The Moment of Truth- Performance Review Time!

I don’t think I can adequately express how much you have riding on the performance review process. In my opinion, your professional reputation can either be enhanced by it or take a significant hit. The relationships that have taken a year or more to build can either be enriched or negatively impacted in the time it takes you to meet with the employee and discuss their performance.

I have seen it time and time again over the years: performance review time rolls around and leaders are scrambling at the last minute to put some crapola on a piece of paper and pass it off to their employee as a well thought out depiction of their previous year’s performance. It’s an absolute insult! Think about it, many of your employees have worked their butts off all year trying to and help you, support you and impress you. Many have missed their kids’ soccer games and ballet recitals because they stayed late to complete a project for you. They literally give a part of themselves each and every day, and have even risked exposing their weaknesses through the stretch assignments you have given them. And how do some leaders recognize this? By typing some random drivel on a piece of paper. In my opinion, that is not only completely disrespectful, it is professionally negligent. You read that right….negligent!

On the bright side, you can be one of the leaders in your workplace that sets the tone for what the performance review process should be about. If you have been a good leader for your team, stayed engaged with your employees on a daily basis, given frequent formal and informal feedback and documented those discussions, then writing the performance review should be a piece of cake. If you have not done these things then you better prepare yourself to start digging for some objective criteria to base the review on. Good luck with that. It can be extremely time-consuming.

Regardless of what you have done prior to getting to this point, you will have to make the best of it. Let’s review a number of tools that leaders should use as they prepare to write a performance review.

TOOLS OF THE REVIEW WRITING TRADE
There are a number of key elements that leaders should begin gathering in preparation for use in the performance review writing process. These elements include:

• Performance reporting from the performance review period- This should include objective measurements such as statistics related to the employee’s quality of work or productivity.
• Job description(s)- Be sure to have the job description handy to ensure that you can easily address key elements of the role in the employee’s review
• Documentation from the employee’s personnel file- This should include any feedback that was given to the employee since the last review period. Positive or corrective performance discussions, letters from customers or members of the management team, awards, etc.
• Self Evaluation- A self evaluation is the employee’s self assessment of their performance since the last review period. Not all organizations require self reviews but I highly recommend their use. If your organization does not use a self evaluation process, I recommend seeking approval to use it in your department.

ONE MOMENT WHILE I STEP UP ONTO THE SELF-ASSESSMENT BANDWAGON

Anyone who has worked with me over the years may recall my absolute obsession with the concept of having employees complete self evaluations in advance of their upcoming performance review. It just seems so incredibly illogical to me to create a performance review without first taking a look at the employee’s perception of their own performance. Here is my rationale:

1. The employee is more in tune with the things they have accomplished over the past year than you could ever hope to be. Asking an employee to list the things they have accomplished over the previous year allows you to compare the information to your documentation. If you forgot something, their list just saved your butt!
2. The employee has an opportunity to communicate the areas of their performance where they feel they have made the most progress. Compare their list to yours. Any consistent improvement in an employee’s performance should be noteworthy in a performance review.
3. Most employees are far more critical about their performance than you could ever be. This is yet another way to compare the employee’s perception of their performance with your evaluation. Perhaps they are struggling in an area and you have not even realized it.
4. In some cases, you will have an employee who rates themselves exceptional in every category. I am actually fascinated by this behavior because inevitably, it occurs with employees who are either completely out of touch with reality, or just digging their heels in because they have decided they are not going to make the review process easier on you. Either way, it gives you valuable insight and allows you to better prepare yourself for that impending review.
5. Last but certainly not least, if you are trying to create a collaborative work environment, then doesn’t it make sense to include the employee in the process??

If you are currently in an environment that does not utilize self assessments, I recommend that you seek approval before implementing them. Once you gain approval, decide how you want to collect the feedback. You have several options:

• Use of the company’s review form- Depending on the layout and usefulness of your company’s performance review form, you can have the employees complete the standard form. You will probably need to provide specific instructions to ensure you get the kind of feedback you are looking for.
• Create your own self review form- This allows you to collect specific information related to areas of performance the employees are most proud of, areas of performance where they may need additional development, special projects they have worked on, etc.

You should also meet with your team and explain why you are implementing this new process. Explain the following:

• In an effort to ensure accurate and thorough performance reviews, you want to get each of their feedback regarding their performance over the last year.
• Ask your employees to take some quality time with their self assessments as you are committing to take quality time when writing their reviews as well.
• Encourage them to be open and honest about their strengths and development opportunities.
• Set a deadline for the self assessments to be completed. If you have an entire department’s worth of reviews to write, I suggest getting this process rolling at least a month ahead of the due date for completed reviews.
• If an employee refuses to participate, sit down with them and discuss it. Although you are asking them to participate, it is really an expectation. Help them with any apprehensions they may have with the process. It is very rare that an employee flat out refuses.

WRITING THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW
Once you have all the key elements gathered, it is time to begin writing the review. The key to being able to write an effective review is finding a quiet place to work where you can spread out your documentation and have few distractions or interruptions. If you are self-conscious about your writing skills, reach out to a fellow supervisor or manager for help. There are always other leaders in the workplace that are more than happy to share their talents. You write down what you are trying to convey and they can transform it into a virtual sonnet.

WHERE IS ALL THE GOOD STUFF?

A common pitfall for many new leaders is focusing on the negatives in a performance review. Let’s face it, it seems like the bad stuff is the most memorable. It is important to ensure that you are considering the full scope of an employee’s performance.

HONESTY IS THE ONLY POLICY

We continue to discuss the need for honesty in the workplace. This is also true when it comes to performance reviews. You need to shout out the employee’s strengths and clearly articulate their development needs. Just make sure you can put your money where your mouth is when it comes to any corrective feedback you document in the review. The best rule of thumb is this: if you can’t specifically put your finger on a document supporting your corrective comments, then you better think twice about including it. In other words, if you want to write a comment about an employee’s inability to consistently complete their work assignments in a timely manner, but you do not have any documentation of any discussions you have had regarding the issue, you are treading on thin ice. If the employee calls you on it in the review session, what are you going to refer to in support of the comment? YIKES!

I have had the dubious honor of playing referee in more performance review sessions than I care to remember. In fact, going forward, I should just go in wearing one of those black and white striped shirts carrying a whistle. It certainly would have come in handy on multiple occasions. Inevitably, the scene played out the same way each time. The employee disagreed with a specific comment made in the review, or worse yet disagreed with the overall rating. As the employee read off their mountain of evidence supporting their perspective, the supervisor sat virtually speechless. Often times, the supervisor ended up getting defensive because they were utterly unprepared for the meeting. Now I have to admit, I typically let the employee get it all out, and, after the supervisor took a sufficient verbal pummeling, I’d call the meeting to a close by asking the employee to let the supervisor take their feedback into consideration. I then committed to meeting again in the following week.

My rational for allowing the employee to speak their piece was twofold:

1. If the supervisor is truly committed to a collaborative work environment, then they need to listen to all that the employee has to say, good and bad. I never allowed the meeting to unravel to the point of allowing disrespectful interactions, but I let the employee assert their position in a passionate manner.
2. The lessons most of us remember are the ones that were either extremely joyful or somewhat painful. Sitting across from an employee and feeling completely vulnerable because you didn’t take the time to deliver an accurate review of their performance is a lesson very few leaders will forget.

DID YOU CHISEL THE REVIEW INTO STONE?
An effective performance review session should consist of dialogue between the leader and the employee. As the leader, if you find yourself doing all the talking, you are going down the wrong road. Immediately begin asking open ended questions to try to engage the employee in the conversation. One of your goals is to solicit feedback from the employee regarding their assessment of the review you have prepared. Therefore, it is not uncommon for an employee to make a suggestion or request for something to be added or changed in the review. Now, considering the enormous advances in technology, I wouldn’t think many of today’s performance reviews are chiseled in stone. That’s a good thing, considering that if you are truly committed to a collaborative work environment, you should be prepared to make minor adjustments to an employee’s performance review.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE EMPLOYEE WHO IS COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE
Although I have seen many cases where the supervisor does not have sufficient information to back up their comments or ratings, I have also seen employees come to a performance review session just looking for a battle. Interestingly enough, these employees often have enough self awareness to know they don’t deserve the review rating they want, but attempt to kick and scream their way through the review session in hopes of bullying you into giving them what they want. Fascinating…really!

These situations can be tough to handle because you are dealing with someone who is not making a rational argument. You need to anticipate the employee’s approach and argument to the best of your ability, and come armed with facts. Although the employee will take you over the river and through the woods, no one at grandma’s house is interested in giving in to their whining either. Just keep bringing the employee back to the facts and to your rationale for the comment or the rating. If they continue to beat the drum, and you are not making any progress, you need to explain to the employee that you will take their feedback into consideration. Then schedule a follow-up meeting for the following week.

I highly recommend bringing a credible back-up with you to the follow up meeting. Odds are that the employee will not have seen the light in the week since the previous meeting. Whether it is your manager or an HR manager, having someone attempt to be the calm sense of reasoning may help to diffuse any extreme emotional outbreaks. In the end, these meetings often end with the manager telling the employee that although their feedback was certainly taken into consideration, the overall review rating stands. Agreeing to disagree may be the only way to move forward.

TO DISTRIBUTE OR NOT DISTRIBUTE….THAT IS THE QUESTION

In my training classes over the last 20 years, I always trained supervisors to provide their employees with a copy of the performance review at the beginning of the meeting. Recently, I was co-training a performance management class with a manager and he advised the supervisors to refrain from handing out a copy until they had sufficiently reviewed the information with the employee. At first I freaked out. What?? Why would you not want to allow the employee to read along with the review as it is given? The manager then went on to explain that it was his experience that employees typically skim down to see their ratings in each performance category and then proceed to their overall rating. If the information is now what they expected, they are likely to tune out most of what you are telling them. Great observation! So after listening to his rational, my new official recommendation is to provide the employee with a copy of the review, but without the actual review rating listed. Once the discussion is concluded, you can share the overall review rating with the employee

THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW MEETING
If you are relatively new to delivering performance reviews, come prepared with some type of meeting outline to keep the sessions on track. I recommend you follow this outline for facilitating your performance review meetings:

• Thank the employee for joining you.
• Communicate your appreciation for the employee taking the time to complete a self assessment.
• Explain that you want the performance review process to be a collaborative one, and ask the employee to actively participate in the review session.
• Encourage the employee to ask any questions they have as you go through the review.
• Begin reading the review categories and summarize your assessment of their performance in each area.
• Resist the temptation to just read from the review. It is supposed to be a discussion….you are not reading to a kindergartener.
• Often times, employees ask what it will take for them to achieve a superior rating in a specific category or the overall performance rating. You need to be prepared to give a clear and concise response.
• Discuss your ideas for specific development plans related to any development opportunities that exist.
• Ask the employee if those development plan ideas would help them to grow in that area.
• Ask the employee if they have any additional ideas for their development areas.
• As long as the employee is rated proficient or better, ask if they are interested in learning any new things or gaining additional exposure to other aspects of the business.
• Ask the employee if they have anything else they want to discuss.
• Close the meeting by expressing your sincere appreciation for the contributions the employee has made over the past year.
• Ask the employee to sign the performance review and provide them with a copy of the signed document.

And that how it’s done…in utopia anyway. Although you can never fully anticipate the reaction of your employees, you can count on the majority of discussions to occur without too much drama. Occasionally, a performance review meeting can deteriorate to the point where you will think you just took to the ring in a WWF event. In those cases, you need to remain calm, and, if needed, either go and get your boss or reschedule the meeting until a time when your manager can join you.

SUMMARY
Well, that is the performance review process in a nut shell. As with all of the other aspects of frontline leadership, there is an incredible amount of work that goes into performance management as a whole. Keep in mind that the integrity of the performance review process will either increase the credibility you have with your team or breed mistrust. What you put into the process will be returned to you tenfold, one way or another.