6 tips for effective performance reviews
Talila Millman
CTO | Advisor to corporates & B2B midmarket on TRIUMPH transformation for profitable growth | Speaker | Author | Board Member | Innovation | Strategy | Change Management | Chief Transformation Officer
Performance review season is upon us.
If you are a manager dreading conducting reviews - this article will help prepare you.
If you are an employee dreading the review - the post will provide you with insights on what to expect and what to demand of your manager.
1. Start with Why
Everybody wants to know that they are making an impact and that their contribution is meaningful.
What are the company’s mission, vision, and goals? How is the company doing toward its goals?
How is the employee making a difference??
In big organizations, it may make sense to emphasize the specific division or group within the organization.
2. No Surprises??
Feedback must relate to goals, objectives, and values that were defined ahead of time, and were discussed before. You cannot expect employees to meet objectives they never knew about.
Performance reviews should not be the first and only place people get recognized for their accomplishments or dinged for their failures.?
Feedback should be continuous and relate directly to known goals, objectives, and values so that when the time comes for the formal performance review, nobody should be blindsided.
3. Feedback must be specific and constructive
Use concrete examples to support whatever you say.?
There is no point in providing feedback the employee does not understand or cannot do anything to improve upon.
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If there is a need for improvement, come up with an action plan together. If you cannot do it in the review, follow up.
4. Listen with empathy
Did the employee have personal or professional challenges that prevented them from doing a good job?
Hopefully, this is not the first time they bring them up.
Regardless, listen and figure out if there is anything you can do to help.
5. Support the employee's professional growth
Performance review is as much about the employee's professional growth as it is about achieving organizational goals.?
If the employee has promotion aspirations help them understand what they need to do to get to the next level. If the employee is taking the individual contributor route, help them figure out how they can grow to be an expert in their field of choice, or broaden their expertise.
While you may have an opinion on what is the best route for the employee, ultimately it's their decision. You need to review the plan they developed and help remove obstacles in their way.
6. Talk about the future
Past behavior and accomplishments are most important in how they are tied to the future.
The most important thing to remember is that performance reviews are meant as a tool to help employees and managers. Be well prepared and adopt a positive attitude and an open mind.
Chief Operating & Financial Officer I Leading Global Turnarounds To Achieve Profitability, Maximum Efficiency & Talent Optimization DEI Advocate I Author of #1 New Release I Founding Member-Chief NYC
2 年Love your tips Talila, especially "start with why." It's a great tip for almost everything ..including why we do performance reviews.
Operations & Strategy / Youth-focused Non-profits / Social Impact & Democracy / / SMB and Startup Advisor
2 年Truth
Senior Executive Engineering Consultant
2 年Performance reviews are complicated and controversial. For one, in many organizations there is a bias against women and people of color, either intentional or not. That makes the whole process of questionable value. Also, many organizations don't provide any structure or guidance to managers, and somehow assume managers intrinsically know how to do constructive reviews. That said, the tips are all good. I found the toughest reviews for me were the ones where the employee, after guidance, was not improving, or regressing, or not fulfilling the basic job requirements. It's hard to tell someone that they probably could do better elsewhere, especially if there is a stated effort to improve. It didn't happen often, but i can admit there was no satisfaction for either the employee or me. Hopefully, just clarity.
Software Engineer at Motorola Solutions
2 年Thank you for the insights
CPA Certified Public Accountant | CFO | Trusted Advisor | Tax representation | ???? ????? | ???? ????? | ???? ?????? ?????? ??????
2 年Thank you Talila. Very insightful. I found that it's very important to come prepared to the review with very specific and concrete examples. Vague and general feedback is useless.