Performance review? Don't miss an opportunity for a good conversation

It is mid-year, the 4th of July weekend, and a good time for a reminder that you should be having conversations about job performance more often than once a year, at the often-annoying end-of-the-year review.  If you do not participate in mid-year performance conversations, you are missing a golden opportunity to be LeadingInHouse.^sm

Action Plan: Try the conversational approach.  Make a list of simple questions that you can ask of your direct reports (or that you can ask of your boss), such as:

• How do you think you are (I am) doing in your (my) job?
• What one thing do you think you (I) could do better?
• What help can I as your boss (you as my boss) provide to help you (me) get better?
• What do you like most (like least) about working here?

Modified from Seven Simple Questions for a Great Employee Conversation by ContentedCowsPartners. 

For some additional thoughts on performance reviews, see:

• Get rid of the performance review!  From Sam Culbert, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, who advocates the replacement of the performance "review" with the performance "preview."
• Survey: How Much Do You Hate Performance Reviews?  This fun, ten-question survey from Sam Culbert is designed to demonstrate that you really do hate performance reviews.
• 10 Ways to Get More Candid Feedback (and 5 ways if you really can’t handle the truth).  The sarcastically presented list of 5 at the bottom of the article is for those persons who “really don’t want to find out about your weaknesses, and would prefer to keep your head blissfully buried in the sand.”

This summary was prepared by Perry Cone and posted at www.leadinginhouse.com/

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