Leaders, it’s that time of year when you’re likely cramming in the writing of performance reviews before the calendar turns. Or planning to do it the first week of January. Such a time suck, right?
Want to know the trick?
Before I share it, two things to get off the table:
- The answer isn’t using ChatGPT. I mean, yeah, you can. And with the right prompts perhaps you can get a good starting point. But if you’re spending the time to write good prompts, why don’t you just write the review?
- The answer also isn’t “performance reviews suck.” You’re not wrong, Walter. Most performance review processes are ineffective. And yet, you still have to do it. Do it well.
So what’s the trick to making performance review writing a lighter lift?
If you’ve been giving feedback all year, AS YOU SHOULD BE (yes I’m yelling at you), the actual act of writing the review isn’t hard.
Tedious, perhaps, but not hard.
Your comments sections look like this:
- “As we’ve discussed this year…”
- “As we’ve talked about at multiple points over the year…”
- “The feedback I’ve given…”
And then you briefly summarize the previous feedback and discussions.
(As for the tedium, I’ve found that a glass of wine helps)
This only works, of course, if you’ve been giving them feedback all year.
If you’ve been giving them feedback all year, you DO NOT have to write War & Peace in each comments section of the review.
You also do not have to be concerned about how they’ll react to the review. You know how they’ll react because 1) you know them and 2) you’ve been giving them feedback all along.
But if you get into the review and they either don’t understand it or are surprised, that means YOU WEREN’T DOING YOUR JOB throughout last year. (Yep, yelling again.)
It means you weren’t giving them in-the-moment feedback.
(Unless they’re a narcissist and disregard feedback when given. But since experts estimate that only 5% of the population is narcissistic, chances are pretty good it’s you, not them.)
If you’ve been doing it right and giving feedback all year, pour that beverage of choice, sit back, and whip out those reviews. You got this.
PS – You’re welcome to opine in the comments on how performance reviews are stupid, ineffective, etc. We all know that. And yet most managers still have to do them. This is about making it easier AND more effective.
Hey there, I’m Cynthia. I’m a leadership team whisperer, executive coach, and speaker. I guide leadership teams in high-growth companies to achieve rapid growth in a healthy, sustainable way. I coach senior leaders to discover the path to lead with ease.
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