“Dear Mister Funky T-Shirt Gentleman, I do require your adroit guidance as an experienced manager of humans, for I must facilitate a most efficacious solution to my discommodious managerial administrative dilemma.”
Dude, are you drunk on ChatGPT?
“Well, I, uh, AI is the next big thing. I like to be cutting edge.”
Talk to me about your problem.
“I’m slammed with performance reviews.”
Reviews are part of your job as a manager.
“But I’m slammed. I have one day to write up my reviews. And I have other stuff on my plate.”
How many performance reviews do you need to write up?
“I’ve got five direct reports.”
One day to write five reviews.
“That’s right.”
Why are you scrambling to write performance reviews at the last minute?
“Because, you know, it’s that time of year.”
Meaning that performance reviews are due at the same time every year.
“Right.”
And you waited until the day before the deadline to start working on your team’s reviews.
“Like I said before, I have other stuff on my plate.”
Now, tell me the real reason you waited until the last minute to work on your team’s reviews.
“Much as I hate to admit it, I don’t like writing performance reviews.”
Lots of managers don’t like writing up performance reviews. Yes. I typed the great unsaid! To clarify, I’m referring to the effort involved in writing a review and not the merits of presenting a review. Most managers recognize the value of highlighting achievements and setting career development goals for their direct reports. The dislike for writing reviews stems from a lack of preparation. Managers with the averse mindset usually wait until the last minute to write reviews, using excuses to downplay their lack of preparedness. Instead of a thoughtful exercise, the performance review writing process becomes like cramming for a major exam.
Welcome to the cat dimension.
Several days before performance reviews are due, latecomers find themselves like the flustered girl on the T-shirt, overwhelmed. She opened the portal to the mysterious cat dimension. She didn’t expect an endless procession of felines. Maybe our portal opener had an excuse for her actions. Managers know the performance review playbook. Rinse, lather, repeat – every year. We can’t make excuses for not being prepared.
“It’s hard for me to write reviews.”
I’ve been in your shoes. Earlier in my career, I burned the midnight oil to write up performance reviews. That proved to be a frustrating process. I mean, who needs needless stress! Continuous improvement is my thing. I’m always looking for a way to improve a process. That prompted me to ponder: Why do so many managers dislike writing performance reviews? Two main reasons:
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Lack of summarized performance data
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Absence of clear growth and development goals
Performance review cycles tend to be semi-annual or annual. Lots of time passes before a review is due. The review form almost always includes a section to cite previous accomplishments from the review period. Given the broad time frame for a review period, managers need to look back many months to collect data about their direct reports’ accomplishments. We end up researching, parsing and collating months of performance data. That’s not counting the part where we have to compose the written review. Of course, we’re not looking forward to this daunting task. The anticipation causes us to punt and punt and punt – until we can’t kick the can down the road any further. We have to meet our deadline so we burn the midnight oil. Same as last year. But not next year!
The next section of a typical performance review is forward looking, focusing on growth and development areas. Another reason a lot of managers don’t like writing performance reviews is a lack of readiness with their growth and development goals. Growth and development should be a continuous, collaborative process between a manager and direct report. When we find ourselves dreading the performance review write up, particularly the growth section, that usually means we haven’t consistently been having growth conversations with our team members. We kinda sorta know the growth areas for our team members. Half-knowing means more time and effort are required to coalesce those thoughts into actionable development goals for the review.
“Wow. All of that sounds familiar. How can I improve?”
Imagine sitting down to write a performance review. You have most of the previous accomplishments for your direct reports in one summary document. You also have clearly defined growth and development goals, achievable targets that reflect the outcome of your collaboration with your direct reports. All of that data for the performance review is readily available. No need to spend time digging backwards or jogging your memory at the last minute to meet a submission deadline.
“That’s where I need to be.”
Good. Here’s how a manager can improve their preparedness for performance reviews:
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Collect performance data in advance
We just finished our semi-annual performance reviews. Whew! All done. Right? Not quite. Now is not the time to put reviews on the back-burner. Now is the perfect time to get started on collecting performance data for the next review. Sure. That’s six months away. Remember: We’re not going to wait until the last minute to do our next review. Instead, we’re going to start gathering performance data now. This can be as simple as creating a text file to list out performance data for your direct reports, items such as their accomplishments and wins. Keep that text file open every day. Document accomplishments and wins on or about the same day as they occur. Yes, collecting performance data using this method will require building a new work habit and it will not be easy. No, you won’t feel like taking these notes every single day and that’s not an excuse to try. Even if you succeed in collecting rough notes about your directs’ achievements during the review period, you’ll still be ahead of the game at write up time. You’ll be able to use those rough notes as a reference and add any missing details.
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Establish career development conversations
You need to have growth and development conversations with your direct reports regardless of the performance review process. As a manager, your role in these conversations is to coach and support your team members on their career ambitions. Use your 1:1 meeting space to have these conversations. Or dedicate a separate meeting space to focus on the career development conversation. Kick off these conversations with a simple question: How do you feel about your growth and development opportunities? Learn about your team members’ career aspirations, both short-term and long-term. Work together to come up with goals to help them advance their careers. To help your team members achieve their goals, provide resources, training and work assignments that align with their aspirations and the needs of the team. When the next performance review is due, incorporate the short-term goals from these discussions into the growth section of the performance review.
Conclusion
The process of writing up a performance review doesn’t have to be a last-minute sprint. You can prevent the pain. Practice preparedness. Gather performance data throughout the review period. Keep aligned with your team members on their career growth goals. You may not be opening portals to cat dimensions, but you can prevent an administrative cat-has-trophy.