Performance Management Secrets: How the Best Leaders Handle Reviews

<div class="grey-callout"><h2>Key Takeaways</h2><ul>
<li>Goal setting: Establishing clear, measurable objectives is key to effective performance management.</li>
<li>Pastoral care: Managers should monitor employees as a whole, not just their work performance.</li>
<li>Continuous feedback: Regular, constructive feedback supports employee development and keeps performance on track.</li>
<li>Development plans: Customising growth plans for each employee aligns their development with the company's strategic goals.</li>
</ul></div>

Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are crucial to running a successful team and business.

However, you don’t need to wait for a formal performance review to give feedback. When necessary, provide constructive feedback immediately as people often learn best when the time between action and feedback is shorter.

For feedback that can wait, I recommend weekly and monthly meetings:

• Weekly meetings: Usually last 15 minutes. These are a quick opportunity to reflect on the week, identify potential issues, and focus on the week ahead.
• Monthly meetings: More detailed, lasting approximately 45 minutes, explained next.

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Monthly meetings

Before the meeting, the employee scores themselves against their Great Performance Profile, identifying issues that require improvement. Similarly, the manager should also score the employee and notice any scores that are not aligned.

Your goal is to celebrate with staff every month. During the review, recognise the standards they met and note the ones they missed. Encourage employees to strive for even higher standards without being overambitious.

Great insights can often come from new staff who don’t have the “we’ve always done it that way” mentality and may be happy to challenge the status quo. Simply ask, “What impediments are getting in your way?”... “What do you think we could do better?” Always thank employees for speaking up, whether valid or not. Most importantly, never shoot the messenger. Remember, if you don’t follow up, your credibility is gone, and staff will ignore your questions in the future

Monthly meetings are also an opportunity to exercise pastoral care to ensure employees feel emotionally connected to the business. I recommend asking, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction in your role?” I use 1 to 10 for this (rather than the Fibonacci Sequence) because it has been scientifically proven that scores lower than 7 indicate a problem. If someone is too glowing and says everything’s a 10, ask, “What would it take to get you to 11?”

If an employee is going through a rough patch personally (eg. a house move, marital problem or health concern), you must be pragmatic and try to support them. I’ve never met anyone who can compartmentalise their personal and professional lives. Performance reviews must be secondary to well-being.

Avoid having pay reviews simultaneously with performance reviews. Performance reviews focus on development, which can be overshadowed when discussing pay. You may find employees are less receptive to feedback if they think it will have a financial impact. Additionally, while salary should be indexed against personal performance, i don’t want to diminish their intrinsic motivation for doing a good job.

Continue performance managing depending on the category of employee:

• Poor Performers: If they aren’t making progress, consider if they need re-onboarding, or start the Five Step Turnaround Process. 
• Good Performers: While you should continue investing in them, you may find diminishing returns after 12 months. But you do want to keep Good Performers; they meet expectations, are conscientious, don’t require much management, and positively contribute to the organisation’s culture.
• Great Performers: Spend a lot of time with them to learn what makes them successful. Feed this back into the business, and they often have an even greater impact.

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<span class="grey-callout"><span class="text-color-purple">Tip:</span> When you’ve clarified the action you need an employee to take, ask them to verify what they need to do, “Now I’ve explained what you have to do, please can you verify your understanding of what I’ve asked?” I’ve often been stunned by how different an employee’s interpretation is from mine! It’s much better to clear up any confusion immediately than to realise there’s been a misunderstanding weeks later.</span>

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<span class="purple-callout"><p>Are you looking for some advice or hands-on help? Let's chat – get your free consultation.</p><p>Also, be sure to check out my recruiting book for more tips - it's a bestseller.</p><p>I can even advertise jobs on the best UK job boards for just £199.</p></span>

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisition Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment: How to Recruit Great Employees.
• Downloadable PDF guide; Simple Steps to Enhance Employee Retention & Reduce Turnover.
• Downloadable checklist; Checklist for Employee Onboarding.
• Article; Staff Induction Secrets: How to Turn New Hires into Great Performers!
• Article; Improve Employee Retention & Reduce Staff Turnover.
• Article; Staff Training Secrets: Why Your Best Trainers Might Be Sitting Next to You!
• Article; Employee Promotion: Why Merit Beats Tenure Every Time.