Did You Do Your Daily Performance Review Yet?

Posted on Monday, April 13, 2009 by Frank Roche

Annual performance reviews don’t work. If you want real behavior modification, do you think you can get that by talking about it once a year?

Here’s something to do today: Give a daily performance review. Talk to the people who work with you. Seriously, talk to them. Don’t send them an email. Don’t leave them a message. Look them in the eye. Have a conversation. Don’t preface it with, “I’d like to talk to you about your performance.” Listen. Encourage. Care.

For all the rest of the days you work from now until retirement: Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

User Comments

Ron Ulrici

Apr 14th, 2009

Talk to employees? Face-to-face? Daily? You are asking for way too much, Frank. It is much easier to fill out a form once a year. See what Dr. Deming said about Performance Reviews on my blog today…
Lynn M

Apr 15th, 2009

This is great advice. Informal discussions and comments are much more helpful than finding out after a year you haven’t been living up to expectations or that there was something you could have improved upon. If you truly want your employee to change or modify a behavior, why would you only notify them of it one time per year or even one time per month? Giving feedback often lets an employee know you are paying attention and actually care about their success (especially if you are doing it properly and with a positive attitude). Provide your employees with the opportunity to do better! Noting mistakes or problems after long periods of time conveys the message that you want to point out mistakes, but aren’t interested in helping the employee correct them.
Wally Bock

Apr 17th, 2009

Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best independent business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

This is a stellar post, even if it doesn’t go far enough.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2009/04/15/91509-midweek-look-at-the-independent-business-blogs.aspx

Wally Bock
Scott

Apr 17th, 2009

Way too simple for this highly complex business world. I just finished my annual self-assessment to be submitted prior to the annual review (I think that’s cheating for the reviewing manager). As the self-assessments were being handed out, the team of operators and sales folks were told, “Now, most of you will be a 3 (average between 1-5) and unless you’ve done something remarkable, you will be rated as a three.”

I spent two minutes on my self-assessment and gave myself PIE (3.14). Because ideas have been predetermined and I don’t know what remarkable means in a very unremarkable market, I didn’t waste the effort.

I agree with the post completely…

Check out the book Dropping Almonds by Bach Anon to get a very realistic sense of how poor management has become in many industries.

Click my name for the link
Hayli @ Transition Concierge

Apr 21st, 2009

I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of future trends. For some reason, upcoming generations of workers (Gen Y and beyond) seem to almost demand continuous feedback. Some people speculate this is because parents and coaches offered that throughout their childhoods, and even more so with the aid of technology for “instant feedback”. It will inevitably transfer to the workplace, especially as younger workers take over the leadership roles and are put in charge of the performance reviews.