But it doesn’t have to be such a chore. When done well, performance reviews are an incredibly valuable exercise that enables a manager and direct report to track growth over time, align on how the work impacts what matters most to the business, and build a more open and trusting relationship. The conversation should flow both ways — a back-and-forth dialogue, not a lecture.
That’s why we combed the Review archives for the best frameworks and advice we could find for both managers and direct reports to make performance reviews a worthwhile — not just headache-inducing — endeavor. From the documents to use to prep for these conversations ahead of time, to the question prompts that yield insightful conversations, to reflection tools that put feedback into practice.
We also reached out to a bunch of sharp folks in the First Round community for their best tactics on delivering feedback more effectively and how to take the constructive criticisms delivered in stride.
Source: First Round Review
Subjects: Coaching, Human Resources, Management, Training & Development
- 3 Biases That Hijack Performance Reviews, and How to Address Them
- 360 Feedback: The Fundamentals
- 360-Degree Feedback
- 9 Magic Metrics Your Organization Needs to Adopt
- Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead
- Adam Bryant, David Reimer
- Ahead of the Curve: The Future of Performance Management
- An Imperfect Test: The Problem with Job Performance Appraisals
- Anna A. Tavis
- Appraisal Vs. Performance Management
- Appraising Performance Appraisals
- Assessments: Connecting Employees With the Performance Improvement Process
- Author’s Choice: Performance Reviews on Steroids
- Bill Schaninger
- Bob Sutton
- Bryan Hancock, Bill Schaninger
- Carole Robin: Feedback is a Gift
- Conducting a 360-degree Appraisal
- Cost of Measuring
- Dick Grote
- Dick Grote, Peter Drucker
- Discussing 360 Feedback Results: Meeting Guidelines`
- Don’t Redesign Your Company’s Performance Appraisal System, Scrap It!
- Don’t Waste Time and Money
- Douglas Stone
- Encouraging Your People to Take the Long View
- Extreme Review for Extreme Project Management
- Flawed Feedback: The Problem with Peer Reviews
- For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls
- Forced Ranking: Behind the Scenes
- Forced Ranking: Making Performance Management Work
- Forget About CEOs, How Should We Pay Employees?
- Four Ways to Improve Your Pay-for-Performance Plan
- Gallup
- Getting 360 Degree Reviews Right
- Good Job – Kind of, Sort of
- How Leaders Can Master the Art of Accountability
- Incentives for a Strong Leadership Culture
- Is Performance Management Performing?
- Iván Marinovic: Why Honest Job Appraisals Can Be Bad for Business
- Katherine Klein
- Kill Your Performance Ratings
- Marcus Buckingham
- Max Ventilla
- Meritocracy without the Numbers
- Passing Judgment
- Paul J.H. Schoemaker
- Performance Management and the Pony Express
- Performance Reviews: Perilous Curves Ahead
- Peter Cappelli
- Pull, Don’t Push: Designing Effective Feedback Systems
- Reinventing Performance Management
- Research: How Ranking Performance Can Hurt Women
- Retooling 360s for Better Performance
- Robert Sutton
- Sam Altman
- Scrap Performance Appraisals
- Setting Goals When Performance Doesn’t Matter
- Should Performance Reviews Be Fired?
- The Dangers of Using 360° Feedback for Performance Appraisal
- The End of Annual Performance Reviews: Are the Alternatives Any Better?
- The Folly of Forced Ranking
- The Four Disciplines of Sustainable Growth
- The Fundamentals of Performance Management
- The Key to Performance Reviews Is Preparation
- The Secrets of Performance Appraisal
- The Ten Most Common Errors in Developing Performance Measures
- Transforming Workforce Performance in the New Business Reality
- Try Feedforward instead of Feedback
- Uncommon Wisdom: Why Great Leaders Don’t Reward Results
- What if Performance Management Focused on Strengths?
- What Really Happens When Companies Nix Performance Ratings
- What Your Performance Management System Needs Most
- What’s to Be Done About Performance Reviews?
- Why ‘Forced’ Job Rankings Don’t Work
- Why You Should Think Twice About 360 Performance Appraisal
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