company in lost training dollars. A company that provides training to its new employees will likely suffer fewer losses due to employee turnover, so the management evaluation would be less focused on the manager's ability to communicate than his ability to perform and meet his team goals.
Evaluating a manager's ability to communicate with his team can be more difficult than evaluating his performance, and it may require feedback from the team and from customers. When examining feedback for a management evaluation, it is important to look for repeated problems rather than single incidents with individuals. If one member of the team dislikes the manager and has problems communicating with him, this may indicate that the team member has the problem, not the manager. In situations where all or most of the members of a team experience the same communication problems with the manager, it may indicate that he has a problem communicating.