This is the time of year when many leaders start to feel that familiar knot in their stomach: performance evaluations. Maybe you’re dreading a tough conversation with a struggling employee. Maybe you’re racing through multi-section forms like you’re trying to beat a filing deadline at the IRS. Maybe you’re wondering how to keep your star performer engaged when salary increases are somewhat demotivating.
There are plenty of resources – some right here at Thoughtful Leaders – for how to give tough feedback and how to support your high performers. But once you survive this cycle, the real question is: How do you make sure next year feels calm, organized, and maybe even satisfying? What practices and structures can you put in place to ease the burden and make evaluation time a positive and productive experience?
Here are the top five things you can do right now to make that happen:
- Create a monthly, non-negotiable reflection slot – Open your calendar and block out a recurring (untouchable!) timeslot to capture feedback and jot down observations about each direct report in a Word doc or journal. Keep it relatively simple – noting achievements, moments of going above and beyond, improvements, gaps, and any concerning behaviors. It’s all about being consistent.
- Build two-way feedback into regular check-ins – Let your team know that moving forward you will incorporate a brief exchange of feedback in your regular check-ins with each of them going forward. This 2X2 framework from The Management Center is a great tool for keeping everyone accountable and open to growth.
- Strengthen your team’s positive feedback culture – At your next team meeting, facilitate a conversation about how to encourage positive feedback and help colleagues recognize and appreciate each other’s contributions. Pick two or three ideas that the team suggests and put them into practice.
- Schedule your future evaluation workload – now – Add a reminder to your calendar eight weeks prior to the next end-of-year performance review cycle. Block out time now for writing the reviews and conducting the performance evaluation discussions. You’ll thank yourself next year.
- Recruit an accountability partner – Find a colleague, friend, coach, or mentor who will keep you honest and on track about doing the small but meaningful actions throughout the year for a smoother performance evaluation season next year.
Performance evaluations don’t have to be a high-stress scramble. When you treat them as a year-round practice – anchored by consistent touchpoints and real-time feedback – you’ll approach the next cycle with more confidence, calm, clarity…and far less caffeine.
If you enjoyed this post, you can read more like it in our book, The Power of Thoughtful Leadership: 101 Minutes To Being the Leader You Want To Be, available on Amazon.
For coaching support to improve your leadership and feedback, contact Robyn at rmcleod@chatsworthconsulting.com.
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