Performance reviews: Everyone’s favorite time of the year, right?
Performance reviews. Everyone’s favorite time of the year, right?
Nearly everyone I know has a horror story to tell about poor-quality performance reviews, but these experiences are our most valuable lessons to learn how to flip the script and give effective reviews.
Here are a few of my own performance review horror stories and the 4 lessons I’ve learned from them.
Ineffective Review #1 - “Larry”
I was working at a university bookstore. The manager of the bookstore was Larry, the quintessential “best friend” manager. He was very chill, wore dreadlocks, and listened to reggae while dancing and singing around the store. It was a fun work environment. Everyone loved working with Larry.
Performance review time came. This was my first-ever review, so I had no idea what to expect. Larry pulled out these forms from corporate. He took his pen and began marking every category 5/5 all the way down the page. I thought he was joking, but he believed that reviews were stupid and a waste of time. If he gave 5/5 he could get them over and done with quickly.
Takeaway: Don’t do reviews like Larry. Don’t get me wrong, in the moment… I loved it! Who doesn’t like to be left off the hook? But in the long run, it hindered my growth potential. His ambivalence towards reviews meant that I didn’t have the chance to be developed. I didn’t get challenged. I didn’t get feedback. Larry’s reviews did not set me up for success.
Ineffective Review #2 - “Karen”
I was breaking records at the company I was working at, so when review time came, I went in expecting to get a pay raise or promotion.
Karen sat me down and told me that I was doing a terrible job. I was working too hard. I needed to slow down and work less because I was making my colleagues look bad.
She shattered any conceptions I had about my own performance. This was a formal performance review and my leader was telling me not to do well. That hurt. For a few years after that experience, I would purposely underperform to avoid that crushing feedback.
Takeaway: Don’t do reviews like Karen. She had an opportunity to tell me to go higher and be better, but instead, she told me to slow down. She stunted my growth by asking me to expect less.
Ineffective Review #3 - “Nigel”
I was nervous about my performance review with Nigel. We didn’t have a great working relationship. It was very matter-of-fact. While I knew that I was doing well, I had no idea what to expect from Nigel. Getting fired felt like a possibility because of the tension in the relationship.
Nigel made my anxiety worse. His first question was, “What are you most looking forward to regarding this review?”
I struggled to find something positive. Keeping my job came to mind.
Next question: “What do you think is the worst thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?”
How do you even answer that?
We went through all of these questions very matter-of-factly, very black and white. I was either winning incredibly or failing incredibly. There was no middle ground.
I left that review feeling like an utter failure. I didn’t get fired, but I wasn’t feeling very good about myself.
Takeaway: Don’t do reviews like Nigel. He lacked clarity and intentionality, and took my feeling of nervousness and anxiety and played into it, making it worse.
While you may not share my exact experiences with reviews, you probably have your own stories. Whether it’s a poor-quality review or no review at all, it’s no wonder that when performance reviews get mentioned, no one jumps up out of their seat in excitement.
But reviews don’t have to be this way.
An effective performance review fulfills four key purposes.
Memorializes Feedback
There should be no surprises when you walk into a performance review. All the feedback being shared should have already been discussed at a prior point in time. The performance review is a time to look at all of the accumulated feedback as a way to get a big-picture view of your progress and performance, and set goals for the coming season. Feedback should be a part of your culture, not a once-a-year event.
1. Dives Deep
An effective performance review answers the question of how you are really doing. Not just in the day-to-day, but in the long term. How are you progressing toward your professional goals and responsibilities? Where can you level up to continue growing? What character changes have you made that positively impact your future self?
2. Looks Forward
While looking back at your performance is certainly an aspect of performance reviews, looking forward is more critical. Again, your past performance should have already been addressed along the way. In order to perform well in the future, you need to know where you should be going. An effective performance review helps to outline the next steps you need to take to successfully grow and develop in your role.
3. Is Just About Performance
Performance reviews are not pay reviews. Too often, recency bias influences decisions regarding pay. You could have an amazing year with a rough patch in the final month, but what will stick out most come review time is that one bad month. This leaves eleven months of excellent work unrewarded. Pay conversations should be separate from performance reviews to ensure your performance conversation can be about growth and development, not “reward or punishment.”
A winning performance review means that both parties leave the meeting with alignment on what was shared. You come in with no surprises and you leave on the exact same page.
What have your ineffective performance reviews taught you about how to do them better?