11 Tips for How Leaders Can Run Productive Performance Review Meetings

Check you are doing these 11 things in your Performance Review meetings

Performance Review time is stressful for everyone.

We must prepare Performance Reviews for ourselves and our direct reports and keep up with our day-to-day work without missing a beat.

A lot of work if you do it properly.

Don’t ruin all that lovely effort by disengaging your team in the Performance Review meetings.

I’ve had some bad experiences in Performance Review meetings. One time, it was obvious that my manager hadn’t prepared. She also took calls throughout the meeting and told a colleague who knocked at the door with a lunch invite that she wasn’t doing anything important and that she’d be along in a couple of minutes.

Another manager spent the whole meeting talking about himself.

Colleagues and friends had similar stories about leaders who canceled meetings, thought Performance Reviews were a waste of time, and didn’t prepare.

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You can imagine how engaged I felt at the end of those meetings.

If you run productive Performance Review meetings, you’ll increase the trust and engagement of your team. The good news is, with a bit of thought and planning, it’s easy to do.

You can ensure your meetings go well by:

One — Choosing a neutral location

You immediately gain a power advantage if the meeting is in your office. You’re surrounded by all your stuff, you’ve got the good chair behind the desk, and your computer pings when you get an email.

Hold the meeting in a meeting room, a café, or another neutral place. That way, you are both visitors in the space and can sit around a table rather than across from your desk.

If the meeting feels like two people having a conversation, it will go better and reduce the stress for your direct report.

Two — Avoiding cancellations

When you book your team member’s Performance Review meetings, consider what you are doing.

Avoid double booking. Even if you intend to skip a regular meeting to do your team member’s Performance Review, things may change, and you might have to let your team member down.

Please don’t underestimate the stress your direct reports feel preparing for their Performance Review meeting. If you cancel, they’ll go through all that again.

Cancelling your team’s Performance Review Meetings sends a message that you don’t care about your team member, their work, and their development.

Three — Being on time

Always be on time for team Performance Review meetings. Being on time shows respect for your team member, and that you are putting thought and effort into the meeting.

When you book the Performance Review meetings, book out 15 minutes beforehand to prepare. If you have back-to-back meetings all day, it will eat into your time for meetings with your team.

Four — Preparing Thoroughly

Always prepare adequately for the meeting: This means spending a couple of hours thinking about your team member’s goals, training, and development requirements, as well as questions to ask about career aspirations.

You can prepare your team member’s goals by taking everything you expect them to do over the next year and re-phrasing those goals into smart goals.

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Note your direct report’s training requirements, but also ask your direct report what training they think they need.

Five — Ensuring there are ‘no surprises’

The Performance Review meeting isn’t the time to share new information.

It’s not the place to break it to your direct report that they have an issue with detail or lateness. The performance review meeting is not a place for giving constructive feedback.

Six — Managing the environment

Make sure you and your team member are comfortable wherever you are holding the meeting.

Check that it’s not too hot, cold, or noisy, and if you are referring to a laptop or screen, check that you can see it.

Ensure your location is calm, dry, and quiet. Remember that lunch rooms and adjacent training rooms can be loud.

Pick a place where your team member will be at ease. If your direct report is an introvert and dislikes crowds, choose somewhere quiet. If they dislike driving and the location is hard to reach or a long distance away, your team member will arrive tired and flustered.

Loud colleagues interrupting the meeting by knocking on the door or conversing in the corridor are also off-putting.

Take a little time to ensure your environment enhances the experience of the Performance Review meeting rather than detracts from it.

Seven — Being clear

The Performance Review meeting is a two-way discussion between you and your direct report about their goals for the year, development, and career aspirations.

These topics matter to your team members, so ensure you are very clear about the expected outcomes.

Write SMART goals in as much detail as possible. Get your team member to repeat their understanding of what they need to do and give them time to make suggestions or ask questions.

When discussing training for your team members, ensure you are clear on why training is occurring and the objectives of the training. What will your direct report be able to do differently after the training?

Avoid making promises about career progression and training that you can’t keep. If you are surprised by a request from your team member, take some time to consider it before answering.

Eight — Making space for feedback

Ensure there is room for feedback from your direct report.

Your team members may have suggestions about how their goals can be best achieved, the goals themselves, and what training they need to do the task.

Use your active listening skills to listen carefully to your direct report. If they have any good ideas, incorporate them into their performance appraisal.

Nine — Booking in enough time

Allow at least an hour and a half in your diary for the Performance Review meeting and 15 minutes beforehand to prepare.

If you finish early, that’s fine. You both get some extra time in your calendars. However, if you allocate less than half an hour or 45 minutes, the meeting may feel rushed, especially if your team member brings up an unanticipated but complicated issue.

Ten — Making it all about them

The Performance Review meeting concerns your team members, so ensure they have the time and space to speak freely.

It’s tempting to go off on a tangent about something unrelated, but keep the meeting on track and stick to your direct report’s goals, training, and career aspirations.

Eleven — Keeping calm

Attending a Performance Review with a line manager can cause anxiety, so your team members may be nervous.

Some of what you discuss may upset your team members, so think ahead to what these may be.

There may be no budget for training, or your direct report doesn’t want to work on one of the goals you’ve set. Plan what you’ll say if you are breaking news your direct report doesn’t want to hear.

Before responding to any requests with a blunt ‘no’, think about how to compromise or do a workaround.

If one of your Performance Review meetings might be an issue, calm yourself before the meeting. Three minutes of deep breathing and going over your desired outcomes might do the trick.

If you have prepared thoroughly and communicated well with your team members, it is unlikely that the performance review will get out of control.

However, I know some managers who have had direct reports burst into tears or shout in Performance Review meetings.

In this case, stay calm, offer employee assistance, and terminate the meeting. You can meet again when you are both in a better frame of mind.

Try to ascertain the underlying issue that has caused your direct report to lose their self-possession. It may be something that they need support with.

Remember that you always have HR, line managers, or peers to consult for advice.

Final Thoughts

It will likely be productive if you have prepared for the Performance Review meeting with your team.

Remember, you can ensure your meetings go well by:

• Choosing a neutral location
• Avoiding cancellations
• Being on time
• Preparing thoroughly
• Ensuring there are ‘no surprises’
• Managing the environment
• Being clear
• Making space for feedback
• Booking in enough time
• Making it all about them
• Keeping calm

Good luck, and thanks for reading :-)

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