Whatever evaluation system your group uses, you must make sure that part of the process includes communicating the results of the evaluation to the officials being evaluated. Arguably the hardest part of any evaluation program is the personal contact with the officials. It is very challenging to give face-to-face feedback. Select your words carefully so the feedback is constructive and leads to a change in behavior. Judgmental, general and negative comments are not beneficial. It takes special skills to do it properly, so a few hints will help.
Step 1 — If the official you evaluated doesn’t hear or accept what you have to say, it is of no value. Making it more palatable makes it more effective.
Step 2 — If you judge the official’s actions, he or she is likely to get defensive. When you sit face-to-face with an official in an evaluation session and that official begins defending his or her actions, change your approach. Here’s an example: “Fred, that three-second call late in the second half really took the wind out of Centerville. Did you have to call it?” Some observers would ask that question and some officials have enough strength of character to formulate a response. If you were the person being evaluated, wouldn’t you rather hear, “Fred, let’s discuss the three-second call with about six minutes left”? Reflect the objective behavior and leave your emotions out of the discussion.
Step 3 — Discuss only what you can see and what people do. Don’t speculate on intentions and leave the official’s feelings, thoughts or desires out of the evaluation process. “Fred, good job on hustling down the line to follow plays to first. What were you thinking when you didn’t go to third on that overthrow in the sixth inning?” Who cares what he was thinking? He didn’t get there, the call was missed and a coach got ejected as a result of the argument. The visible behavior is Fred didn’t get to third on the play, so focus on that action. When discussing the play with Fred, ask if he realizes the implications of not getting to third. Discuss why the coach got upset after Fred had to make the call from 75 feet and how screaming at the coach from that same distance had a lot to do with the coach’s ejection.
Step 4 — Don’t give feedback about behavior that can’t be changed. If you are evaluating a new basketball referee and one of your statements is, “Fred, we really like our referees to be more than six feet tall,” how much credibility is Fred going to give the rest of your statements? Without wearing elevator shoes, he can’t change his height.
Step 5 — Telling an umpire, “You’ve got a small strike zone,” is not a helpful comment. Observers, assessors and evaluators must get away from general statements and provide useful, concrete feedback. “Fred, the top and bottom of your strike zone look great. When I was in the infield it looked as if the whole ball had to be over the plate to be called a strike. As a result, batters looked at a lot of pitches, 17 batters walked and you had to sweat through a three-hour game. What would happen if you added about three inches to each side of your zone?” Don’t tell Fred to do something; give concrete examples of what you observed and ask him to think about the consequences of change.
Step 6 — If you tell an official he or she is doing something incorrectly but offer no suggestion to help, that official will get frustrated. “Fred, don’t blow the whistle every time the ball goes out for a goalkick.” As an evaluator, you know referees customarily don’t blow the whistle in that situation, but Fred just worked the fourth game of his career. Get the light bulb to click on: “Fred, when is the ball out of play? … Exactly, as soon as it entirely crosses the line. So do you need to whistle to stop play? … Right, you don’t need to whistle. What does Law 5 say you need to do? … Perfect, you need to signal for the restart, but that can be with the hand or voice. The rest of your restarts were much better than last weekend.” Now Fred not only understands what not to do, but understands the reason why and has at least two alternate methods to try in future games. The feedback ended on a positive note by praising an improvement from the last observation.
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