Prepare to Discuss Performance
It’s that time of year when people are anticipating performance discussions. These discussions are so important, yet people tend to dread them and fail to properly prepare for them as well.
Performance discussions should never be:
- The first time you’ve spoken about performance all year
- A surprise
- Linked to a specific pay curve (don’t even get me started on this one)
- Given by someone who doesn’t know you or your work
- One-sided
Leaders:
If you are in a leadership role, you owe it to yourself and your people to talk to about performance throughout the year. Great leaders have an ongoing dialogue about performance with their people throughout the year because they see their role as leading the team every step of the way. There’s an ongoing dialogue about performance. There’s a trusting, respectful relationship. There’s a sense that you’re in it together and you’re sharing success and failure.
If, on the other hand, you’ve waited until year-end, then you’ve fallen short of being a great leader. There may be many reasons why you’ve not talked to them throughout the year about performance, but you aren’t leading and aren’t managing performance either.
Ask yourself where you’ve lost your way. Did you ensure that the employee’s objectives were clear and achievable at the beginning of the year? Did you check in with the employee to see how things were going? Did you avoid talking about poor performance because you thought it would improve on its own? Do you feel a sense of ownership for helping the employee succeed? Is leading really for you?
Employees:
My advice to you is to prepare for all performance-related conversations. Don’t allow yourself to feel that your voice doesn’t matter. Prepare to talk about your key achievements. If you had specific metrics, talk about how you did against them. Describe ways that you went above and beyond the requirements of the job. Be prepared to describe what you want to do next and how you can help the team and/or organization succeed.
If you fell short of expectations, you must express what happened and what you need to succeed going forward.
If your manager says something that simply isn’t true and/or isn’t supported by data, you should ask for clarification and then respond accordingly.
Quick Story:
Years ago, I worked for a guy who wanted his administrative assistant to take more interest in him personally. He wanted someone to handle his dry-cleaning and personal things like that. I wasn’t hired to do that for him. In my annual review, he said that I (a) worked like a machine and (b) didn’t seem to have any interest in managing his personal affairs.
I listened to his commentary very carefully. I knew that I was doing the job I was hired to do, but obviously not the one he wanted me to do. With that in mind, I said something along the lines of “thank you for acknowledging that I work hard. I was hired to oversee the sales data and resolve issues in the field. My objectives are related to that work. Do you have any concerns with my production there? The answer was “no.”
By this point, I knew I didn’t want to work for him anymore, but it was important for me to steer him towards my performance against the actual objectives he helped create. Soon thereafter my previous manager hired me to work with him again and the guy who wanted me to oversee his personal affairs hired someone who was more willing to do that kind of work.
With the above in mind, I hope that your year-end conversations are thoughtful and geared towards enabling success and a sense of purpose no matter what your role is in the company.