Delivering Disappointing Performance Reviews – PART 1

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

It’s that time of year again for many of you, and it’s inevitable that at least some of your performance reviews are likely to be a little challenging. You may even have that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, as you know you’re going to have a difficult job on your hands!

In Part Two we’re going to look at different situations you might face in running performance reviews, but first I wanted to share some general advice about how to share disappointing news with your reviewees.

1. Surprises. The biggest problem you will face in delivering disappointing news is if it’s going to be a surprise to the recipient. And if you’re honest, this may be why you are dreading it so much – you know that there is an issue you should have addressed and haven’t, and today is D-Day. Thankfully, even if you have just one day to go until the review there’s still time to take the heat out of the situation.
   
   Whilst trying to avoid the ‘David Brent School of Management’, you can spend time dropping hints to your team member that you want to have a serious conversation at their review. For some that will work, for others you’ll need to go further – for example by saying something like “I’ve noticed that X has been challenging for you recently, I think we need to discuss it at your review tomorrow?” or “I was preparing for your review and I noticed one of your objectives is a long way off – could you have a look at it ahead of tomorrow to help me understand why?”


2. Be fully prepared. This is a general principle for performance reviews, but even more so for negative ones. It’s true that in very positive performance reviews you can often get away with winging it – but at the other end of the spectrum, you really need to spend time focusing on what you’re going to say and getting your facts and evidence straight. You need to ring-fence some time in the diary to gather your thoughts and get in the right place mentally.


3. Focus on a small number of things. When the person is particularly challenging it’s tempting to try to eat the whole elephant at one sitting and address it all in one go. On the one hand, if you feel that the person is so problematic that they really need to leave the organisation, you might want to go all out and mention most – if not all – of the issues. Conversely, if you’re trying to support their development, you should focus in on a couple of things and get one or two things improving. In my experience, this will have a positive knock-on effect. Once they have achieved improvement successfully they will be in a good state to take on more.


4. Ask for their opinion. In reality they probably know that there is a problem. And people tend to be harder on themselves than you are going to be. So ask them for their opinion about what they think underlies the issue. My favourite feedback model does this in four stages – 1) Ask them what they’ve done well this year or what they’re proud of, 2) Give them your view of what you think they’ve succeeded at, 3) Ask them what they felt they could have done better, and 4) Give them any feedback about what you think hasn’t gone so well. Try to limit your points in number 4 to a small number – but what you’ll often find is that by the time you get to stage 4, many of the things you want to talk about have been covered. This model also takes the heat out of the situation, delivering a very balanced view whilst making sure that you don’t see everything as a negative.


5. Be kind, but firm – don’t back down. It’s important to go into the meeting thinking well of them – as a person who is worth helping. If you have a harsh, cynical, and frustrated attitude the meeting isn’t going to go well. (Immediately before the meeting a way of doing this is to think about times when they have performed at their best, and times when you have seen them be vulnerable – that will put you in the right frame of mind to help them.)
   
   Clearly if during the meeting they present compelling evidence that you are wrong, be open to it – but if you’ve done your prep there’s a strong chance that you are probably right and you need to make sure that the message stays with them. So summarise exactly what you want them to take away.
   
   If you find yourself in complete disagreement with them, remember that you can always say “Maybe you’re right and I’m wrong – let’s set up to monitor the situation on a weekly basis so you can prove that you are right.” This will result in them working really hard at all the things you want them to be doing – to prove that they are already doing them! That’s a good result!


6. Stay calm. These situations can be heated, difficult or confrontational. As well as preparing your facts, prepare yourself. Make sure you focus on taking the heat out of a particularly tough situation by being calm yourself. It may help to gain perspective by realising that the best outcome from this conversation is that the person is clear about what they need to do. Don’t set your target as being that they will be feeling motivated at the end of the meeting. People take time to come around from the shock and the sinking feeling of talking about poor performance. Set yourself a target of talking to the person a day or two later – that’s the time to raise their energy and re-energise them.

TAKEAWAY

None of us look forward to difficult performance reviews, but as long as you’re balanced, calm, prepared – and you’re not surprising them – most situations can be managed easily