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I was listening to a podcast where there was a discussion about going through the past year's e-mails to help prepare for the review. My process is to set up a folder for myself and each of my direct reports and then save e-mails to the folder as they come in. At performance review time I just open the folder and ....

US41's picture
Submitted by US41 on Monday February 12th, 2007 2:13 am

How about doing it quarterly and holding reviews then?

In fact, if the folks that work for you are professionals, managers, or executives, maybe they should be doing that for you, and you just take in their quarterly report and then let them know what you think is expected and what is above and beyond.

It's a great technique for drumming up ammo for a review - and Mark and Mike's advice is appreciated. But, I wonder why I should be parsing through a folder of email for professional employees. Instead, they should be reporting on what they have done to me and taking responsibility for the facts I have in hand for their review in advance.

I didn't leave my review to chance this year. I prepared an annual report using the podcasts here on doing my own review and submitted it to my boss for them to consider and reference without having to dig for anything.

My employees did not and I did a lot of email searching and reviewing of my O3 notes. Next year, they need to be doing this for me, imo.

There is something that should be called the Manager Tools Projection Effect. Having learned and begun to practice all of these cool Manager-Tools techniques, I find myself expecting the same from others and disappointed when I can't get it.

But I am sympathetic. Until 6 months ago, I didn't get it either.

runner's picture
Submitted by runner on Wednesday February 14th, 2007 3:06 pm

I actually do quarterly reviews and they do have responsbility for tracking and reporting their own activities. What I gather is more in the way of feedback from business partners etc.

Like you I leave nothing to chance for my own reviews. It is just too important not to manage it constantly.

maximus1's picture
Submitted by maximus1 on Thursday February 15th, 2007 8:37 pm

I have my directs conduct quarterly "self reviews" using the same review packet as their 'formal' annual performance review. They research their business results and rate themselves.

These quartely packets becomes a great coaching tool where we can sit down and really get indepth about where they believe they are and whether or not I agree. I give feedback on what they need to work on and I take lots of notes inside their review packet. I usually conduct these at one of our regularly scheduled O3s. The result is often some great discussion on perceived performance and helps me make up for those times when I haven't communicated my expectation as well as I could/should have.

I use these quarterly self reviews to compile the bulk of my directs' annual reviews and I've found that I drastically reduce the suprise quotient at their annual review. It really only takes an extra 10-15 minutes, at most, per quarter during an O3.