Performance Reviews

Part 1

If your company uses the calendar-year scheduling, it’s coming up on performance review time!

Your firm might use a standard process or format. You might have developed your own format over the years. You might be “winging it.” Or you might be procrastinating on giving performance reviews because you don’t like doing them and people don’t like getting them, and if you just don’t do anything, you’re hoping that they will just fade into the background and never need doing.

When done right, performance reviews can be a great tool to retain and develop your people. Try to avoid the “report card” vibe. While it is called a “review,” and you do need to assess the person’s performance over the past year, you will find that the meeting will be a more positive and motivating experience if you can focus the majority of the process on their FUTURE development.

Ask the person to consider their professional aspirations in advance of the meeting. Where do they want to be and what do they want to do in the next three years? As their supervisor, you can use the past year’s performance as a springboard into what they can be doing in 2025 that will move them toward those goals. What experience and training do they need to develop in that direction? Help get them moving in the right direction.

This will be a positive and energized meeting if the person is already a strong performer—praise their current performance and point them toward greater success. But you can also use this framework with “average” performers. Praise and build on the good parts of their performance, and then work with them on improving those “areas for improvement.”

(image generated using Midjourney)