Deep Dive: Performance Review
It's coming again!
The end of the year is approaching. Leaders are busy with an administration that many hate and find useless. Performance review.
Staff systems crave information and show review status as ‘pending’. HR departments send vivid reminders with manuals and online training. Employees see themselves at the Christmas dinner, not writing a review.
Managers know they have to spend extra hours copy-pasting and adjusting their tests. Everyone asks one question: “Why the heck do we have to do it?”
It is easy. Performance review is to wrap up your year. Get clarity on your career path, assessment of development, and expectations for the next year.
Contents:
Performance review vs. feedback
Steps in the Performance Review Process
Writing performance review
Employee’s point of view
Leader’s point of view
Watch out for how you do the overall evaluation
Performance review conversations
After the performance review
Resources
1. Performance review vs. feedback
There is a widespread misunderstanding that feedback is synonymous with a performance evaluation. Despite certain similarities, they are not the same. Their goals and cadences are distinct.
People are frequently graded on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best) in performance reports. Formal performance appraisals can be difficult and demotivating. Furthermore, they are unreliable and biased. After all, not every average employee with a 3 (satisfied = 3) rating is indeed a 3. What if a manager grades everyone with a 3 regardless of how they perform?
Tips to consider:
Performance review is a process both sides take equal responsibility. Evaluator as well as the evaluated one.
Offer recognition for contributions.
Always align individual tasks and projects to team and company goals and vision.
Clarify expectations. What do you want people to do? How do you want them to approach the performance evaluation?
Be aware of your personal preferences and biases (you are friends with some teammates and not with others, etc.).
Commit to making performance reviews fair and structured and bring them to life. Consider career aspirations.
Do not rely solely on performance evaluations. Continuous progress and feedback are also important in determining the next promotion. Employee engagement and development rely heavily on feedback. To collaborate well with others, always attempt to blend different tactics and strategies.
2. Steps in the Performance Review Process
The performance review process can vary based on your organization, the size of your team, and the field. Yet, there are universal steps:
Managers and employees review job-related materials. Such as job descriptions, feedback notes, project plans, initiatives started and finished, certificates, etc.
Employee writes and submits written self-assessment to the manager/into an HR system.
Manager writes a performance review and submits it to the HR system.
Both prepare for the alignment conversation and clarify their expectations and goals.
Review conversations are held. Assessments are finalized and saved in the HR system. New salary/goals are logged in as well.
Managers and employees regularly discuss progress toward performance and development goals.
3. Writing & preparing for performance review
a. Employee’s point of view
Finally, the year is slowly rushing to its end. Yet, before you exchange your office chair for a comfortable sofa, there is one question to be answered — how was your year at work? Or rather, did you achieve your goals and targets?
Your answer will be most likely — yes. If you have twenty more minutes, you sweat down a few achievements or a list of activities. Okay, sent! You are relieved this administrative formality is over.
Todd Dewett, Ph.D., says: “Choose to see the review process as an event you control, not something that simply happens to you.”
So, being in control means that you see performance review as an investment.
In practice, you need to prepare yourself both physically and mentally. The first step is to check in which format you need to deliver the self-evaluation. Be aligned with the company guidelines and your manager’s expectations. Then, take some time and think about the structure of what you want to say.
It should be realistic but also aspirational. After all, it is a baseline for the future. It is a good idea to search in your memory for milestones, achievements, and stress. Also, check your notes, calendar, email conversations, Teams/Slack/etc., or any other material you may have.
You soon identify the moments that moved you from point A to point B, teamwork, your significant contributions, or pitfalls. This exercise eventually leads you to undercover your next career steps. These get you closer to your life goals.
Here are my tips on how to cook your self-evaluation:
Reserve enough time to write your first draft.
Keep a clean structure — from general evaluation to specific milestones or the other way around.
Use simple language.
Be fair.
Less is sometimes more. It is a performance review, not a novel.
Provide an example when appropriate.
Focus on relevant information related to yourself.
Point out your desired future direction.
Read it back with foreign eyes. Your review should be understandable even for a person who does not know you.
Happy? Congratulations, you finished your first draft. However! Give it a second in a few days. You want to check that it is easy to read and your grammar is spotless.
Before your meeting with your manager, you still have some work to do. After all, you want to be in control.
Firstly, go back to your self-evaluation. Read what you wrote and create an elevator pitch that will swing you over the opening question: “So, how would you evaluate your performance?”, “How do you feel you have been doing?” or similar.
Then, prepare for possible scenarios. Every conversation can be easy or difficult. People can agree or disagree with each other. Try to manage your expectations and prepare for potential disagreements. So, when you sit in a meeting, you can listen and interact without being hijacked by your feelings.
Lastly, make a few notes you want to discuss and collate additional materials for the review (e.g., print important email conversations, role descriptions, or promotion criteria).
The meeting is happening in 3, 2, 1… Please be on time. You might be nervous, but trust me, your manager might be nervous, too.
Your boss asks you to fire up with a summary of your performance. You immediately start pitching for yourself. However, it is important to also listen to what your manager says.
Therefore, make sure you invite him/her into the conversation. You ask for an opinion and let him/her elaborate. While your manager is talking, keep in touch. Don’t play with your phone, zoom out of the window, or even do house chores if the meeting is online on Teams. Respect and listen.
If anything at any point is not clear to you, ask. The performance review is done for you, not for your manager. It is the summary of where you have been and what next steps you need to take to move where you want to be.
In the end, you should express your desires. You fish for a new challenge. You are on the hunt for a promotion. You would like to have flexible working hours.
Be open about what you want. What would make you happy and motivated? Don’t let him/her/them guess your wishes. It is always a better strategy to transparently ask what you need to do to achieve them. Your manager might be able to answer straightway or maybe prefer investigating possibilities first, and that is fine.
The performance review is one of many milestones in your career journey. So, did you take notes during the meeting? Well done! You can read them afterward and use them for setting the next objectives and follow-ups.
b. Leader’s point of view
As a manager, I usually spent much more time on performance evaluation than my team members themselves. You can argue that this was my job. Besides, no one pays attention to performance reviews, right? So, why should one care? Because it is time to realize and review where your team is.
Writing team assessments is time-consuming. So you definitely need to:
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