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Information technology's performance review season, and you know the drill. Drag each of your straight reports into a briefing room for a one-on-one, hand them an official-looking document, and then start in with the same, tired chat. Say some positive things about what the employee is expert at, then some unpleasant things well-nigh what he'due south not good at, and stop — wearing your most solicitous smile — with some more than strokes of his ego. The outcome: a mixed message that leaves even your best employees feeling disappointed. But if yous accept the right approach, appraisals are an excellent opportunity to reinforce solid performers and redirect the poor ones.

What the Experts Say
For many employees, a face up-to-face performance review is the nigh stressful work conversation they'll have all year. For managers, the discussion is just as tense. "What a performance appraisal requires is for one person to stand in judgment of another. Deep down, it'south uncomfortable," says Dick Grote, author of How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals. Evaluating an employee'due south job operation should consist of more than than an annual chat, according to James Baron, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management at Yale School of Management. Performance management is a process, he says. "Presumably you're giving a tremendous amount of real-time feedback, and your employees are people you know well. Hopefully your human relationship tin survive aboveboard feedback." No matter what kind of appraisal organization your company uses, here are several strategies to help yous make performance review flavour less nerve-racking and more productive.

Set up expectations early on
The performance review doesn't start with a sit down-downwardly in the spare conference room. You lot must be clear from the starting time how you lot'll evaluate your employees. Grote suggests property "functioning planning" sessions with each of your direct reports at the first of the yr, to talk over that person's goals and your expectations. "You'll meet immediate improvement in functioning because anybody knows what the boss expects," he says. "And it earns you the right to concord people answerable at the end of the year." Listen carefully to your employees' personal ambitions, every bit it will inform the fashion you appraise their work. "Oftentimes managers are evaluating performance without necessarily knowing what that person's career aspirations are. We oftentimes presume that everyone wants to be CEO. But that'south non ever the instance," says Barron. Understanding what your directly reports want from their careers volition assist yous figure out ways to broaden their professional experiences.

Lay the groundwork
About two weeks earlier the face-to-face review, enquire your employee to jot down a few things he'due south done over the last year that he'south proud of. This will both assistance refresh your memory, and "volition put a positive focus on an outcome that is so often seen as negative," says Grote. Next, go over other notes you lot've kept on your employee over the yr: a well-executed project; a deadline missed; the deft handling of a difficult client. Finally, ask for feedback from others in the company who work closely with your employee. "The larger number of independent evaluations the better," says Barron. Nigh an 60 minutes earlier the meeting, give your employee a copy of his appraisal. That way, he can accept his initial emotional response — positive or negative — in the privacy of his own cubicle. "When people read someone's assessment of them, they are going to have all sorts of churning emotions," says Grote. "Let them take that on their own time, and give them a chance to think virtually information technology." Then with a calmer, cooler caput, the employee tin ready for a rational and constructive business conversation.

Set a tone
Too often the face-to-face conversation takes the form of a "feedback sandwich:" compliments, criticism, more niceties. But because there'due south no single, clear bulletin this approach demoralizes your stars and falsely encourages your losers. Instead, choice a side. "Nigh people are practiced solid workers, and so for the vast majority, yous should concentrate exclusively on things the person has done well," says Grote, adding that this method tends to motivate people who are already competent at their jobs. For your marginal workers, yet, do not sugarcoat bad news. Performance reviews are your chance to confront poor performers and demand improvement. "People are resilient," says Grote. "As time goes on, that person is non going to get a promotion and not going to become a raise…You're non doing this person any favors by [avoiding their deficiencies]."

Constructively omnibus
Subsequently discussing the strengths and achievements of your solid performers, ask them how they experience about how things are going. "In near cases you're dealing with mature adults and you'll arm-twist their honest concerns," says Grote. For both solid and poor performers, frame feedback in terms of a "stop, start, and continue" model, suggests Barron. What is the employee doing now that is not working? What are they doing that is highly effective? What deportment should they adopt to exist more than so? By focusing on behaviors non dispositions, it takes the personal edge out of the chat. Give specific advice and targeted praise. "Don't say things like: 'You need to be more proactive.' That doesn't hateful anything. Say something like: 'Y'all need to take more initiative in calling potential sales leads.'" Similarly, "Saying: 'You're an innovator' is prissy but it'south helpful to know exactly what they're doing that reflects that," says Barron.

Hold your ground
The hot push button issues associated with operation reviews are money and rank. If your company allows it, separate any talk of compensation from the performance review. "But if you must, do not save the salary data for the end of the conversation," says Grote, "otherwise there'll exist an invisible parrot in a higher place the employees' head squawking: how much? throughout the entire give-and-take." Rank is some other place for potential bruised feelings. A majority of companies require managers to charge per unit their employees — often on a calibration of 1-5. Your goal is go over the data, and brand a judgment call. Remember: the 1-5 system is not analogous to the A-F grading scheme in school; most employees will get the eye rank, a 3. This might leave some employees feeling let downwards, thinking they're merely "average." Don't cave in. "In the corporate globe, you lot're dealing with a highly selective group," says Grote. "The rules of the game take changed. In schoolhouse, a C was mediocre, merely a 3 in the working earth ways they're meeting expectations. They're shooting par." Conveying that message is a leadership challenge. "People tin can accept it rationally only it may be hard to accept viscerally," he says. "This is why information technology's so of import to concord a performance planning meeting at the kickoff. If they hit their targets, they are a 3. It'due south a goal."

Principles to Remember

Practice

  • Make it articulate at the commencement of the year how you'll evaluate your employees with private performance planning sessions
  • Give your employees a copy of their appraisal earlier the coming together so they may have their initial emotional response in private
  • Deliver a positive message to your good performers by mainly concentrating on their strengths and achievements during the conversation

Don't

  • Offer general feedback; exist specific on behaviors you lot want your employee to terminate, start, and continue
  • Talk virtually compensation during the review; but if yous must, divulge the salary information at the kickoff of the conversation
  • Sugarcoat the review for your poor performers; use the face-to-face as an opportunity to demand improvement

Case Study #1: Understand and set goals together
Ben Snyder*, an expat working in London at a global media company, was new at his job. He inherited an employee, Jim, whose chief responsibility was to travel to Africa, the Middle East, and Russian federation to develop partnerships, which would ultimately drive sales to Ben's business. But Jim wasn't delivering.

"During quarterly performance reviews, Jim and I had long conversations nigh his approaches and the great relationships he was developing. I would tell him how glad I was that people were talking to him, that he was forming these relationships. But I also told him that that we needed tangible deals," says Ben.

This happened for three straight quarters: same conversation, no deals. Increasingly, though, Ben was under pressure: Jim was spending a lot of the company'southward coin with null to show for information technology.

"I needed to scare him into action. At the side by side performance review, I gave Jim 90 days to close a bargain."

Nothing inverse and Jim was eliminated. "Even when nosotros sabbatum down with Hr and let him go, he was genuinely surprised," recalls Ben.

In retrospect, Ben says he went overboard in validating Jim'south spadework, and didn't establish the right tone during their conversations. "The message wasn't clear — Jim but heard what he wanted to hear — the positive praise about the relationship building. He ignored the demand to close deals."

Ben also should take worked harder in the commencement to understand the specifics of Jim's job, and prepare clear expectations. "It was a business I wasn't familiar with. I didn't know how to push him in the correct management considering I wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. I had never actually saturday down with him and defined what success should expect like."

Case Study #2: Be a improve motorcoach
Lucy Orren* worked as a managing director of concern evolution at a biotech first-up in New Jersey. She managed Peter, who was, according to Lucy: "a real star. He was smart, very conscientious, and good at everything he tried." I of Peter'south biggest responsibilities was giving presentations.

"One of the vice presidents at my visitor brought it to my attention that Peter likewise ofttimes used a certain crutch phrase, and that while he was a good speaker, he was very deliberate in the way that he spoke, which was sometimes likewise tedious. She thought it portrayed a lack of energy. I thought it was a relatively minor problem only I decided to bring it upwards in the performance appraisal."

During the face-to-face discussion, even so, Lucy chickened out. "Peter was so good at his job, that I was reluctant to give him whatsoever criticism," she says. "I tried to burrow the advice when we were discussing his strengths. But I sugarcoated information technology too much, and he didn't get it."

At the very end of the conversation, Lucy highlighted areas of improvement. She told Peter to try to be more upbeat during in his presentations. The advice was too vague; Peter wasn't sure what do with the recommendation.

"The next few presentations he gave were pretty rocky. He overcompensated," recalls Lucy.

Subsequently one of his presentations, Lucy realized she needed to exist more specific with her coaching. She warned him of the crutch phrase, and told him to effort to speak faster.

"Peter came through, and improved on every level. He notwithstanding uses the crutch phrase every and then oftentimes, but there is more momentum to his presentations."

*Names have been changed