No Surprises: The Rule That Fixes Performance Reviews

If you ask people how they feel about getting their annual review you'll often hear some version of “I just want to know how much my annual increase is going to be.”, or “I hope it goes well, but you never know. I just want it to be over with.”

If you ask leaders how they feel about giving annual reviews, they might complain about how much time it takes to write and deliver a quality review. They may even fear their employees won't view the review as thoughtful and fair.

The unfortunate truth is performance reviews can be an exercise that everyone dreads. The employee walks in unsure of what to expect. The leader walks in hoping the meeting goes well, but lacks confidence. Too often somewhere in the conversation, something comes up that catches one of them off guard, creating confusion or disappointment.

Here's the fix: Nothing in a performance review should be a surprise.

You set competencies at the start of the year. You shared the standard for success up front. You've been giving feedback all year long. By the time you sit down, the review is a summary of conversations you've been having for months.

While that process sounds obvious, it's also rare, because the tools most managers use are not aligned to support it.

This toolkit is built to eliminate surprises and support an aligned performance review process.

Performance Appraisal Toolkit

Our Performance Appraisal Toolkit provides three tools that work together, all built around the no-surprises rule.

The Performance Appraisal Form supports getting input from both sides. The employee completes their self-assessment first, in their own words, allowing them to highlight their challenges and successes. You review what they wrote, then add your comments and ratings.

The Leader's Guide is the part most templates leave out. It walks you through choosing competencies of performance, setting the annual calendar of events, checking your bias before you write comments and assign ratings. You’ll set the stage so both you and the employee walk into the meeting with full confidence of what you’re about to discuss.

The Performance Coaching Log is where conversations are recorded throughout the year. Make a quick note after each coaching session, and by review time you're not faced with trying to reconstruct twelve months of performance from memory. By using this log regularly, the annual review nearly writes itself.

Word, PDF, Excel, and Google formats.

To your success,

Richard

Founder, Leadership-Tools.com

P.S. The best review meeting is the one where the employee already knows everything you're about to say. Meeting with full transparency is the goal. Your employees will thank you for it.