Why annual reviews are a bad idea
In most big business, midyear and annual reviews are the norm. The process takes months once initiated but also throughout the year, documenting issues and positives throughout the year, writing self evals and then the supervisor writing up what they can remember about the previous year. This is capped off with the stressful and much anticipated “review” and “merit increase.”
This is a terrible way to manage a team. It is bad for morale and leads to conflict between team leads and their direct reports. Invariably there are disagreements about results, faulty memories, recency errors, and halo effects. It takes a lot of skill to work through this process but it is artificial and unnecessary.
Feedback should be at least every other week and preferably every week. Leader should be in touch with every direct report every week to talk about progress and priorities. This process should be ongoing and is the basis of a good and open relationship between a leader and their direct reports.
A good rule of thumb is to schedule 30 minutes per week to discuss current performance and future goals. This should be a consistent time each week. By creating this structure, it allows people to set aside low priority discussion items until the weekly call, thus saving everyone time and pushing for everyone to prioritize their time effectively. This is not to say that there should not be open communication about high priority items as they arise but is a good habit to help instill time management practices in all parties involved.
These dedicated 30-60 minute meetings should also be a time to set aside for discussing personal development. One of the best ways to keep a team engaged is to understand their priorities personally and to align them with a career path and the goals of the company. This is the review process that leads to close alignment between leaders and their team.
The lack of regular and open communication between leaders and their direct reports is one of the main contributors to job dissatisfaction and poor Organizational Commitment and negative work attitudes. I encourage all leaders to consider dumping some portion of the annual review process. Excellent performance should be recognized immediately. Poor performance should be addressed immediately.
This leads to the next topic, how do you delegate the responsibility for these types of conversations so that the team can grow. Please forward this along to anyone you think might benefit from these concepts. I look forward to supporting you any way I can. Drop me a note on LinkedIn, at my email address stratton@downeaststratmc.com or forward my intro blog to a friend. It provides tips and explores management principles.
