Matt Mantione, CAE
Matt Mantione, CAE, is vice president of membership, marketing, and sales at the Transportation Intermediaries Association in Alexandria,
Annual performance reviews can feel arduous and awkward, but your team members deserve constructive feedback to help them succeed. Here’s a way to structure these conversations to set up an open, honest, and comfortable environment for critical dialogue.
Performance reviews often seem painful or unnecessary, and many managers and the people who report to them just want to get them over with quickly. But performance reviews can be the perfect time to enhance your relationship with your team members if you communicate your message well.
How do you get to that point? Let’s be honest: People are understandably sensitive at review time. Since the evaluation focuses on a person’s individual performance, employees may take some feedback personally, fear they’re doing something wrong, or feel unappreciated or overlooked. You must remove the fear ahead of time by setting up the conversation effectively.
In a way, what performance reviews really measure is how well the supervisor communicates the message and how receptive the employee is to the feedback. The success of the review relies heavily on how effective this communication is. Otherwise, the conversation is just noise.
To me, the high-level goal of performance reviews is pretty straightforward—to genuinely communicate in a way that's relevant to the employee, so they understand three things: I’m there to help them succeed. I appreciate what makes them unique. And I care about their continued growth and success. To set up this kind of conversation, it helps to start the performance review using four steps:
Explain your role as supervisor. Starting here helps employees understand that you take your job seriously and care about their success. After all, it’s your job to address anything that is getting in the way of the team’s success. Explain that as supervisor, you will be direct, honest, and open to feedback, even when it’s difficult to hear.
The employee should understand three things: I’m there to help them succeed. I appreciate what makes them unique. And I care about their continued growth and success.
Set expectations of roles. It’s important to lay out clear expectations early to help staff understand the review process and your expectations of them. This conversation will help them understand that you’re empathetic to the process. For example, say that you want them to be open-minded throughout this discussion, to not make any assumptions, and to expect them to ask questions and seek clarity when necessary. In doing so, you must strive to communicate clearly and always allow time for the employee to ask questions. This will you help to avoid one-sided conversation and feelings of bitterness or confusion. You cannot assume that your staff will go into the review with a receptive mindset.
Say what the review is not. Explain what the review won’t entail. This helps create a foundation of trust that can lead to success. For example: This review is not personal. It’s not meant to place blame or find fault. It’s not an argument. Declarative statements like these can help alleviate any fear or resistance an employee might have before a review takes place.
Say what the review is. With my staff, I hit on five main points before going into a formal performance evaluation:
This is not a one-way conversation, so it’s important to ask if the employee agrees with what you’ve explained about the review process. Consider writing some variation of these five statements on a whiteboard or pad to serve as a visual aid that you can refer back to during the performance review.
Of course, the exact language you use may differ depending on the specific needs of your organization and your employees. But making this approach a part of your standard performance review strategy will put you in a better position to build a foundation of mutual trust and respect that leads to productive conversations about employee performance.