Make the End of Year Performance Reviews Useful Again !
Hasnaa Akabli
ICF Certified Executive Spiritual Coach – I Help Executives and Entrepreneurs Connect to their Inner Selves for Maximum Impact, Work & Life Satisfaction and Wellbeing.
It is that time of the year when you have to review your team members’ performance of the year and set direction for the next one.
It is that time of the year when frustration, anger and powerlessness also go through the roof because of those end of year performance reviews.
Many don’t get promoted without valid, clear and specific reasons. Many don’t really understand what exactly they have been evaluated upon. Many don’t get clear goals and success metrics for the following year.
This trend is one of the major causes of employees’ low engagement, poor job satisfaction and decrease in mental health in the corporate world.
Also, many leaders struggle with this annual practice. They often don’t know how to bring more clarity, fairness and they even fear demotivating their team members with their feedback.
As a leader, you are responsible for building up your confidence to give fair, clear and empowering year-end annual performance reviews in a way that drives your team’s engagement and accountability.
Leaders must make these reviews useful again.
For their teams, organizations and for themselves.
Let’s go through the most common mistakes and what to do about each one of them.
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MISTAKE #1 – The absence of metrics to measure the team’s performance
Managers can often wonder “did that direct report meet their expectations? Did they exceed them?”
If you or your direct report struggle to answer these questions, it means that you need to come up together with an agreement about their goals. In a SMART way, i.e Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and with a Timeline.
If any change happens during the year that impacts the ability of your team to attain their goals, you need to come up with a different or even a totally new agreement.
An agreement between managers and direct reports is the answer to all the confusion many professionals go through with these annual reviews. ?
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MISTAKE #2– Not identifying the development resources to support your team’s goal attainment
What do your direct reports need to succeed?
Using the end of year performance review as an opportunity to explore and define their next learning goals is a great way to show your genuine support and increase trust between you and them.
Sometimes, team members don’t feel equipped to work towards their goals. So using the end-of-year performance review to uncover growth and learning areas could be tremendously valuable.
Just ask them one or several of the following questions (there are zillion of other questions you could ask!):
What do you think you need to be successful next year?
What trainings would you be interested in pursuing?
Who do you need to partner with in order to achieve your goals?
Who would you like to network with next year that can help you xyz?
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MISTAKE #3 -The lack of feedback during the year
“You’re doing great, just continue what you’re doing”.
How many professionals have heard that sentence from their managers? Way too many.
But, at the end of the year, they’re not promoted and/or they are told they have been underperforming.
What???!!!
Give regular feedback based on the SMART goals and success criteria you AGREED upon.
Offer your support – ask them what they need from you to deliver the work at the standards you want.
Give advice if you realize that your team member has one or several blind spots about their performance.
Feel uncomfortable giving feedback because they’re starting to become defensive?
It’s on you to work on yourself. It’s not on the team member to accept the consequences of your conflict-adverse personality.
Fix yourself first so you can own 100% of your responsibility as a leader.
Only then can the team member own 100% of theirs.
Or not. Then that would be another conversation to hold with them.
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MISTAKE #3 – Soft skills are often overlooked
Many professionals can excel technically speaking but lack some other skills such as:
-????????? Emotional intelligence
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-????????? Executive presence
-????????? The ability to read a room
-????????? To communicate effectively
-????????? Managing their time and prioritizing their tasks
-????????? Managing up
-????????? Influencing others
As an executive coach, I’ve seen way too many promotions being missed because the person gave 100% to doing the work and 0% to soft skills such as nurturing their relationships with others, whether it’s their manager, direct reports or other strategic partners.
Worse, I’ve also seen missed promotions because people have burnt themselves out on work and neglected their personal wellbeing.
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MISTAKE #4 – Not involving direct reports enough in giving their thorough feedback
I often notice that executives have too much on their plate.
They own more than they should. Usually, this stems out of fear because they don’t want anybody to fail but by taking on too much, they are making everybody fail.
The team doesn’t make enough mistakes to learn and grow.
The manager is often stressed, impatient and overwhelmed so they rarely have the bandwidth to listen, coach and appreciate others.
The way you can balance the dynamic between you - the manager - and your direct reports is by asking them open-ended questions. In an ideal world, direct reports should talk as much as their managers, if not longer, during a yearly review.
Your active listening helps you notice and understand key points being discussed and also gives equal talk time to deliberate on different matters. By being attentive, you will also discover the emotions and opinions of other people regarding critical issues.?
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MISTAKE #5 – Not preparing enough
Preparation needs to happen on both sides – manager and direct reports.
It is an important moment that will dictate everything that will happen (or not) the following year so a) take the necessary time to reflect on the year b) let your direct reports be aware of the importance of the exercise and ask them to prepare for it in advance.
Here are a few elements you can focus on while preparing:
-????????? Start with positive feedback. A great way to kick off a meeting is to discuss what has gone well this year. This means that you need to take note during the year of all the positive observations you are making. Give specific examples.
Examples:
Data:
-?Discuss the responsibilities and the workload.?
-Clarify the company’s goals and priorities.?
-?Review past goals and performance metrics.?
-?Skills and areas to improve. Be specific when you address areas needing improvement, cite actual instances or patterns observed throughout the year. This approach not only lends credibility to your feedback but also makes it more actionable for the employee.?
-?Set SMART goals for next year. You should have asked them to think about those in advance and suggest them to you. During the meeting, you will discuss them until you BOTH AGREE on them.?
-?Career next steps. Your direct report will appreciate you immensely for focusing on their career growth and their success.?
-?End with positive notes. The review meetings are used to set achievable goals that address expectations that employees are not meeting. The reviews you provide should ensure colleagues and bosses get clear plans of action. The ending note should be an encouraging, appreciative note to lift fellow employees' and managers' spirits. Positive feedback gives others the confidence and trust to do better and helps everyone FEEL better.
Remember that an end-of-year performance review is a dialogue so you don’t (must not) do all the talking. It is an opportunity to partner with each of your direct reports and agree on specific goals that serve both the business and your team’s development.
It can take a lot of time and energy to conduct it properly but see it as an investment to reap better results the following year.
I also encourage all leaders to follow up on a regular basis with these performance reviews throughout the year to correct course if necessary. Following up also signals to your direct reports the importance of the agreement you had at the end of the year and that it was not just a one-shot conversation that can be dismissed.
Last but not least, be ready for difficult conversations. ?It's essential that you approach these discussions with empathy and a clear strategy. Anticipate sensitive topics, such as underperformance or areas needing significant improvement, and plan how to address them constructively.
Use clear, factual examples to explain concerns, and listen actively to the employee's perspective. It’s important to maintain a calm and professional demeanor, even if the conversation becomes challenging. Offer support and practical solutions to help the employee overcome obstacles and ensure that the tone remains focused on improvement and future growth. Being prepared for these tough discussions helps in handling them in a way that is respectful, productive and solution-oriented.
As a conclusion, preparing for end-of-year reviews is crucial for their effectiveness and impact. As a manager, your preparation sets the tone and can significantly influence the outcome of these reviews but remember that it’s even better to partner with your direct reports to come up with feedback, goals and next steps.
Good luck!
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Note about the author:
Hasnaa Akabli is an energetic, empathetic and effective executive and leadership coach who helps seasoned leaders achieve two specific outcomes: 1) Seize control over their career 2) Achieve greater health and personal wellbeing. For the past decade, she has coached online hundreds of corporate executives and entrepreneurs from four different continents and in two languages (English and French). What makes her happy is to help professionals experience more peace, meaning and success on their own terms. Feel welcome to reach out to her at: [email protected] if you are an executive who wants to develop your leadership/career as well as prioritize your health and wellbeing.