Transforming Performance Reviews: 5 Strategies to Inspire and Motivate Your Team

Leaders, put aside your to-do list, turn off your phones and any other distractions, and focus intently on giving your team members what they need to be successful contributors to your team. It's that time of year again, performance reviews, whether it's year-end or mid-year. Your team members rely greatly on you for the feedback they need, not only to grow in the role, but to feel valued, supported, and a critical part of your team. And they need to hear that from you. And believe that you genuinely care and support them. So what does it take to lead your team members through powerhouse performance reviews that result in motivated, engaged, and inspired team members who would walk through fire for you? Well, we're gonna discuss 5 keys to powerhouse performance reviews and steps you can be taking as a manager to make that happen. Because as we know, employees are our greatest asset. Now it's time to make them feel and believe that. So stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this. The subject of performance reviews comes up often, and we address it here frequently on Shedding the Corporate Bitch. And the reason being is Far too often, your employees are leaving performance reviews feeling deflated, feeling unsupported, feeling confused still as far as how they've done in your eyes, in your viewpoint, what they need to do to be successful, to be a valued contributor to the team. And they leave feeling unsure of what it is going to take for them to continue to grow and advance in their career. Well, shame on any manager who leaves them feeling that way. So managers, these 5 keys to Powerhouse Performance Review will lend themselves greatly to you being successful in inspiring, motivating, and creating engaged and valued employees and team members. All right. So make note of them and see what you could be doing to change or even shift some of the approaches that you've taken in the past to the performance reviews so that your employees do feel and believe that you genuinely care and support them. All right. The first one is all in the preparation and the way that you organize a performance review. Performance reviews and the process that you need to go through can be cumbersome, can be mundane even. At the same time, you need to put yourself in your employee's shoes and your employee's experience and what they need from you, not necessarily just what little time you have to contribute to the process, contribute to the documentation of one's performance review. You need to prepare and organize yourself, organize your thoughts on this individual, organize the feedback that you want to provide, the strengths, the areas for improvement, the experiences, the encounters, the inputs from other individuals, other sources regarding one's performance. You need to take time to really prepare what it is that that individual needs to hear and needs from you in order to find value, find growth in that feedback. So preparing your thought process, preparing what you want to say, preparing what they need to hear, preparing the areas of strengths, the areas of improvement, the gaps, the skills, the areas that they're contributing greatly to and that they need to work on as they move forward. But preparing all of that and being thoughtful and intent— intentional about what it is that you want to share with them and then organizing it in such a way that is going to feel motivating to them, is going to inspire them, is going to give them energy as opposed to drain them. So there's a big difference between starting off a performance review, which many do, pointing out all the negatives, pointing out all the areas that they've, you know, that they need to improve on or that they've done wrong. You need to organize it and present it in a way that's going to get them engaged, have them leaning in as opposed to retreating and getting defensive before you've even started. All right. And in preparing and organizing your thoughts, organizing how you're going to present it, organizing what is going to be presented is as critical as anything once you get into the performance review. So your first key is going to be in how you prepare and organize what that performance review looks like. And you need to look at it in such a way, I need to mention, of how you're going to document it, but also then how you're going to prepare it. Okay. Uh, so the documentation and the presentation of that information should be closely aligned. However. You know, one can be very, very pointed, very simplistic, very bulleted in how they document it, and then how they're going to convey and communicate it can be, you know, in a different flavor, so to speak. Because the second part of your, or the second key to having a really strong powerhouse type of performance review is going to be clear and constructive feedback, clear and constructive communication, ensuring that what it is you wanna say is very directed, is very specific, is very fact-based, is very illustrative. Many individuals will be very general in their communications, in their feedback to someone. And your employees need specifics. They need the exact situation or example or illustration of that feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. So here are your strengths. Oh, can you help me understand, boss, kind of what that looks like, how others are experiencing that strength from me? What have you witnessed, observed, given been given input on when it comes to my strengths? Same with areas that, you know, I need you to work on. Well, can you give me exact examples of when I performed in that manner or didn't? How I behaved? What the experience was from, you know, another person? What input you might have received from somebody? Specifically detailed. You know, if you don't have the date or the the exact environment that something occurred in, you at least need to be able to remind that individual of that situation and they recall it in order for it to be well received, in order to be a valuable piece of feedback. Avoid generalizations, 'cause they don't have any meaning and any value to the receiver. They can't do anything with it if they can't really see themselves in that situation of, of when they performed or behaved or spoke in a certain way that you're giving them feedback on. So you want to ensure that even with hard feedback, with hard criticism that you need to provide somebody, you need to ensure that it is clear. It is constructive, constructive, meaning that it's going to create a change. There's, you know, as a result of the feedback, it's not gonna just beat somebody down and criticize them. It's going to be well received, acknowledged, and supported in such a way that they agree that something needs to be changed or something needs to be worked on or something needs to continue. If it is, you know, a strength or an expert area that you're also providing feedback on. So number 1 would be you need to be prepared and organized. Number 2 would be that you need to ensure that your communication or any type of, of hard feedback is clear and it's put in a very constructive, motivating, inspiring type of way that's going to create a change if needed, or a strengthening of an area that might be proven to be strong and a strength of that individual. So you want to ensure that, that it's clear and constructive. At the same time, performance reviews are not a one-way conversation. They are a two-way conversation. So in your preparation and organization, in that first key step, of a powerhouse performance review. You should even be coming up with questions you could be asking the individual so you gain a better understanding from their viewpoint, not just from yours or from hearsay, but from their viewpoint as far as their performance, as far as how they're showing up, what they're, you know, contributing, what they're not contributing. And so in the preparation organization, you could be formulating questions that you want to ask them. At the same time, once you get into the conversation, making it very clear and very constructive, very motivating and inspiring, you're asking for their input. You're asking for their insight. You're asking for their understanding. You're asking for their agreement or disagreement. And if there is, then what is their take on the feedback that you're providing them? Please, managers, ensure Performance reviews are not about you and are not, are not just one-sided in support of you. It is all about the employee and they need to be engaged and they need to take ownership and they need to be part of that discussion. It needs to be a collaboration, not just a one-way street of statements you're providing them and expecting that they're just going to take them and receive them. And walk away and do something about that. If you've ever experienced a performance review where you've given feedback or even just a coaching session with an individual and you wondered why they didn't act on it, why they didn't change or shift or do anything about it, it could be because the fact that they never really supported the conversation to begin with, because it wasn't a conversation. It was a one-way. You know, direction that wasn't, you know, kind of respecting how their feedback and their input and their need to dialogue around that piece of information, that coaching that you're providing them. All right. So preparation and organization is number 1, clear and constructive input or communication is number 2. And then again, this isn't about you just simply stating what changes need to be made, what areas need to be continued, you know, to work— be worked on or strengthened, or how they can continue to leverage that expertise or that area of strength that they— that you have provided them. They need to be part of the next steps, the action plan, the goals, the development plan if there needs to be one. If you're, if you're going back to that previous example, if you're not getting a response, not just verbally in that discussion, but post-performance review, if you're not getting a change or any type of adjustment from an individual, you have to question whether or not you made them part of the solution, made them part of the action plan or the development plan, that you got the buy-in and support from them, not necessarily agreement. You know, you might give them feedback that they're not willing to receive or acknowledge and take accountability for, and yet you need something to happen. So you can agree to disagree. You can, you know, kind of agree that they're not seeing themselves the way that others are perceiving them to be. And yet at the same time, you then need to be clear about some behavioral or performance changes that you need to see from them. And, you know, and there— but, but you want to ensure that you have that con— you have, it won't be agreement necessarily, but you have that consensus from them that they will focus and work on and become more aware and conscious of whatever this feedback is and therefore make the changes that you're asking of them. So you want to ensure they're part of the solution, not you're just dictating the solution to them, or you won't get the change that you want. Good, bad, or indifferent. All right. And you want to ensure, number 4 would be, you want to ensure that there's, you know, what I'll call balanced feedback. You want to look at the fact that there are successes, there are strengths, there are accomplishments, there are pieces of input from others that are good, that are strength, that are accolade, that are positive, that are uplifting around an individual, or they wouldn't be part of your team if it if there's nothing in the area, what I'll call of riches of someone. You know, everyone has their talents, their skills, their strengths. That's why they're a member of your team. And because if they're all negative, if they're all shortcomings, if they're all failings, then you'd have to ask yourself, why are they even part of your team and the company? So ensure that the feedback is balanced. And going back to number 2, when it comes to constructive communication, Ensure that you start off on a high so they get, you know, engaged, they lean in, and then work on, you know, incorporating the areas of development, the areas of improvement, the shifts that you need to see from them. Because if you start off the negative right off the bat, you're just gonna get somebody very defensive, somebody who's shut down. They're not even listening to you. They're just hoping that this conversation ends. And, you know, they may or may not sign off on what it is that you've given them. They may not agree to the plan that you defined and want of them because you're dictating it to them. So ensure that there's balanced feedback. There's strengths, there's successes, there's, you know, what I'll call riches incorporated into the conversation. And then any areas for improvement or changes that need to be made. All right. So ensure there's balanced feedback as well as you're prepared and organized, you're clear and constructive in your communications, you're engaging them and making them a partner in the development plan, the goal setting that needs to happen. And then fifth would be that you've provided through your, through your review with them and through that goal setting and that planning with them and that feedback that they're not in this alone, that you are there to support them as they go to work on that plan, those goals that you've laid out together. And that there's, you know, an open-door policy to ensuring that you, both of you, are following up and having a continuous feedback loop to ensure that they have what they need they're making the changes, they're providing you status and updates in regards to it, and that you're there for them, even if they are still kind of falling short in making the changes that are necessary. You know, you have check-ins and follow-ups and points of feedback to where you're catching and helping them along. And trying to identify where the opportunities are, but where the challenges are. So there is a continuous focus going back to them wanting to believe that you genuinely care and support them, that there is this focus on helping them get where they want to go and where you need them to go. All right. So preparation and organization, that, that's where it starts. And then organize that preparation, organizing, put your communication in such a way that it's gonna land, that it's gonna be powerful, that it's gonna be meaningful, that it's gonna inspire and motivate and, and help engage them as opposed to help have them retreating and withdrawing and tuning you out. And then as a result of that, you know, input, you're able to work together on next steps, on an action plan, on new goals or revised goals. Or the same goals, and that you're working on a development plan that might need to be put into place. Or even if everything is, you know, wonderful and peachy and you're an exceptional contributor, there's that developmental plan and those goals that will then, you know, elevate and kind of continue to accelerate that team member forward. Because your goal as a leader is to help others succeed. And therefore that developmental plan is not necessarily always areas for improvement. It's areas for growth and development and advancement. Uh, so that's number 3. Number 4 is that shared or balanced feedback, making sure that you are highlighting all of their riches and you're highlighting also those areas of, you know, areas for improvement, weakness. Things that are really holding them down as opposed to helping them advance. And then the fifth would be that follow-up and that continuous support, always ensuring they know, not only at mid-year and end of year, but throughout day on a daily basis, you're there as their support system, as their leader to help them, to help them grow. All right. So performance reviews, one, are critical to your employee. And you as a manager may feel as if you just don't have time or energy or, you know, even interest in wanting to put any type of effort into your, into those reviews. Maybe you have a lot of team members. Well, a part of that responsibility is ensuring that you're there for each and every one of your team members, providing them the feedback they need and want in order to grow in their role, and that they're, you know, feeling valued and supported and a critical member of your team. So put the time in, put the effort, put the focus, put the intention into that, and you're going to have team members, like I said, that are willing to walk through fire for you. Now, if you're challenged in any way, shape, or form in not just managing your time to where you can put this time in that's needed, but in really formulating and constructing that approach and that, that communication plan and the goals and the developmental plan and even the feedback loop, then be sure to schedule some complimentary time with me. You can go to coachmebernadette.com/apply. Discovery call. Let's have a conversation. In 30 minutes, I can help you put into place what you need in order to have those powerhouse performance reviews. So your team members become those highly functioning, highly successful, highly contributing team members that will help you accomplish your goals and be the powerhouse leader you're meant to be. All right. Again, coachmebernette.com/discoverycall. And let's have a talk. Also, be sure to, to subscribe to the show, follow us so you don't miss a single episode. Okay? And I'll look forward to having you right back here for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Take care everyone. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and gained some valuable insights. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and even LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest episodes. 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