How To Get There

Talking to a few managers recently got me rethinking my thinking on annual reviews and feedback… reinforcing some of my beliefs and challenging a few others.

As a learning and development guy, I’m interested in behavior. How people organize, communicate, plan, present, and interact fascinates me. What they do and how they do it… these are the things that lead to results. Hmmm… wheels turning.

Annual reviews tend to be about results. No matter what the form asks, managers remember the last month or two and they read reports showing the year’s results. The review becomes a look at results based on goals or projects delivered over the year, no matter the questions. This is important stuff though. Annual reviews often tie to compensation increases, so they can play a critical labor cost control role. This compensation control may influence turnover for key, highly productive associates. And some companies still use this rating to rank employees. For the associate side, formally recognizing yearly accomplishments may have value for many individuals as well. Big issues for both the associates and the company.

But for the behavior guy like me? At the end of the year, does telling someone they missed their goals help them meet next year’s goals? Even if you can specifically communicate where they went wrong six months ago, will it lead to improved behavior this year?

Feedback, unlike annual reviews, should happen today. And tomorrow. And yesterday. And the day after tomorrow. 

Feedback shouldn’t be about yearly goal completion or failure. Feedback should be about am I headed in the right direction right now? If not, what is the right direction? Tell me when I move that way. Feedback should be so immediate and frequent that achieving the goals gets more and more likely.

I’m not talking about those status meetings. Discussing the status of a goal or productivity is just that… discussion. It’s like restating the goal over and over. I brought you all together to show you a PowerPoint of where we want to get to by the end of year… same PowerPoint as two weeks ago.

Feedback should spring from the behavior and actions of ourselves and others. What works and what doesn’t? What should we change right now and what should we continue? Want to promote improvement? When associates even lean in the right direction, tell them. Encourage the behavior that succeeds. Discourage the behavior that doesn’t. Feedback, both constructive and positive… specific to the tasks and actions of the individual.

Annual reviews are about where we went. Goals and production targets are where we want to go. Status meetings are how far away we are. Feedback is how to get there.