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Learn to Love Your Performance Review and Up Your Game

Have a performance reviewing coming up? The first step is to take a plain and simple DEEP BREATH: just RELAX. Performance reviews aren’t bad – they are AWESOME. WHY? They are pure, unadulterated opportunities for you to learn and grow. If you really want to crush your goals and up your career game, you have to change your mindset. Here’s how to love them and see them for the true opportunity they are. Use our tips to get the most out of your performance review:

Take a Breath and Receive the Feedback

Instead of getting nervous, wound up, defensive or even angry, take a breath and really set your mindset to engage and listen to what they’re saying. Receive, breathe in and absorb the feedback. If you understand it as one-on-one coaching and training, you can take the BS emotion out of it and really hear what they want you to do to own your success. Even the positive feedback is something you need to really hear and digest. Continuing to double down on your strengths while implementing the ideas your boss has for you to learn and grow is how you will continuously up your game at work. 

Make It About Them

Once you’ve taken that breath, received the feedback, and removed the emotion from it, it’s time to make it about them. What does that mean? It means you need to serve your audience, the reviewer, and cement your relationship. What does your boss really need and want from you? Why is it important that they get it? When you can understand where THEY ARE coming from, you can really see that the feedback they’re giving you is really to help you grow and become better. We call it WIFThem. What is in it for them?  If you understand that, you create greater trust and connection masterfully. If you can do that, they will want to help you even more along the way. That is what you want – more help and support. Which brings me to my next point…

Believe They’ve Got Your Back

Your boss truly does want you to succeed. They’ve got your back. They’ve invested time and money into training you. They want you to be part of their company. They want you to deliver more output, to be happy, to make their job easier, to help them be seamless. If they are smart, they will take it seriously. Serious grooming and training require serious and real feedback that may be hard to digest. Nonetheless, you’re aligned with them. It’s in your interest and theirs for you to be better. By the way, having someone’s back isn’t about blowing smoke up your ____ and telling you how great you are. It’s about supporting you and helping you realize your potential. Having honest, authentic conversations and being transparent about where you can do better. That’s having your back!  If you can understand how to give and take feedback, your game will be better than the rest. So how to make it better? Use this one simple tip…

Ask Great Questions

Now that you’ve accepted and internalized the feedback, you must go deeper and use curiosity to level up. Learn the single best communication tool: how to ask great questions. This is your opportunity to go deep and create trust by showing you understand, respect and value their feedback. Demonstrate that you hear what they’re saying and that you really want to understand so you can implement. So summarize or repeat what you heard and then double down on asking great questions like: what can I do to help you become more successful? Are there any books I could read? Where could I learn additional skills that might help? Can I help with the team? How do I better serve you, etc?  Speaking of serving….

Deliver and Create Impact

This last step happens after the performance review is done, AND it’s one of the most important steps to loving a performance review. After the performance review, it’s time to start delivering and creating impact based on the feedback. Take what you’ve heard and learned and use that to coach yourself to take things to the next level. If you can implement and execute on what you were told would help, you will create massive value for your boss and you will strengthen their trust in you. You will demonstrate that you’re someone who can not only receive feedback but execute. That is why we love performance reviews. Where else do you get to learn, bond and then deliver exactly what they need?

Need some help to up your career game, change your mindset around your upcoming performance review, or help with communication? Or need a little guidance to really implement the feedback you’ve received? Our one-on-one coaching provides you with the personalized, on-demand support you need to quickly level up in your career and life. Click here to reach out to us about getting started. 

 

3 Ways to Fulfill and Retain Millennial Employees

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Often tagged “the job hopping generation,” it’s a common myth that millennials are disloyal and don’t care about job security. With this viewpoint, why put in the time to train and develop your millennial workforce when they’re going to split in a year or two? From this perspective, it’s pointless. However, by understanding the concerns of millennials and looking at reality through their lens, a few important factors stand out that shatter this myth.

49% of millennials say they would like to stay with an organization for more than 10 years, according to research performed by the Center for Creative Leadership.[1] Many millennials actually crave job security. They grew up during the 2008 recession, witnessing devastating layoffs. They have the highest levels of student debt in history. They’re worried about raising kids or putting down a mortgage due to the possibility of being laid off.

By understanding the concerns of millennials, this job hopping “problem” can be turned into an “opportunity” to engage and fulfill employees for the long run. Here are three ways to help you fulfill and retain millennial employees:

  1. Constantly Communicate and Provide Feedback

Millennials grew up in the digital age of instant gratification and constant connection. Therefore, they’re used to receiving immediate feedback and having an outlet to tweet their opinion at the snap of their fingers. By maintaining relationships with millennials through regularly asking questions and making an effort to understand things from their perspective, feedback becomes conversational, as opposed to being confrontational. This creates an environment where millennials feel that their voice matters and that their opinion is valued.

Another important factor to keep in mind is that millennials want feedback; the problem is they won’t ask for it. Show appreciation regularly. When they make mistakes, let them know in a constructive, teachable manner. By making the effort to make millennials feel understood, valued and an integral part of your company, they will feel more comfortable speaking up. This relationship fosters loyalty and will help fulfill and retain your millennial employees.

2.) Display Advancement Opportunities

Millennials are young. They’re hungry. They’re ambitious. As a manger, you can help them see opportunities to advance and be promoted within the company. Likewise, you can offer lateral growth opportunities, allowing them to become skilled in a variety of fields. This will help your company develop a multi talented, capable millennial workforce that understands how different departments operate. This will breed understanding and insight into how to serve the best interests of your company.

From a retention standpoint, opportunity for growth causes a shift in the mindsets of millennial employees. By openly presenting advancement opportunities, millennials will naturally view their job and career over the long term. A secure, rewarding job with the possibility of advancing and learning new skills is a sure way to create long-term retention with millennial employees. Recognizing the importance of job security and growth opportunity will help attract a stable, loyal workforce.

3.) Allow for Balance and Flexibility

Lack of flexibility was cited among the top reasons millennials quit their jobs, according to surveys performed by Ernst and Young’s Global Generation Research.[2] Millennials see that technology allows them to be productive and get work done regardless of location. However, many older bosses (who didn’t grow up with digital technology) don’t understand this. Multiple surveys show that what millennials want most is where, when and how they work.[3]

By creating a flexible work environment, you can fulfill one of the highest demands of millennials. As long as a flexible, work-life balance doesn’t affect results, it should be embraced. Millennials are more likely to commit to a company long term if it allows for a flexible work-life balance.

Don’t be put off by the myth that millennials are a job-hopping, disloyal bunch. You can view your millennial workforce as a “problem to complain about” or an “opportunity to be embraced.” Through communication and feedback, openly presenting advancement opportunities, and creating a flexible and balanced work schedule, you can fulfill the wants and needs of your millennial workforce, while also creating an atmosphere where they will want to work over a long period of time.

Interested in learning more about bridging the gap between millennials and managers? Make sure to get your hands on Dan Negroni’s new book,  Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage and Maximize Next Generation Leaders in the Workplace.

Chasing Relevance by Dan Negroni

 

[1] Deal, Jennifer. “Why the Conventional Wisdom About Job-Hopping Millennials Is Wrong.” WSJ. Dow Jones & Company, Inc., n.d. Web. 22 June 2016.

[2] Schulte, Brigid. “Millennials Want a Work-life Balance. Their Bosses Just Don’t Get Why.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 23 June 2016.

[3] Schulte, Brigid. “Millennials Want a Work-life Balance. Their Bosses Just Don’t Get Why.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 23 June 2016.