Recently, I’ve been talking a lot about delivering performance reviews. The reason is simple—they’re on my mind. This is the time of year when I do mine with my executive team.
One thing that stands out to me when it comes to reviews is how I set the tone at the beginning. My goal is not to give a hard review where someone feels like they’re getting hammered. It’s also not to give an easy review that just blows sunshine and gives them nothing to improve on. Instead, I think of reviews as coaching.
I focus on two things:
- Recognizing where someone is doing well—so they know we see it, celebrate it and want them to keep building on it.
- Identifying opportunities for growth—so we can talk about where they can improve, what that looks like and how to get there.
We map that out together, like a coaching plan and work on it throughout the year. My goal is to give a review that isn’t too hard or too easy—but is valuable. The person should walk away knowing their strengths, where they’re performing well and where they have room to grow.
The number one rule in delivering a review? No surprises. Everything in the review should be things we’ve talked about throughout the year. The review is simply a summary of those conversations in a condensed format. That way, we can take it, build on it and keep moving forward together.
That’s my approach, but I’d love to hear from you. What are your best practices for delivering performance reviews?
