Conducting Performance Reviews

Performance reviews often leave people deflated. But the ones that inspire? They focus on potential, not just performance. Here’s how to create those conversations: 1 / Be specific about what you observed Use the SBI model to share it clearly. → Situation: When and where it happened → Behavior: What you observed, not your interpretation → Impact: How it affected the team or results 2 / Challenge them because you care Radical Candor isn’t about being nice or tough.  It’s about doing both. → Make criticism immediate and specific → Show you care about their growth → Praise publicly, critique privately 3 / Use language that opens doors The words you choose shape how people receive feedback. → “You’re not good at this” shuts people down → “You haven’t mastered this yet” creates possibility → That one word — yet — shifts everything 4 / Don’t hide feedback between compliments People remember the start and end better than the middle. → Give praise when you mean it → Give constructive criticism when it’s needed → Keep them separate 5 / Focus on where they’re going When the conversation is about the future, it motivates. → What would success look like for you? → What support do you need to get there? → What skills do you want to develop? 6 / Ask for their perspective too Performance reviews shouldn’t be one-sided. → Have them complete a self-assessment first → Compare notes together in the meeting → They often already know what needs to improve Performance reviews don’t have to be dreaded. Your team wants honest feedback. They just want it delivered in a way that sees their potential, not just their mistakes. ♻️ If this resonates, repost for your network. 📌 Follow Amy Gibson for more leadership insights.

Lots of managers are giving performance reviews right now. Most are wasting everyone's time. Why? Because they're giving feedback like: "Be more proactive" "Show more leadership" "Improve your communication" "Take more initiative" That kind of feedback sounds helpful, but it usually just leaves people frustrated. ❌ It tells people they're falling short without showing them how to improve. ❌ It creates anxiety without providing direction. ❌ It wastes the single best opportunity to drive real change. There's a better way. Every piece of feedback needs three elements: 1. Specific situation 2. Observable behavior 3. Clear impact The feedback formula: "When [situation], do [behavior] to achieve [impact]." Vague vs Specific: ❌ "Be more proactive" ✅ "When you spot potential issues, raise them immediately in our daily standup so we can address them before they impact deadlines." ❌ "Improve your communication" ✅ "When you have project updates, share them in our team channel within 2 hours so everyone stays aligned without extra meetings." ❌ "Show more leadership" ✅ "When in meetings, actively ask for input from quiet team members so we get diverse perspectives." Strong feedback always answers: ↳ What exactly needs to change? ↳ What does success look like? ↳ How will it impact others? Your team can't read your mind. Don't let another review cycle pass with feedback that sounds good but changes nothing. ♻️ Repost to help other leaders give better feedback 🔔 Follow LK Pryzant for more practical leadership insights 📌 Subscribe to my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gcQ59XXS

Most performance reviews try to do two jobs at once: 1️⃣ Pick between people for pay, promotion, and roles. 2️⃣ Develop people by finding strengths and gaps. These goals pull in opposite directions. Why this clash happens (brain + math): 🧠 Brain: When a review affects your pay or job, your brain reads it as a threat. Stress goes up. Learning shuts down. Feedback feels like a warning, not help. 🔢 Math: If you focus on ranking people clearly, everyone’s profile looks the same and you lose detail about strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on rich, detailed feedback, clear rankings get fuzzy. You can’t optimize both at the same time. The fix isn’t “blend them better.” You need a third way. Build two separate tracks with different goals, timing, and rules. Track A — Allocate (between people) - Purpose: pay, promotion, role, and staffing decisions. - Timing: set times (e.g., twice a year). - Evidence: common criteria and comparisons across people. - Norms: fairness, consistency, clear documentation. Track B — Develop (within people) - Purpose: growth, new skills, behavior change. - Timing: ongoing, low‑stakes coaching in regular 1:1s. - Evidence: specific behaviors and goals; focus on the future (“feedforward”). - Norms: psychological safety, curiosity, experimentation. Design moves that make it work: 👉 Separate the moments: Never mix ratings or money talks with coaching time. 👉 Separate the artifacts: Use different forms and language for each track. 👉 Separate the roles: Talent review leaders handle Track A; managers/peers coach in Track B. 👉 Give employees a voice: Enable upward feedback and self‑nominations for growth or promotion. 👉 Aim at behavior and the future: Be specific about what to try next, not who someone “is.” Employee gut‑check: “Is this feedback or a warning?” If people can’t tell, the system isn’t truly separate yet. When we honor the polarity—allocate separately, develop safely—performance management can actually serve both business goals. #EmployeeExperience #PerformanceManagement #Leadership #HR

Personality Traits Don’t Belong in Performance Reviews Performance reviews should focus on skills, outcomes, and behaviors—not personality traits. An article by Suzanne Lucas for Inc. Magazine highlights a troubling finding from Textio: ✅ 88% of high-performing women receive feedback on their personality compared to only 12% of men. When men do get personality-related feedback, the descriptions differ significantly: Women: "Collaborative," "nice," or "abrasive" Men: "Confident," "ambitious" This disconnect reflects stereotypes that don’t help anyone grow. What NOT to do in performance reviews: ❌ Describe someone as "introverted" (personality-based language). ❌ Focus on general traits like "nice" or "helpful" without linking them to outcomes. What TO do instead: ✅ Address observable behaviors and impact: Instead of: "You're too quiet." Say: "I noticed you didn’t contribute in meetings; your ideas could add value if shared." ✅ Focus on outcomes: Highlight measurable results, goals, and areas for development tied to skills. ✅ Offer actionable feedback: Provide steps to improve performance, like asking someone to prepare discussion points to engage more actively. By focusing on behaviors, outcomes, and skills, reviews can help employees grow without reinforcing unhelpful biases. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gWTeTw5a What do you think? How does this impact women of color? How can we improve feedback processes to create fairer, more -actionable- reviews? #LeadershipDevelopment #PerformanceManagement #InclusiveLeadership

As a manager, do you think performance reviews are meant to ensure that the top performers receive the highest salary hikes and promotions? Or Is it about providing constructive input to team members about what they need to fix? Do you see yourself in any of the above scenarios? How do you feel as you go through the process of performance reviews? If words like stressed, fatigued, or anxious come to your mind, let me share a reframe that might help you. Performance review is not a once-in-a-year event but a continuous dialogue. As a manager, it is a way for you to give attention to your team. This attention includes – 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 and helping them lean into it for more self-discovery. What worked that resulted in good performance? What did they love about it? What were they challenged by? In what other scenarios can they replicate this performance? What does doing even better look like? Who can they help learn what they are good at? 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 or overlooked when they did not get the optimal result. What were they hoping to achieve? What assumptions were they working on? Discussing what would have been optimal and double-clicking on the alternate behaviors or actions that might have worked. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 your team needs and how to facilitate that. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 -  ⛔An assessment of the person. It is an assessment of the performance. ⛔Continuous attention to what needs to be fixed. If you adopt the abovementioned approach to give attention to your team members, the year-end performance review discussion will likely cause less stress. These reviews may be data points for who gets promoted and receives how much salary hike, but your data points would be based not only on your perception of team members' performance but evidence of results, consistency in performance, growth mindset displayed, improvement shown over the year and quality of interactions within and outside the team. It would align with your role as a manager to make each team member feel seen for who they are and help them do their best work.

Had a manager tell me performance reviews take 3-4 hours per employee to write. Meanwhile, he has zero notes from their weekly 1:1s. He's basically writing fiction based on memory. This happens everywhere. We spend months preparing annual reviews while completely ignoring the 50+ conversations that actually happened. The disconnect is CRAZY. Your 1:1s contain all the performance data you need. Career discussions, goal progress, challenge areas, growth moments. But we treat them like throwaway conversations instead of performance goldmines. The smartest leaders are connecting their ongoing conversations to formal reviews. They're documenting insights in real-time. They're tracking themes and patterns. They're building reviews from actual data, not gut feelings. Performance management shouldn't be an annual guessing game. It should be the natural culmination of months of meaningful dialogue. Stop writing reviews from scratch. Start building them from your conversations. #PerformanceManagement #DataDrivenLeadership #ManagerEffectiveness #HRStrategy

Are your performance reviews based on facts or feelings? Over the weekend, I was co-mediating a case for the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) The respondent in the case was asking for evidence during the dispute resolution process He said that evidence will: ⚖️ Help stakeholders understand the issues & the real problem ⚖️ Avoid misinterpretations ⚖️ Build credibility ⚖️ Strengthen arguments in the case ⚖️ Save time as the evidence can lead towards settlement As I replayed the respondent’s words on my way home, I drew parallels with employees currently going through mid-year performance reviews Performance reviews can be uncomfortable for both managers & employees What often makes them hard is when they’re built on vague comments, selective memories, opinions or subjective feelings These conversations should be grounded in observable behaviours & measurable outcomes This means evidence! Evidence-based conversations, sticking to facts, are when meaningful performance reviews happen That’s where 360 feedback plays an important role 📃 The evidence! It’s not just about what the manager thinks It’s about how others have experienced working with you When you bring in feedback from peers, cross-functional collaborators, direct reports or other indirect managers, you start to paint a more complete, balanced picture of performance & impact 360 feedback helps shift the conversation from: ➡️ “I feel like you need to improve your collaboration” to ➡️ “Several of your colleagues shared specific examples of when collaboration was a strength & where it could be stronger” It turns a potentially defensive conversation into a developmental one 360’s are important because people are more likely to accept & act on feedback when it’s grounded in evidence It also helps reduce bias by incorporating multiple data points & is not just the manager’s perspective In my experience, the best performance conversations are built on: ✔️ Observable behaviours (the evidence) ✔️ Impact on team & outcomes ✔️ Multiple perspectives When done right, 360 feedback isn’t just a tool, it’s a powerful process to provide evidence & shift mindsets How do you ensure your performance reviews are rooted in evidence & fairness? Share your tips in the comments below 👇 📷: Photo taken at satellite mediation location that reminded me of a setup for a performance review conversation ---------- #Mediation #coaching #mentoring #Leadership #PeopleDevelopment #HR #career #careermanagment

Most startups make the same performance review mistakes. They either skip them entirely ("we're too small") or mimic what Big Tech does ("let's do 360s for our 15-person team"). Here's the framework I use to design review cycles that fit for different sizes and stages: Frequency by stage: 0-35 people: Quarterly development reviews 35-200 people: Semi-annual reviews (with optional off-cycle developmental check-ins). Combine compensation and performance reviews at this point. 200+ people: Annual reviews (with optional off-cycle developmental check-ins) Timing matters more than you think. Don't plan promotions and merit increases during low cash flow periods. While January and July are classic review times, if March and September are bad cash flow months for your business model, move your performance review schedule. Review complexity should scale with headcount AND experience: Start with self + manager reviews (180°), even at 1,000 people if you've never run reviews before. Add peer feedback (270°) after 1-2 successful cycles. Full 360s only when you're ready for the complexity. Once you’ve moved to semi-annual reviews with compensation considerations included, it helps to run a tight schedule with clear week-by-week deadlines: Week 1: Self and upward reviews due Weeks 2-3: Downward reviews due — 2 weeks help here for managers with 5+ direct reports and stragglers who were OOO for the whole self and upward review week Weeks 4-5: Manager calibrations Weeks 6-7: Real-time performance review conversations and compensation decision-making Week 8: Compensation and promotion decisions shared Week 9: Title and compensation changes go into effect Tool threshold: 20 people. Below that, Google Forms works. Above that, invest in something like Lattice (my recommended tool)—the time savings on scheduling and reminders alone pays for itself. The biggest mistake? Treating performance reviews like an HR project instead of a business process. Get the sequencing and feedback mechanisms right, and they become a strategic advantage. More tactical details on building review cycles that scale coming in my next newsletter. __ 👋 I'm Melissa Theiss, 4x Head of People and Business Operations and advisor for bootstrapped and VC-backed SaaS companies. 🗞️ In my newsletter, “The Business of People,” I share tips and tricks that help People leaders think like business leaders.

The biggest lie about performance reviews? That good work speaks for itself. But the pros don't just sit there during a performance review. They walk in with a strategy to control the narrative. Unprepared, you risk your opportunities for growth and advancement. Preparation means: ➙ Going in with talking points ➙ Documenting evidence of your impact ➙ Knowing how to manage your emotions ➙ Having a list of desired outcomes If you want your review to open doors, here’s a step-by-step playbook I developed based on work with clients who range from stellar to folks at risk of a PIP. Preparation: Set the Stage 1. Document Your Wins ↳ Write a 1-pager of your accomplishments ↳ Include outcomes, collaborations, and new skills ↳ List duties you took on outside your job description. 2. Link Work To Business Goals ↳ Show how your work connects to team priorities ↳ Be ready to describe the business impact of your work ↳ Practice your talking points to build confidence 3️. Use The Self-Assessment To Set The Tone ↳ Complete the self-assessment objectively ↳ Highlight strengths and choose 1–2 growth areas ↳ Share the development steps you’d like to take 4️. Get Clear On Your Ask ↳ Decide if you're aiming for a raise, promotion, or path ↳ Note a target & rationale ↳ Alert your manager so they can talk specifics 5️. Anticipate Feedback ↳ Know shortcomings and negatives ↳ Plan your response to positive feedback ↳ Prepare responses that convey maturity In the Meeting: Manage the Dynamics 6️. Notice, Name, and Pause ↳ Be alert to emotional activation ↳ Silently name it (tightness, heart racing) ↳ Pause instead of immediately responding 7️. Listen Actively and Focus on Facts ↳ Listen & paraphrase what you hear ↳ Ask questions to understand expectations ↳ This lowers the emotional temperature 8️. Respond to Emotion Authentically ↳ Don’t jump into debate mode ↳ Keep calm “That's disappointing. I expected [a stronger rating].” ↳ Then ask for data and examples 9️. Build A Concrete Development Plan ↳ Discuss measurable outcomes tied to a promotion ↳ Agree on development & training ↳ Ask: “What would strong performance at the next level look like in the next year?” After the Review: Turn Insight into Advancement 10. Set Expectations ↳ Ask for details about a timeline to achieve your goals ↳ This turns vague reassurance into negotiated criteria ↳ Restate your understanding and address confusion 11. Follow Up And Check In ↳ Send a brief email noting wins, feedback, and agreements ↳ Include compensation/promotion and timelines ↳ Propose quarterly check-ins for accountability 12. If Decisions Stall, Advocate Professionally ↳ If timelines slip, ask for a meeting ↳ Restate agreements clearly and confidently ↳ Ask, “What’s the best path to move this forward?” 🎉You've got this and I've got you!🎉 🔖 Save this so you'll have it when you need it ♻️ Repost to share these strategies with others 🔔 Follow Sarah Baker Andrus for more career strategies

Performance reviews should start with: "Here are some of the opportunities I've been noticing for your performance." And be immediately followed up with: "In what ways have I contributed to this and/or created barriers to your success?" Many times, "low performance" is an indicator of a lack of inclusion or an inequity. That is not a personal failure of the employee, it's a system failure. Examples: "I've noticed that you don't speak up much in meetings." "How have I created a culture in our meetings that have made you not feel safe to speak up?" "I've noticed that you frequently miss deadlines." "How have I fallen short in making expectations clear?" "I've noticed that often miss details on your reports." "How is the structure of report writing not in alignment with your skillset?" Managers and leaders: the performance of your employees is as much of a reflection on your #leadership and #management as it is of their own individual effort. When you conduct a performance review with your supervisees, it's an excellent opportunity to do a performance review of yourself and the environment you have or haven't created. It's easier--and less effective--to put the onus on the employee to change behavior. It's harder--and more effective--to change systems and processes in order to ensure success for everyone.