Page 2 - The MIL Leadership Line: January 2022

Performance Management

Building a high-functioning, productive team.

The performance review looks back, assessing the employee’s performance since the last
review. The annual performance review includes a written evaluation of your employee’s
work performance and a one-on-one conversation to discuss the evaluation.
Managers often panic about summarizing and commenting on people’s performance
during reviews, but the truth is, nothing you cover in the annual meeting should be new
information. Rather, you should be tracking your employees’ goals and giving them
feedback all throughout the year.
Good performance management is a continuous, positive collaboration between you and
your employees all year round. It can make your job a lot easier and help you build a high-
functioning, productive team if your feedback and coaching are consistent.
If you haven’t been consistent with your feedback, it’s never too late to start.

Communication is key.
The best managers use performance reviews as a means for communicating with their employees and strengthening their
relationship. The goals for a performance review should include:

» A review of feedback provided throughout the year
» Highlights of areas of excellence and opportunity

» Time for the employee to share their perspective on their performance
» Discussion of what an employee needs to be successful

Begin to gather both quantitative measures of employee performance, like SLA reports, final deliverables, and deadline
reports, as well as qualitative measures, which could include feedback from clients and customers or your personal
observation. Pull out those notes you took during the year and in your touch-base meetings, too.
If a particular performance problem was not addressed prior to the evaluation, it should not be factored into the overall
rating. In addition, unless particularly egregious, a single incident of a performance deficiency, especially at the beginning
or end of the evaluation period, should not be allowed to outweigh an otherwise satisfactory performance.

Summary tips for writing reviews:
» Make objective statements. Instead of “Jane is frequently late,” provide actual dates or the number of
times (from your notes); for example, “Jane reported late to work without notification on (actual dates)
OR “Joe was late without notification four times during the third quarter.” This will help the employee
identify areas of improvement.
» Choose words that focus on performance, not personality!

» Use action words such as excels, exhibits, demonstrates, grasps, generates, manages, possesses,
communicates, monitors, directs, and achieves are great ways to translate an employee’s performance
onto paper.