Providing Valuable Performance Feedback
As knowledge workers we are trained to perform our job roles mainly through academic learning. While this is essential for us to perform our tasks, there is typically no training for supervisors or managers in providing feedback to their team members. Often, performance reviews are treated as something that is required to be done by corporate rules and as such relegated to annual or bi-annual events.
What is it like for you to receive feedback once a year? What is your experience getting feedback from managers? In this blog I will share some tips that will enable you to provide feedback in a meaningful way throughout the year, not just during an official review period. This is even more critical in the VUCA world we live in now.
1. Define the Goals and Document the Plan
It is critical that role expectations and goals are expressly defined in writing. This provides a frame of reference for the employee on what is required of them. Include any rating criteria used – for example, a scale of 1 – 5 in which a 3 represents satisfactory performance. An employee may need to do more than just perform adequately to reach an outstanding employee status. Be specific on how the organization assesses performance for the role in question and what is considered successful.
2. No Surprises
The first time you have a conversation with your team member should not be at the performance review. This is not fair on the employee and does not provide them opportunities to adjust and elevate to meet the required criteria.
Make a point of discussing areas of improvement throughout the year. Be aware of the horns and halo effect where everything discussed in the review is centered around recent events, both good and bad. To avoid this, make notes about the employee’s performance throughout the year where it is possible to highlight both successes and areas for improvement.
3. Meet Regularly – Quarterly is Best
Annual performance reviews are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. New generation of employees thrive on real-time feedback. Regular check-ins, one-on-one meetings allow for the opportunities to synchronize, adjust and increase the chances of success for the employee and the organization. Ensure official reviews occur no less frequently than every 3 months. This gives employees the opportunity to pivot and adjust to recommendations and expectations and perhaps even exceed stated goals because goals were clear.
4. Collaborative Agenda
Invite the employee to add their own items for discussion to the agenda. You never know the types of innovative ideas they come up with as different perspectives clearly lead seeing problems and solutions in unique ways. Let them own the implementation of such initiatives. This fosters a deeper sense of ownership and involvement and increases their chances of success.
5. Use a Feedback Form
Having a structured form is the best way to document feedback. It provides consistency and lessens the chances of ambiguity. Share the form with the employee to collect their self-evaluation. After the review, the completed form must be provided to the employee for review and signoff. Lastly, the form fulfils the formal documentation requirements of the organization.
6. Luck Favors the Prepared
Going into the performance review without due preparation is a recipe for failure. The experience will inevitably center around recent events rather than performance over the last period.
Providing the form ahead of time allows the employee to document their observations and share the agenda. Obtain feedback from those who closely interact with the employee. Assess your notes from the entire review period and make a plan for discussion. Include action items committed to from the last review.
7. Instill Trust and Confidence
It is imperative to have the employee feel like they trust you to conduct a fair review. Also, they must know that you support them in their endeavors and have confidence in their ability to bring about improvement. You want the team member to feel unencumbered to raise impediments and you want to partner with them and help remove the impediments. Giving tangible examples of successes and specific praise will help each individual employee feel like the review is not the same interaction every other employee is receiving.
8. Inspire, not conspire
Set the tone of positivity and encouragement. Spend more time talking about achievements and accomplishments than negative things (unless circumstances warrant it).
9. Have a conversation, not a monologue
Assume positive intent and make the experience conversational. Aim to have the employee talk more than you do. You want them to feel they had their time to be heard and were treated justly. Otherwise they may feel like they’ve been rebuked and that will demotivate them.
10. Ask Open-ended Questions
By asking questions where the employee can contribute without fear of admonition, you can frame the expectations for the next review period. Some questions to think about are:
What do you hope to achieve in the next 90 days at the organization?
How do you think can I help support you with your endeavors?
What impediments do you foresee that may prevent you from achieving your goals?
What is the best way for me to receive feedback on your progress?
What kind of schedule and frequency works best for you?
If you were in my shoes, what would you do differently?
By promoting psychological safety, you can invest in the success of your team members. I hope these tips help you to provide performance feedback effectively and collaboratively increase your mutual chances of success.