Performance Reviews

Performance reviews, or you might call them an evaluation, a year end assessment, an annual review, a development review, performance appraisal, 360 degree review, or even a merit review. whatever you call it, do you just use it as an opportunity to tell someone exactly what you think of them, or is it a chance for you to build relationships and better outcomes together? Well, this is what we're going to be talking about today on how to lead, the podcast for CEOs, founders, and leaders who want the perfect balance of empathy and authority.

My name's Kate Waterfall Hill, and I'll be sharing some ideas from over 30 years of working in business and leadership development.

Before we start the show, here's a reminder that if you want to learn how to become a better leader, do sign up to my free weekly newsletter, or even grab a copy of my book, How to Lead, at waterfallhill.co.uk. So let's kick off with my alter ego, Linda the Bad Manager, and see how she handles performance reviews.

“Yeah, hold on, hold on. What? What's your performance review? What, right now? Oh, apparently I've got to go. Okay, I'll speak to you later. Alright, love. Bye, bye, bye. Oh, it's your performance review right now. What, your annual performance review? So we're actually measuring everything you've done in the last year in the next four and a half minutes because that's all I've got.

Why are you shutting the door? What, because you don't want people overhearing what we're saying? It might be confidential. I doubt it. Um, all right, okay, let's get on with it then. Uh, you did that thing with that project, didn't you? Any problems? No? Excellent. Good, good. Well, keep up the good work. And, uh, try to be, you know, I don't know, more proactive.

How about that? That'd be a good objective. You wanted something that's smart. Oh, all right. Yes, I know what smart means. Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time bound. Yes, I'm well aware. It's been around for a while, you know. You were hoping I'm going to come up with some smart objectives for you, maybe task based ones and personal development.

Um, well, what can I think of? Um, I mean, you know, just do more stuff, you know, better, faster. Oh, look, my phone's ringing. Sorry, got to run. See you next time. Bye. Hi. Yeah, no, that's all done. That's fine. Yeah.”

If that short Linda video made you slightly cringed then that's probably a good thing. That means that you know that's not how performance reviews should be. Today we're going to be talking about turning what often feels like a bureaucratic tick box exercise into something that actually is valuable for everybody involved.

You know what's really interesting that we spend roughly 2000 or so hours at work each year yet lots of managers just can't even spend a couple of hours for a proper performance review once a year. It's like trying to navigate a ship on a long distance journey by looking at your compass once a year for five minutes while running to catch a bus at the same time. We need to break this down into something practical. First of all, the basics. Book a proper time and place, and by proper I don't mean the coffee shop where everyone from accounting can hear about Dave's development needs.

Find a quiet space, book out enough time, and treat it like the important meeting that it is. Your calendar isn't just a suggestion, it's a statement of your priorities.

Now, preparation. If your HR team or your organisation prescribes an assessment tool, then obviously you need to do that. Make sure that you read the feedback from the individual and prepare in advance. If you don't have that, if you're a small organisation without any sort of appraisal system, then perhaps you could use some of these questions I'm going to suggest to you.

Send them to the person in advance so they've got time to think about it. Maybe even reply to you in an email, or bring the answers to the live meeting in person. Questions. What's gone well and why? Quite a simple one, but a good one to celebrate successes and achievements and acknowledge that person's input over the year.

Then ask them what were your challenges and what did you learn? What are your ideas for improvement? What development opportunities do you see? What concerns, questions or ideas do you have? And lastly, and really importantly, what support do you need from me?

This meeting should be a genuine dialogue to build a relationship and also build a conversation so you can actually learn from each other. Unfortunately, lots of managers go wrong here. They treat feedback like a tennis serve. Just whack it over the net and hope it lands somewhere useful.

Instead, I've developed something called the SOEROC model. Think of it as a suggested framework for giving feedback that doesn't leave the other person running for the door and the nearest corner to cower in. So this is how it works. SOEROC. S O E R O C. Situation is the first thing, so set the scene. Be very specific.

At the meeting on Tuesday, for instance. Observation. Share what you noticed. I noticed this happened or didn't happen. Even better. This is explore improvements. Ideas for what might have made the situation better than it was. Result. Discuss the impact. What actually happened? What did it mean?

What was the impact of their action or inaction? Next options. Generate some solutions together, preferably encouraging the other person to come up with the solutions themselves. And then lastly, C for check in. Do schedule a follow up. Don't just say, come and find me if you've got any questions, but actually set an occasion where you're going to meet up to follow up.

Here's a real world example. So instead of saying, Oh my goodness, your presentations need work. Try this. In Tuesday's client meeting, I noticed you had great energy, but the data slides just lost people's attention, I think. What do you think could have made those slides even better? How do you think this impacted our message?

Let's discuss some options for next time, and we'll check in maybe the week before your next presentation to see how your preparation's going. How does that sound? Okay, see the difference? One's a dead end, the other opens a door. Just to recap, SOEROC. Situation. Set the scene. Observation. Share what you noticed. Even better if. Explore improvements. R for result. Discuss the impact. O for options. Generate solutions. And check in. Schedule a follow up. S O E R O C.

And please do discuss objective setting with the other person.

Don't just inflict the goals that you think would be a good idea or expect them to come to the meeting with them. Work on it together collaboratively. I do still love smart objectives, although they're sort of quite old fashioned now. They still do work. So specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

And really try and make these objectives so they are genuinely smart, not just do better or improve things, because these are almost worse than saying nothing at all. They make the person feel judged but unclear about what they should do differently.

I often get asked how to help people set their own objectives, which reflect the company's objectives, particularly if the organization's goals are to say, increase revenue by a certain percentage or be the market leader by the end of 2028. And particularly if the team members don't always have the ability to impact these sorts of targets.

I'm going to break this down now into practical smart objectives that connect individual roles to company goals. we're looking at cascading down these high level objectives to the team and to the individuals.

Let's start with people who are sales or revenue focused.

So their SMART goals could be something like increased qualified lead generation by 15 percent in quarter three, 2025, through targeted LinkedIn campaigns and industry events. So really quite specific. Or maybe convert 25 percent more trial users to paid subscriptions by implementing a new onboarding process by July, 2025.

So really specific. if you've got people who are in more customer service support roles, then perhaps their objectives could be something like achieve and maintain a 95 percent customer satisfaction score while handling 20 percent more tickets per quarter or reduce customer churn by 2 percent through proactive check ins with accounts showing reduced usage patterns.

So you get the idea. It's been quite specific about what you want the person to do. Next, how about product or technical team members? They could be something like complete user research with 50 customers by the end of quarter 2, 2025 to identify the top three competitive advantages.

Maybe reduce bug resolution time from 72 hours to 48 hours by implementing new testing protocols by October 25. For marketing and communications teams, it could be something about increasing brand awareness by achieving 30 percent more social media engagement across platforms by the end of quarter two, or generate 20 pieces of original content highlighting our market differentiators by the end of quarter 325. And then development goals for all levels. It might be something like complete a certification in a relevant skill by the end of quarter two to support new product features, or lead to internal knowledge sharing sessions about your area of expertise, or shadow senior team members for four hours a month to understand strategic decision making.

So the key is to make objectives specific to their role, but clearly linked to the company goals. Keep metrics achievable at their level. Focus on what they can directly influence and include both performance and development goals.

So what I mean by that is task based objectives and personal growth objectives. Ensure the objectives build towards future leadership capabilities where you can and there's an appetite to in the individual.

So making time for your people and really listening to what they've got to say, but also helping them by giving them constructive feedback and setting clear objectives is a really good way to go. And it's even more important if you don't see your team members regularly. If you've got remote workers or people who work from home some of the time, then really do make an effort to make sure that these reviews are meaningful.

The good thing about it is that you can wear your pyjama bottoms if you want to. Just remember to wear a nice top. So a good performance review isn't just about ticking boxes or playing gotcha. It's about creating a space for honest dialogue and growth. Think of it as investing in your team's future.

Just like putting away a bit of money each month, investing time in your team, little and often will build relationships and reap dividends. So a quick summary then.

Book proper time and space. Prepare with those six key questions that I suggested at the beginning. Use the SOEROC framework for constructive feedback. Set genuine smart objectives or other objectives that make sense to you and schedule specific follow ups. Please don't be like Linda. Be the manager you wish you had when you were starting out.

Remember, good leadership isn't just about telling your people what to do, or avoiding them altogether, dare I say. It's about building trust, creating collaborative relationships, and setting clear expectations. And you can do this by spending time with your team, taking performance review seriously, and helping set clear, actionable objectives that are linked to the organisation's goals.

So that's all for this week. If you've enjoyed this episode of How to Lead, do follow for more leadership insights. And remember, if you want a guide by your side, get your hands on a copy of my book, which accompanies this podcast. It's also called How to Lead, and there's a link in the show notes.

Please like, leave a review, and share with your fellow leaders to help spread the word about the How to Lead podcast. I really do appreciate it. And if you have any suggestions for future episodes, please let me know.

Team management doesn't have to be frustrating. You too can enjoy being an authoritative yet empathetic leader. It just takes a decision to be more intentional about your interactions with others. Some great tips for how to influence positive change. And of course, a good guide. Listen more, advise less, lead well.

Until next time. Thank you.