Business performance specialist and “meeting doctor” David Pearl author of Will There Be Donuts? shares tips on how to take the stress out of those dreaded Performance Reviews.
For someone like me, a creative business consultant with a background in the Performing Arts the very word ‘review’ has a rather negative connotation. It summons up a sadistic reviewer making barbed comments about you from somewhere out there in the dark of the theatre or cinema while you cannot defend yourself. The business world is a good deal more civilised (at least on the surface) but the idea of a review can be just as much of a turn off for reviewer and reviewee alike. So next time you lead a Performance Review here are some ideas to make the experience more helpful, easy, effective and (why not?) enjoyable for all concerned.
From my experience in the businesses of Europe we are hardwired to expect that a review means criticism. And usually negative. People expect deep down that a review is about what we are doing wrong. This creates tension for both parties – giving and receiving. If you are leading a Performance Review, criticism is the last thing you will need to do. Remember, the person opposite you is probably their own most stringent critic – they’ll say worse things about their performance than you ever will. Knowing that, you might open with a question like ‘how do YOU think it has been going?’, ‘what areas would you want to improve?’ A performance review is a precious moment when you can hit the pause button, stop the noise and have a real conversation. Not a brutal conversation. And not feedback disguised as a conversation. A Real Conversation is transparent, complete, business-focussed and well researched. It’s a flow of information between the parties, not a broadcast from one to another. It also goes ‘below the waterline’ if it needs to, encouraging people to say what they feel not just what they think. If you set up the Performance Review in this way, it will be something people look forward to rather than dread.
All those nice books on feedback tell you to start with something positive, move to something constructive and then end with a nice positive coda. This may have worked once but it has become a cliché and, from my experience, people would rather you were just clear and direct with them. Remember, they are probably saying worse things about themselves than you ever will. There are two main types of directors in the Arts world. One will button hole you after a performance to tell you what you did wrong and are not to do again. The second will tell you what went well and then demand you give them MORE of it! They can shout and stamp and the performer will happily take it because we know the director absolutely believes in them. I know which type I prefer and which has encouraged the best performance out of me. It’s what I call being ‘Fiercely For’ somebody. You focus on what they do well and then pull, cajole and inspire even better out of them. If your Performance Reviews lack a bit of energy it may be because you are being too polite and measured. Add some dynamic by being Fiercely for the person you are reviewing.
The Performance Review sometimes suffer from the fact that it’s an isolated event that happens once or twice a year. It’s easy for people (you included) to become anxious as this milestone approaches. See if you can weave mini reviews throughout the working week, months and year so it’s a cumulative, ‘nothing-special’ process where you are continually refining and refreshing performance as you go. In many organisations the word performance has become synonymous with ‘high performance’. And that generally means getting a lot done in not much time. Volume and speed of output is clearly only one aspect of performance. Again, drawing on the performance world I often suggest clients explore together; how the performer did what they did; what colleagues and customers made of the performance; how sustainable this level of performance was/is (are they going to burn out?); what they did ‘wrong’ but was worth trying in a spirit of experimentation how they feel about what they did – triumphs and disasters.
