Before You Give Your Next Performance Review, Take 10 Minutes to Do This
Get clear on the one thing you want your employee to take away or risk confusing and distracting your employee and sowing seeds of distrust.
Victoria left the room completely confused.
She had just received her performance review from her manager, Patrick. He had shared his evaluation a few hours prior and it read positively to her in the descriptions, but her overall rating was a 3 out of 5 — not the 4 or 5 she was expecting.
In the meeting, Patrick had highlighted a few different areas where she performed well and one or two areas where she needed to improve, but he said that overall, she was a strong performer and highly valued.
This didn’t make sense to Victoria. Why was she receiving “an average” rating if she was so important to the team?
Fear won’t help you clarify your message
While Victoria left the conversation confused, Patrick felt relieved.
He was just happy the conversation was over.
Patrick was highly anxious going into Victoria’s performance review conversation. He knew that Victoria was one of his most ambitious direct reports and while she added value to the team, her performance and outcomes didn’t match her ambitions.
Victoria had been advocating for a raise and promotion for over the past year and while the company’s performance had resulted in a hold on all promotions that was announced company-wide, raises were not restricted.
Patrick was worried that Victoria would be deflated or worse, angered, by her review and be a flight risk. So he went into the conversation with an ambiguous goal of showing her appreciation, but also helping her see she wasn’t perfect to help temper her expectations about a raise.
When you aren’t clear about what you want to convey, your employee won’t be clear about what to takeaway.
Patrick took an avoidance approach. As a result, he conveyed mixed messages. Victoria heard both that she was highly valuable and that she was average.
The result? Victoria was confused about what her review meant for weeks. Even worse, Victoria talked with other employees, widening the circle of distraction and negative impact.
In addition, Victoria learned that another employee who reported into Patrick who she saw as a peer in level and on a performance basis did receive a raise. This made Victoria question her trust in Patrick as a manager and as advocate for her growth.
Eventually, Patrick was able to clarify for Victoria that she was an average performer and while he wanted to support her ambitions, her results simply didn’t warrant a higher rating based on the company’s rating system. Victoria didn’t come out of the conversation happy, but she felt more clear.
Unfortunately, both Patrick and Victoria wasted hours in resolving something that could be have been addressed directly and clearly in the initial review meeting.
Stop worrying about upsetting your employees. You can’t manage their emotions.
When you worry too much about your employee’s emotions, you are setting yourself up to fail.
When you ruminate about their reaction, you are wasting time at best, and at worst, you are confusing yourself as to what is most important — delivering a clear and fair assessment.
You can’t control how someone will respond.
What you can manage is whether you are respectful and clear.
You can ensure that you are being respectful in your words and your tone. This means being specific about the examples you use, highlighting behaviors and outcomes, and not making generalizations or commenting on personal traits.
Focus on what will help your employee leave feeling clear about their evaluation and what they need to do to continue to grow and perform well.
They will appreciate that you are being detailed and giving them information that they can put to use.
People perform best when they understand where they stand and what they can do to improve.
It’s easy to believe that people will not be motivated when they receive negative feedback about their behaviors and outcomes. And initially they might feel deflated.
But people who are committed to success know that they can only get stronger if they receive critical feedback. If you don’t know how to improve, how will you improve?
This is why your best employees will always value a fair assessment, which will include areas to strengthen because they will see that as a way you are investing in their growth.
7 Prompts to Help You Get Clear on Your Message
If you need some help clarifying your message, here are some useful prompts:
Can you boil down your feedback to one sentence?
Do you have enough evidence on which to base your feedback?
Can you share 3-4 specific examples of behaviors and outcomes to improve?
Are your review language and rating (if your organization has ratings) in sync?
Can you describe what “good” looks like?
Are you describing this clearly and efficiently enough that a 5th grader would understand you (not the technical jargon, but the concepts)?
Will your employee be surprised by your feedback? If yes, make sure you give enough context as to why they are hearing this information now and not earlier.
You don’t have to have nailed all of the prompts above, but if you are finding that you are missing or challenged by quite a few, it might be a sign that you need more time to nail this review.
Don’t be afraid to delay the review if you need more time to sort out all the pieces. It may feel uncomfortable to do so, but it’s far better to take a little more time than to deliver an unclear review that you could have improved.
If you need help, recruit someone from HR, a trusted peer, or an outside advisor or coach to help you edit your language.
Clear your head and ground yourself before delivering your next performance review.
The most important thing you can do besides writing a clear review is set aside enough time on your calendar to prepare and feel settled before you deliver the review in a meeting.
I recommend giving yourself a 15-30 min buffer on either side of the meeting to have enough time to transition from prior meetings and to jot down quick reflections immediately after the session.
Before the review, remind yourself why you are a manager and how important it is to develop your people well.
Giving critical feedback is as important as offering positive reinforcement. Trust is built when you are honest, authentic, and timely in sharing areas of improvement. Your people will appreciate it.
If you feel particularly concerned about how someone will respond, ask yourself “why?”
Is it because it will feel like it’s a surprise or perhaps you don’t feel you have enough evidence to be giving the feedback?
Remember you can always delay if the issue is something you can and should address before the review.
If it is rumination and anxiety, perhaps take a walk or stretch. Remind yourself to breath. A brief (3-5 min) guided meditation can be extremely helpful (you can find this on apps like Calm or Insight Timer, or a quick search on Youtube can give you several options).
Your Takeaways
To sum up, as a manager, one of the most impact ways you can affect your team’s performance is to deliver performance reviews well.
This means:
Getting clear on the one takeaway for each employee
Making sure your rating and your language are in sync
Not letting fear guide what you share and how you share it
Taking the time to check your evidence points and craft your message
Setting aside enough time for you to feel clear-headed and grounded
This doesn’t have to take more than 10 min to check, and it might take you longer if this is your first time. That’s OK.
Take it one step at a time and remember that practice will make this much easier over time.
Your Turn
I’d love to hear what works best for you to ensure that the performance reviews you deliver (or received) are clear and effective. Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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Great post, very actionable. Thank you for the post