Ahhh yes. This time of year brings to mind so many positive and nostalgic feelings, amplified by the ever earlier appearance of Holiday decorations. I welcome it all, but one thing I never looked forward to nor welcomed was the need to conduct year end performance reviews in the midst of all the yuletide cheer. It can be hard to enjoy the Christmas spirit with your colleagues when you have just hammered several of them during a review. While certainly impossible to eliminate entirely, we can attempt to avoid those non-festive feelings by following this list of Ten Performance Review Commandments I have assembled from years of refereeing the entire process in my time as a CHRO. While no guarantee of merriment, they will at least help you do better in the future.
1. Be brief, concise and complete. To those being rated, tell the story of what you did, but don’t make it hard on your boss by writing a novel. Yes we know that the XYZ project was really hard and you crushed it, but don’t make us read War and Peace. Bosses may have many more of these to deliver, so do them a favor and be as brief as you can while not leaving out any good details. Bosses: make sure each of your people gets a fair hearing in the time allotted.
2. Be timely. Bosses and subordinates get your reviews scheduled well in advance; if they are not on the calendar already, you are doing it wrong. Those being rated, keep notes on your achievements (or excuses) all year long.
3. Be calm. It’s too late in the year to start getting excited and emotional about ANYTHING that appears on the review form. If either party in this equation is surprised by anything written or said, there is a fundamental communications problem. A reset will be in order after the holidays.
4. Be prepared. In addition to writing updates to your goals, have facts and measured outcomes. Anything that smells of subjectivity is unwelcome in a performance review. We either got it done, got it partially done, or we did not get it done. Metrics and KPI’s are welcome. “We feel good about…” should not be in the document.
5. Be on point: Talk about things that are closely aligned with company goals that were agreed upon months ago. Pet projects or additions not agreed to should not be included in report outs. This goes for both managers and those being evaluated.
6. Agree on who is involved: If the views of others are solicited on performance, both the manager and the subordinate should agree on this practice ahead of time, and agree on who will be asked. Some like to turn an annual review into a 360 review. I do not recommend it.
7. Take ownership: bosses take ownership of conditions that interfered with your subordinates ability to complete tasks – like changing priorities mid stream. If you are being rated, take honest accountability for your misses.
8. Be humble: bosses make sure you are not projecting negative energy and amplifying fear. If you are being rated, accept that some of your efforts may not be appreciated. There will be time to re-jigger your approach later. Don’t get rattled.
9. Be ready to talk about learning and development: Some companies separate this element of performance, but bosses should be ready to discuss if it comes up and those being evaluated should have a list of things you’d like to learn and possible training events you are interested in attending.
10. Be Zen-like: Overall both boss and subordinate should remember that this is but a moment in time and everything can and will change. Nothing is permanent. Bosses, don’t label people with permanent high or low marks, and those of you disappointed in whatever grade you got, tomorrow is another day and the cycle starts over, with a chance to begin again where you are or else where.
