Don’t Include Feedback in Year-End Reviews

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but a performance evaluation conversation is no place for feedback. The end of the performance management cycle is the time to sum up the year and answer one question only: how did you perform relative to the standards we set out? Let’s talk about why you shouldn’t include feedback in year-end reviews.

The Difference Between Feedback and Evaluation

Many managers I talk to are unclear about the definition and purpose of various components of the performance management process. Let’s start by aligning what we mean when we say feedback versus evaluation.

Feedback is novel information about the impact of a person’s behavior on others. It’s a tool for increasing their self-awareness. Feedback is for their benefit. Here’s a resource on all this effective feedback.

When you give an employee feedback, you help them understand how a choice they made (e.g., what they said or didn’t say, how they acted, etc.) affected you or someone else (e.g., what you thought or felt, how people reacted). By making that impact explicit, you increase their self-awareness and empower them to make a better choice in the future.

Evaluation is an assessment of the person’s contributions relative to a standard. Hopefully, the year-end review is relatively objective, and the standard is pre-agreed…(hopefully). Your assessment supports all manner of organizational functions, especially compensation decisions. Evaluation is for the company’s benefit.

When you evaluate an employee, you summarize, weigh, and compare their performance and then quantify it on one or more dimensions. You judge them and determine where they fit in the distribution of people in the organization.

Feedback is about learning. Evaluation is about judging.

Learning and judgment don’t go well together.

The Problem with Mixing Evaluation and Feedback

Here’s what happens when you mix feedback and evaluation.

It Feels Like the Goal Posts Are Moving: If you give new feedback during the year-end review conversation, it feels like they are learning the lesson and taking the test simultaneously. That will feel unfair.

It Dilutes the Feedback: If you share an important piece of feedback and then move on to sharing your evaluation, the feedback message gets overshadowed by the judgment. This is especially true if the feedback doesn’t match the review (i.e. if you give a piece of positive feedback and then a poor rating or a piece of negative feedback and then a strong rating).

It Makes Feedback Seem More Objective Than It Is: Evaluation is supposed to be an objective process where you compare an employee to a standard set for their role or performance. Feedback is not objective at all; it is your truth and your experience of their behavior. When you put feedback into a performance review conversation, you tend to overplay its veracity and use it to justify your evaluation (using it to serve you) rather than to provide insight and heighten self-awareness (using it to serve them).

It Makes Evaluation Seem More Subjective Than It Is: The problem goes in the other direction as well. Bringing your subjective experiences, thoughts, and feelings into a performance review conversation makes your rating feel more like an opinion susceptible to bias.

Evaluation and feedback are two different processes with different goals and different beneficiaries. Stop letting one bleed into the other.

Critical Steps in the Performance Management Process

Here’s how you might want to set up a year of performance management.

Goal Setting: Use the goal-setting process to discuss the objectives, metrics, and targets you will use to evaluate the person’s contributions.Development Planning: Set the person’s priorities for growth and learning by considering what knowledge, skills, and behaviors they need to develop to support them in achieving their objectives. I highly recommend using what I call the “strike zone” approach.Feedback: As frequently as possible (at least weekly), provide the person with new insight about the impact of their choices. Make most of this feedback about choices that made a positive impact. Include some feedback about choices that had a negative impact. Routinely solicit input from relevant stakeholders to complement your views and provide alternate perspectives. DO NOT leave this third-party input until the end of the year! Doing so erodes trust and sets up an adversarial relationship.Coaching, Advice, Mentoring, and Instruction: Supplement feedback with other development dialogues. If the person is doing something incorrectly, provide instruction. If they need to consider different ways of achieving their goals, provide coaching. If they are missing the forest for the trees, provide mentoring. This resource will help you determine which development dialogue suits the conversation you want to have.Mid-year Assessments: At various points throughout the year, provide an update on how the person’s performance is tracking toward their objectives. If you have new insights about things they need to do differently to achieve a different outcome, provide feedback, instruction, advice, or coaching. In addition to evaluating how they are doing relative to the role standards, share your evaluation of how well they are incorporating the feedback, coaching, instruction, and advice they are receiving.Year-end Review: When it comes time for the annual performance appraisal, focus on documenting and discussing the evidence of their contributions relative to the expectations set at the beginning of the year. There should be no surprises here. It should feel like calculating the final grade when you already know the marks on all the assignments.

When you separate feedback and evaluation, you can focus on doing each well. You don’t confuse and muddy the conversation or allow one to dilute the other. Feedback is about self-awareness. Evaluation is about comparison. Don’t confuse the two.

Additional Resources

The Ultimate Guide to Giving & Receiving Feedback

Why You Should Stop Using Adjectives

For a different perspective, How to Conduct a Great Performance Review

 

 

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