Revitalizing Year End Reviews

Welcome back. Many companies are gearing up for the year end performance reviews. Dun, dun, dun. These are essential for employee growth and development. They often evoke that feeling of dread for both the employee and the boss.

Right. Beth Ridley is a leadership expert. She is here with ways that people in charge can make the whole process more positive. Employees probably can help in that. That too.

It's definitely. Hi, good morning. Good morning.

Great to see you. One of the things I was thinking about because I once heard somebody say, if you're going to a parent teacher conference, for example, you should never be surprised by what the teacher says. I feel the same is true of a performance review. You should not be surprised by what your boss is telling you. Right. Because otherwise, if you are, then they haven't been communicating with you all year long.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think that's what happens a lot. And that's why it's so dreaded. People wait to the end of the year to do this big one review of the whole year. So you are going in with a little bit of suspense. Like what are they gonna say? A little bit of dread. Because you have no idea if you haven't been communicating all year long.

Yeah, yeah. Is that one of the reasons that they're so dreaded? Just because it's all your.

It's a lot of pressure to come down to one moment. So that's one reason. And I think the other reason is sometimes it just feels like a formality.

Right.

Cause really what's gonna change after the performance review? You know what I mean? I'm still doing my job. I'm still getting paid the same thing. So it's like one of those things you have to check the bo. I think no one really looks forward to it. Managers don't like to be put in a position where they have to give constructive criticism. It doesn't really feel very good.

Yeah, they're not really trained for it. Some of them aren't.

Yeah, exactly. And even if you are, it's still a little awkward and uncomfortable. And then no one wants to be on the receiving end of constructive criticism. So no one really likes performance reviews.

Well, I have to say, I have a really good boss. I don't dread performance reviews. And it's not because it's just like, oh, everything he says is glowing. But I'm never surprised. He does offer constructive criticism. But that's how people get better. That's how we get better. And so I think you have to think part of it. As an employee, I feel Is going in with a different frame of mind. So how do you feel we can rethink performance reviews to make them less dreaded because we get the dread part.

Yes, you're exactly right. It's all about the mindset. So one, both manager and employee can think of performance reviews as the opportunity to improve on both sides and the opportunity to align. And so a couple of things. And probably your boss does this since you don't dread them. Leaders can set the tone by being open to feedback themselves. So that performance reviews are a two way street and that constructive criticism is seen as a gift. The opportunity to improve. Leaders really set the tone by showing that they're open to feedback and asking for feedback. I think that's a really. Does your boss do that?

Yep. Absolutely.

There you go.

He is really good at that. And Molly's so perfect.

Well, I was going to say there's probably not much to have to say about like how do you do more of what you do to be more perfect? So that's, that's.

But not every boss is Greg.

Right?

That's true.

There are some bosses that do not come at this the right way. So is there any advice you can give for them?

Well, I think the other thing is to normalize performance reviews. And again, Greg is probably doing this so you know, a weekly check in, a one on one. Right. So you're not like sort of waiting for the end of the year for like this one big review that encompasses everything but. But little reviews all along. Greg probably also tells you a lot about what you're doing. Right. I think that's very important. Employees don't hear that enough. But the critique is really specific. Right. So he's probably telling you the situation of what you did, the behavior and the impact. And if it's like weekly all along, it's really easy to have those really specific examples as opposed to, well, your communication wasn't good. You know, what are you supposed to do?

So broad.

So broad. But if it was, well, Molly, in the last staff meeting, you know, you didn't really. You weren't clear about your ask or the next steps. So people were confused. Right. The situation, your behavior, the impact, then you can actually talk about it and talk about ways to improve and it's a lot more constructive.

Yeah, the SBI method.

Sbi.

That's it. I love that.

I was just gonna say it has to be measurable or something you can track. If you're gonna list ways that someone can improve, it's very helpful. If for example, it's like, well, I want you to engage more on social media. Like how about you bump up the number of times you're posting to three times a week. Whatever. It is something that you can actually participate in making that change and that it's somewhat measurable.

Measurable. And there's the support resources to help you. So for example, if you got that feedback, post more on social. Maybe Greg is saying, and for example, Katrina's really good at that. You, you should have a conversation with her because she's a perfect shoe.

You're actually better at it than me. Well, it was just one of those things that in the beginning of our careers that wasn't even a thing that you had to do. And now we're having conversations with the audience, which is terrific. But that is one of what they call the KPIs, right? Your key performance indicators on how are you doing and interacting. So there's a lot of other ways that they can do. Okay. So for employees in that feedback, how should I best receive?

Yeah, well, mindset, be open minded. I know it can be a little hard. No matter if we hear, you know, positive and constructive feedback. The natural tendency is to over focus on the negative.

That's just in nature.

We've got the negativity bias. So you can really practice just listening and not even worrying about reacting or responding. Just listening and seeking to understand. You don't have to actually do anything in the moment. You can take that feedback and sit with it for a day, for a week, consider the source of the feedback again, the behavior, the impact, and then maybe come back with some clarifying questions. But most importantly, what's a course of action that you and the boss can take together to improve?

I like that. And I know people can visit your website too for more resources on how to better receive these reviews and to build a positive workplace culture too. So to rewatch this segment or to send it to a friend or coworker or your boss, you can go to our website, themorning Blood.