Birthdays, Anniversaries, Christmas, Performance Reviews

Spot the odd one out? Anniversaries

Just joking!!

Performance reviews, but why?

Well because the others events we look forward to (unless you have reached the age, where you would like to forget them) and are full of fun times spent with loved ones or friends. And all have a supposedly set date for an annual event.

Contrast this with annual performance reviews, which are loathed by most and feared by many.

Ask most people why they do performance reviews and they will provide the same answer my teenage son does to most questions I ask him. Because. Because that is what the organisation asks or tells me to do.

But we are now in an age where we demand immediate feedback. Most wear a Fitbit so they can see how many steps they have done. We ask Siri or Google for answers to questions we must get an immediate response to. We have Apps so that information is both at our fingertips or, so we can solicit immediate positive feedback via likes and loves.

And yet we struggle to provide any meaningful feedback on a regular basis to what we regularly say, ‘are the companies greatest asset, our people’.

In coaching individuals, I regularly ask how frequently they provide feedback to their team and/or team members? I am then astounded by how infrequently feedback occurs. This also includes the inability to provide any form of constructive (read former descriptor of negative feedback) to individuals for fear of the response.

So, for those who read this and smile or start to shudder with an eerie sense of familiarity, the organisation doesn’t make you stick to the annual review system, you do, and you have a choice. Remember things done to comply or as a compliance requirement are rarely much fun and the annual performance review is just that. Ongoing, regular feedback however is not

And if you don’t know how, Ask.

I can’t promise it will feel like Xmas every day, but it will certainly feel better than it currently does for both you and your people!!