Sit Down, Shut Up, Listen: Evaluation Commands Official's Attention, Respect

By Tim Sloan

What’s so hard about receiving an evaluation? After all, most of us are evaluated on a daily basis without realizing it: Our peers rate our work at the office. Our spouses assess the job we did edging the lawn. Our kids size up our benevolence when we dole out their allowance. Most of the time, we get no direct feedback and, if we do, we tend to get only the summary. Whatever the case, somebody formed an opinion and we somehow deal with it.

Then, the state calls and says someone will be out to watch your game Friday night at Tech so they can check up on your suitability to work the state tournament. A minority of officials will offer a stoic, “Bring it on,” in response to that wonderful news. For most, the five Ws race through our minds: Who will the assessor will be? When will I get another chance if I blow this one? Where am I in the pecking order? Why me? Hypoxia sets in almost immediately and we prepare fastidiously for a game that would ordinarily be just another day at the office. Why? Because we perceive that there’s something final about it, that we have little to gain and much to lose.

Maybe you do have a lot to lose, but at least you’re getting a chance, which probably trumps a lot of other officials you know. And besides, whether you like it or not, receiving an evaluation is the way it works, if you want to progress. If you don’t like what you hear, it isn’t going to change what the appraiser walks away with either, so you may as well accept the critique and decide what you’re going to do with the feedback.

Whether an evaluation has been programmed for you or you request one, this is usually the way it plays out: The governing body selects a person whose opinion it trusts to observe you. It can be somebody from the association office, an active official who has the night off, a retired official or sometimes even a person who has never worked a game but is in tune to what a good official does. Whoever is chosen, the appraiser may or may not have a rubric from which to work. Some groups, like U.S. Soccer, have a very detailed grading scheme and put a lot of time and effort into training assessors in how to evaluate consistently to that matrix. Others, more often your state association, will have little more than a thumbs up/thumbs down approach on his or her opinion of your capability.

Sometimes the evaluators will stop by before the game for introductions and possibly drop in at halftime, too. Typically, they’ll come in after the game and talk through their observations with you, pitching the discussion at the level of ability they perceive you to have. If you’re fairly green, expect a lot of generalities.

The report then goes to the proper authority. Usually, your visitor and all the other evaluators will get together later and consense on who is best regarded among all the people they’ve checked out. The objective of that conclave may be to decide who gets the cherished assignments, who bears further watching and development and maybe even who gets crossed off whatever list they were trying to be on.

In picking between you and other officials, one of the biggest wild cards will be how inclined the assessor is to speak out in your favor. Let us be clearer: Will he or she risk their reputation on you by doing you any favors? The number one way you can personally influence that decision is in how you handle your evaluation.

If somebody didn’t believe that your evaluator could be trusted in their judgment, that person wouldn’t be sitting in your dressing room. It doesn’t matter what you think of your performance. Therefore, shut up and listen. If the game was a donnybrook that even Moses couldn’t have handled, chances are your mentor noticed, too, and will give it due consideration, so don’t be defensive. If you did screw something up, admit it. Use open body language and look interested in what you’re hearing even if you feel your life passing before your eyes.

Remember that there is a difference between “listening” and “not talking.” Let the person shoot his bolt before responding because, most of the time, the comments are most effective if taken together in context.

I don’t know of an appraiser who ever gave a leg up to an official who argued with him or her, but I know plenty who wrote the same person off. If both you and your evaluator can walk away from your discussion saying, “That wasn’t so bad,” the odds are overwhelming that your stock will rise — maybe not today, but eventually. If you can show that you are willing to improve and if you handle your evaluation well, you’ll be a better official.

Tim Sloan, Bettendorf, Iowa, officiates high school basketball, football and volleyball.