Meets or Exceeds?
Turning performance evals into something more useful
Who doesn’t love a good performance eval?
Totally kidding. Almost no one loves performance evaluation time—not managers, not the employees being evaluated, not even HR (can you say “huge risk?”).
And yet here we are, at the beginning of another year and another performance evaluation season (unless your fiscal year does not coincide with the calendar year, in which case these observations still apply—just not right now).
The intention of performance evaluations is generally good—it’s a time to reflect on how you showed up at work over the past year and set intentions for the year ahead.
The execution, however? YMMV. A lot.
I don’t know that I’ve seen a truly good performance evaluation process across my many years of leadership.
Some are too short to be useful, others are onerously long. Some are extremely rigid, others too free-form. Some are completely manager led—often with little to no employee input—while others lean so far toward everyone but the manager that they fail to connect the dots to the actual work.
Regardless of how imperfect the process may be, there are things you can do as a leader to help you and your employees make the most of performance eval time:
Take your time. The very least you can do is give your employee thoughtful feedback, and that takes time. A colleague recently told me they just “jot down some quick notes” immediately prior to the review session. Since it’s an informal review it’s no big deal, right? Wrong. “Quick takes” risk recency bias—among plenty of other forms of bias. If you’re going to do the review, give your employee’s last 6-12 months of work the reflection it deserves.
Consider others’ input. People show up differently with their managers than they do with their customers, peers, and subordinates. Even if you don’t have a formal 360°review process, there are still plenty of ways to gather this information, directly or otherwise. When asking for feedback, pay attention not just to what people say—but how they say it. And what they don’t say at all. Observe email exchanges, meeting interactions, and unprompted accolades your employee receives. You’d be surprised what you can glean when you start paying attention to the signals.
Be effusive about strengths but selective about growth areas. We all have annoying little habits as well as an array of things—big and small—that we can improve on. Not all of them are equally important. Some gaps may be foundational while others are next-level. Work to clearly identify the one or two growth areas that will have the biggest impact on how your employee shows up over the next year and help put them on the right path to achieve their longer-term professional goals.
Incorporate employee self-reflection. Asking your employee to share their professional goals in advance—as well as reflect on their strengths and growth areas—can be extremely useful in helping you calibrate the conversation. Some people are incredibly self-aware; others, less so. Some are blissfully unaware of their shortcomings; others focus entirely on them. If you have a great employee who is hyper-focused on their weaknesses, you don’t need to pile on—spend your time boosting their confidence, instead.
While performance evals shouldn’t be the only time we’re giving feedback, they can create deliberate space to consider what comes next.
Maybe that means doubling down on what’s working. Or maybe it’s time to course correct and try something different. Either outcome is fine. Both, even better.
Used well, performance evaluations are less about compliance and more about care. Their value isn’t in the form, the rating, or the process itself—it’s in the time spent reflecting and setting clear intentions for the year ahead.
Bonus reads: Both low- and high-performers need guidance. Here’s how to approach conversations with each:
