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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. 

 

5 Performance Review Tips for Managers

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Now that we’re back to work for 2021, it’s performance review season! Whether formal or informal performance reviews or day-to-day coaching, it’s important you really understand how to discuss performance in a manner that serves the employee. Specifically, performance discussions must connect with and make a difference for your employee. Your people want to do a good job for you, and they want these 3 simple things:

  1. To feel safe on the employment journey
  2. To feel like they belong to a team
  3. To have the ability to learn and grow.

So, show them how! Use these 5 tips to make sure you’re having great performance reviews and discussions which encourage your employees’ growth and fulfillment in the workplace.

Make It Relevant

Performance reviews must be relevant and directly correlated to the employee’s experience and their growth journey. You should be discussing things you’ve covered with your employee all year long and, although you can and should talk about new places for improvement, make sure that’s not all you’re talking about. Remember it’s about their growth and their journey.  Help them gauge whether they’ve been aware and conscious of the feedback as the first step.  Have they corrected or improved their behavior and results since you last discussed? Remember: your people want to learn and grow so make sure they understand that you have their back and show them the way!

Make Them Feel Safe

Few people, unfortunately, enjoy and look forward to having performance reviews or discussions. That’s why it’s important your employee feels safe from the very beginning. The safer they feel the more they will receive the information and start to understand that these discussions are gifts along the journey.  As I mentioned above, your people do want to learn and grow. So, remind them that’s all a performance review/discussion is – an opportunity to discuss areas of improvement so they can be their best. Even if you’re giving a positive performance review for someone who’s exceeding expectations, there’s always opportunity to learn, grow, have an aha moment and do better. Make sure your employee understands the performance review is about them and not about you – you’re sitting down to mentor, coach and show them the ways where they can level up, create impact, and make a bigger difference.

Remind Them That You’ve Got Their Back

In order to make your employees feel safe during their performance review, show them you’ve got their back. Be vulnerable. Share your experiences and for God’s sake, demonstrate gratitude for their service. Everyone needs that type of empathy. In this new world of work, people want to work for bosses and managers who are authentic, transparent, and who demonstrate over and over again that they want to see their team succeed. That is what we call other focused leaders. A little reassurance goes a long way, especially for your Millennial and Gen Z employees. Focus on creating trust within the conversation. For a roadmap on what NOT to do, click here to check out a list of common behaviors that actually create feelings of mistrust.

Ask Deep Questions to Spur Thought & Accountability

Nobody likes to be talked at or even worse, talked down to. To ensure you’re being heard and understood, make sure to ask “great” questions. And not just any questions. Good, deep questions that are open-ended, nonjudgmental, supportive, and ask them to grow and become accountable, are what constitutes a “great” question. Understanding the art of the question is one of the most important tools a next gen leader can have in their toolbox. Practice it now during this round of performance reviews and daily thereafter. There is no more important skill a real leader can learn.

Use Our GPS Communication System

Systems really work. They are the best tools one could ever use. GPS is our favorite communication tool here at launchbox because it friggin’ works. GPS stands for Gratitude, Permission, and Shared Experience. Using GPS allows you to deepen your relationships with anyone through effective communication. With our teams working remotely during COVID-19, it’s more important than ever that we get this right. Click here to check out more about our GPS communication strategy and download your free worksheet to put it into practice today.

Liked this post? Want more actionable ideas, tips, and tools? Reach out to us and ask about our virtual keynotes, remote workshops, and personalized one-on-one coaching. We can help every member of your team start creating success now. Get in touch!