Reda Molienė
Research coordinator of the project “Portrait of a Judge”
Facilitation of feedback culture in the judiciary requires a new approach to the evaluation of the activities of a judge, first and foremost perceiving it not as a control or potential sanctioning instrument, but as a mechanism to help the judge grow professionally, while also fostering the development and improvement of justice administration. Feedback practices do not end with sharing reasoned opinions about one’s activities or behavior. This is a complex, fully rounded process involving several directions.
A full picture of the quality and efficiency of a person’s activities can only be drawn if we have a comprehensive spectrum of data for evaluation showing how others (managers, colleagues, clients and partners) view a person’s performance and their behavior and how they view this themself – from their own perspective and from the context in which they are acting. Various methods and sources are used to collect this data in the most objective way possible, the most common being performance assessment by managers, peer evaluation, surveys of all team members, gauging the opinions of external stakeholders (clients, partners, etc.) and self-assessment.
However, this latter practice faces certain issues, as psychologically it can be quite triggering for people to evaluate themselves: how not to underestimate or overestimate our own skills and abilities. It is certainly impossible to achieve absolute or near-absolute objectiveness in this process. However, structured tools can be very helpful in measuring competencies through certain indicators and by identifying relevant areas for improvement. Such a tool for judges and candidates for judicial office was developed within the framework of the international project “Portrait of Judge – a multi-dimensional model of competencies to be measured during the procedures of selection, evaluation and promotion of judges”, which was initiated by Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania) in cooperation with the Supreme Court of Lithuania, Metropolitan University Prague, the Supreme Court of Albania, the Council for Judiciary of Albania and Oslo University.
Based on a comparative study of existing judicial selection and evaluation systems and criteria, the project team developed a self-assessment form covering four main areas of competencies (professional, personal, communication (interpersonal), and managerial), which were indicated as being core to judicial capacity. These competencies are described by a number of particular skills and abilities: professional competencies include case- and process-management skills, reasoning skills, the ability to learn, activeness in professional working groups, and judiciary self-governance; personal competencies are described as determination, emotional stability, creativity, flexibility, et al.; interpersonal (communication) competencies cover the ability to cooperate, conflict management skills and more; and managerial competencies include resource management skills, leadership, and representation of the institution.
This form is delivered in user-friendly electronic format as an online questionnaire (see the English version at https://judgeportrait.eu/self-evaluation-instrument/), which after being filled in generates conclusions on the respondent’s strengths and areas for improvement. The results can be used by candidates for judicial positions, judges for self-improvement purposes, and bodies conducting judicial selection, evaluation and promotion procedures as a source of information about a candidate or a judge.
This tool provides new opportunities for the facilitation of comprehensive, objective, merit-based selection and career development procedures, as well for promoting performance evaluation for more accountability and targeted professional growth.