How would you handle a boss who sits with you in an appraisal and first warns you not to raise a salary increase?

Appraisals are meant to review someone’s performance and at the same time raise issues that hinder one from performing. If salary is one of them, why not raise?

Performance management should be about optimising performance, and is not necessarily linked to salary increase at the time of the appraisal. This may well be a separate part of the management cycle, and while performance may ultimately link to remuneration, he may prefer to deal with this separately. He probably has to say the same thing to all his appraisees.

The salary you are paid is probably not an actual barrier to your performance unless you are paid so little that you cannot live. I accept that you may feel more motivated and loyal if you get a salary increase, but I would not class it as hindering performance.

It is important to that your boss has a process that allows for payment to be discussed, so ask him for a chance to chat about it outside of the appraisal process.

Ask him what you can expect if you achieve the next level, and what you need to do to achieve it.