When he was mayor of New York City, Ed Koch would rhetorically ask, “How’m I doin’?”

Executives and board members at nonprofits should be asking that question regularly, or at least when annual performance reviews are coming up.

In “Evaluating Your Executive: New Approaches, New Purposes,” published by The Academy of Leadership & Governance in Columbus, Ohio, Donn F. Vickers and Kelly Stevelt Kaser warn of 10 mistakes that can easily undermine the good intentions and hard work of evaluations:

1. The board communicates that evaluation is not important by failing to initiate the process or take it seriously.
2. Expectations are not clear and/or agreed upon.
3. Too little time is allocated to do the process thoughtfully.
4. The wrong people get involved, either those who have an axe to grind or who are not representative of the majority point of view of the board.
5. The evaluation committee plays boss and reinforces a power-focused, hierarchical way of thinking.
6. Contextual issues are not taken into consideration, such as life stage of the organization or significant forces in the environment.
7. The ratio between talking and listening is skewed greatly toward talking.
8. The ratio between asking good questions and making opinion-heavy statements is skewed greatly toward the latter.
9. There is a lack of discipline about sticking to the agreed-upon evaluation process.
10. The follow-up discussion and tracking were weak or nonexistent.