Easy Strategies for Effective Performance Reviews

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Delivering bad news or pointing out maladaptive habits isn’t easy, even if you think the employee may have an idea of what’s coming. Assuming you’re both on the same side of the table sharing a common goal can make difficult conversations easier.

Your job is to ask good questions, to find ways to help your key employees identify what’s working well, where they want to go in their careers, which skills they might like to pursue, etc. Your questions are designed to facilitate buy in, give them an opportunity to critique their own performance and to offer information first. Your questions also give you better information to develop a strategic approach to the next phase of the conversation.

The questions below are worded for an annual review: (You can, of course, tweak the time line if it’s different). We recommend reviews much more often to keep tabs on how your team members are feeling and what they’re thinking.

Usually, you’d give these questions in advance so there’s time for them to think about them and write out answers.

1) What professional accomplishments of yours do we need to remember from last year?  Please include items that might not have been noticed.

2) Were there professional skills you were able to improve on last year?  Did you receive training or help from any member of the team?  Again, please be as specific as possible.  What skills do you want to work on this year?

3) Were there projects or tasks that you had the freedom and responsibility to do in the way you thought best?  Please think of both ongoing and one-time projects you did and describe how much independence, if any, that you had.

4) What do you do well professionally, enjoy doing, do easily, get compliments on, etc.?  I’d be particularly interested in things you do well that I don’t know about.

5) Are there things about your work that give you real pleasure or make you feel you’re making a difference?

6) What could I be asking that seems important for your success here?

The answers are important, but building a process of open, corrective conversations with your employees is just as important. And slowing down to listen to their struggles and goals is the only way to create effective plans for future growth.

First Understand, Then Resolve

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One of our colleagues sent us the following email upon receiving Jay’s new book Simple Steps to Change: Your Business, Your Life: “The segment below is so great it should be highlighted in bright lights. It’s so good. Should be required reading for everyone.” Here are a few excerpts along with our colleague’s favorite parts that are italicized in bold:

First Understand, Then Resolve

You need to plan for two or three conversation stages.

The goal for the initial stage is to become thoroughly familiar with each other’s point of view, thinking, and intuition. To gather this data, ask questions about anything you aren’t positive you understand and ask for confirmation that you’re correct on anything you think you do understand.

It is crucial for your understanding of the other person’s position that you help them feel safe, especially if they disagree with you or are sure you don’t understand them.

To create safety it’s better not to take an absolute stance as if you know best. You need to be equivocal in your statements and questions—meaning that you do not speak in absolutes, or as if you know something for sure.   

Listen Before You Leap

It is hard to have the patience to listen to someone when you’re pretty sure you already know what they are going to say. It can drive you up the wall if their point is obvious and they talk slowly or keep repeating each argument a number of times.

To check out that you still understand everything, ask the speaker if you heard them correctly. Repeating their main points will force you to listen. Then ask if you have missed anything.

If you want to enrich your bottom line, retain your best employees, and be on the leading edge of changes, listen patiently. Grit your teeth and pull your hair out, but listen!

Creating a Safe Space for a Hard Conversation

Here are some fundamentals for having a safe, non-confrontational conversation:

Use words and phrases that underline that you don’t know the Truth, that you only have some of the information. (This is almost always the case.) “My experience is…”, “From what I can see it looks like…”

Constantly ask questions that reflect your willingness to be corrected. “What am I missing?”, “Can you see something I’m missing?”

Do not try to convince someone that you’re right. You may be, but there is a good chance you’re only partially correct or not even quite that much.

Mostly listen and do very little talking until you understand what the other person is saying. It may help to repeat to yourself, “Listen carefully.” Or “Stop thinking of rebuttals and just listen for a while.”

Think about what assumptions you’re making and try to ask truly curious questions. “I’d like to understand better. Please share some of the information you’ve learned about why that is the case.”

Once you are fairly certain you understand each other, you need to move to the resolution conversation.

You can check out or order Simple Steps to Change: Your Business, Your Life on Kindle or softcover at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=simple+steps+to+change+your+business.

If you would like us to send you the complete section of First Understand, Then Resolve, please email us. And, if you’d like the chance to put these important skills into practice, we’re here to help you. Just call or email.