Effective Performance Reviews: How to Use Them to Create a “Championship Team”
(Originally published in the Hudson Valley Business Journal – November 19, 2007)
I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was the day I became a leader and not just manager. It was the day 13 years ago when one of my new employees walked into my office after three months and asked me how he was doing.
Having never had anyone ask me that question before I was unprepared and made two mistakes in responding. The first was saying the first thing that came to my mind. The second was telling him “well, Steve, if you don’t hear anything from me then you can assume you are doing just fine.” He said, “well, that’s not good enough, I need more feedback than that.”
That was the best feedback I was ever given by an employee. I took it as a learning opportunity and a gift. Not long after I began researching models for employee feedback and immediately instituted a formal process later that year. I have been a proponent of providing consistent specific formal and informal feedback to employees ever since.
In the coaching and consulting I do for small business leaders I make the process of providing quality, consistent and specific feedback in a formal format a mandatory part of our work together. In the dozen’s of companies with which I have consulted 100% have had inadequate feedback processes in place. In all of those situations the business leaders couldn’t understand why their performance expectations weren’t being met or why there was poor communication and low morale throughout their organization.
If there is one part of every business that becomes the sacrificial lamb to every other priority under the sun it is the formal feedback process, or as it is known in many circles, the dreaded “performance review.”
The performance review is avoided like the plague. More excuses have been created to avoid following through on the stated performance review process in each company’s employee handbook than are stars in the sky. It doesn’t have to be that way.
An effective, formalized performance appraisal process can be both enjoyable and productive for the parties involved, if the right approach is taken.
One in which I was recently involved occurred between the owner of a small company and one of his newer employees of under two years. In the middle of the ‘performance review’ conversation the employee’s eyes lit up like the building was on fire and a big wide smile came across his face as he said, “wow, this is making me feel special.” And we were only halfway through the conversation.
In another, an employee looked at his boss (the company owner) and said, “I had no idea I was doing that and that it was impacting you and others that way. That’s something I definitely need to work on.” At the end of the discussion it was agreed that the employee would work on the issues brought to his attention and we would re-visit the issue in 30 days at another more informal feedback session.
Here are five questions to ponder that will begin moving your company on a path to creating a Championship Team culture by evaluating your present employee feedback model:
Does your company engage in a formal performance review process that…
a) …both employees and company leaders dread as though they each are prisoners of war on their way to the torture chamber?
b) …is done only on an annual basis so that the scoring of the arbitrary and capricious grade scale can be used for annual salary adjustments?
c) …is a constant struggle for managers, who are charged with ‘evaluating’ their team members, to get their ‘reviews’ in on time because of a myriad of excuses and other priorities that always seem to get in the way?
d) …has a name like “performance review” or “performance evaluation” which only reinforces the impression that the forthcoming discussion is going to be confrontational?
e) …does not have in place opportunities throughout the year on a formal and informal basis through which employees can get specific feedback on the roles they fill and their overall value to the company?
If you answered “yes” to any or all of the above questions, your company is probably creating feelings of uncertainty and insecurity among its employees and should review its approach to providing performance feedback.
