Confession: I Botched My First Performance Reviews

Are you gearing up for year-end performance reviews? In this week’s Two-Minute Tip, I’m sharing the big mistake I made during my first year of management, and what I wish I’d done instead.

This one’s for both managers and the high-performers receiving reviews. You’ll walk away with a healthier approach to feedback: how to give it, when not to force it, and how to receive praise without needing a “constructive” fix.

• Read the video transcript

  A recent client conversation reminded me that I completely disagree with the way I handled performance reviews my very first year of management.

  In those reviews, I thought that I owed it to every employee to give them both positive feedback and some nugget of constructive feedback. And so I thought long and hard about something constructive to give to each employee. And the truth is, many of them were absolute rock stars, and I ended up just nitpicking at little things, which is so silly.

  So managers, as you prepare for performance reviews this year, I don't want you to feel like you have to bring some piece of constructive feedback to every employee. Instead, if somebody really is just knocking it out of the park, absolutely you can encourage them in ways that you'd love to see them grow and stretch this next year. But it doesn't have to be a piece of constructive feedback. It can just be forward looking on ways to grow and stretch.

  And if you have employees who do need some constructive feedback, I want to remind you that there should be no surprises in the year-end performance review. You should be addressing those things sooner and smaller, not later and larger when they become bigger. And so those should really be addressed throughout the year, not saved for the year-end performance review.

  Lastly, if you are the high performing, high achieving, perfectionist employee, likely you want to receive some piece of constructive feedback in your review because you're always wanting to figure out how to get even better. And I just want to remind you that it's okay if your manager doesn't have some piece of constructive feedback for you. In fact, if they tried to dig something up like I did that first year in management, you'd probably get offended and annoyed that they're nitpicking at something. So receive the positive feedback, continue to grow and stretch yourself. But don't be disappointed if they don't give you any piece of constructive or negative feedback in that review.