Performance counseling is quite often misunderstood and wrongly interpreted as a process of the boss correcting or controlling employee behavior by giving him negative feedback in an assertive manner. When employees make mistakes or become unmanageable or non-cooperative, executives often say that they need counseling. Performance counseling is normally done in the regular course of performance and not only in the face of problems.
Performance counseling or Performance Review Discussion (PRD). neutral term and connotes a formal discussion between the appraiser and appraisee on the latter’s dyadic performance for a given period of time to identify the factors that have positively or negatively affected their performance and to prepare action plans to improve their performance using the performance equation. It is a systematic review of the performance of the appraisee and it focuses on the appraiser only to the extent that the appraiser’s own performance (styles, the support is given, guidance, etc.) has impacted the appraisee.
According to William R. Tracy, “Performance counseling is a manager-initiated strategy for improving employee’s performance”.