After a full year of remote work resulting from the pandemic, we have had countless conversations with our clients and partners about what has and what has not worked for them. 

As thought leaders on culture and performance management, we spent that year sharing what we were learning. We were receiving questions all year and prioritizing them to answer all of them on our YouTube channel. We made over 60 videos in the past year alone.

Here, we present a curated selection of those videos on the theme of improving virtual performance management meetings. If you want to step up your remote meetings game, watch the videos below. There are nine in all, at an average of roughly three minutes each. In fewer than 30 minutes, you take a masterclass in the learnings we have been sharing over the past year. 

Tips for conducting remote Performance Reviews 

The usual remote 1-on-1 tips still apply:

• Turn your cameras on
• Have an agenda with consistent topics, so each of you knows what to expect
• Allow some small talk at the beginning to allow for relationship-building and context-switching
• Check-in frequently on how feedback is landing and what topics need to be further unpacked

“When you’re looking at remote performance reviews, it’s still the same framework that you should follow for in-person ones,” says our GM of Professional Services Robert St. Jacques. “However, keep in mind the communication aspect and the preparation aspect because you’re losing a lot of that face-to-face communication and things that you can see in terms of body language, and so on.”

Should you continue to do performance reviews while your team is working remotely? 

“100% yes, is our answer,” says 7Geese Performance Coach Ashleigh Myerscough. 

Q1 and Q2 of 2020 may go down in history as a turning point in the way we work and respond to crises. Now, most companies have made the adjustment to remote work models, with new priorities and goals in response to how their companies were affected. It’s natural for leadership to wonder whether performance reviews still have a place. Is it fair to be evaluating our people for their work during a period of time when “performing” had to take a back seat to pragmatism and forced change? In a word, yes. 

Giving feedback on a quarterly basis and focusing on the quarter not only provides an element of certainty but also provides shorter feedback loops in order to see what’s working and what’s not. 

How to improve the quality of remote 1-on-1s

The first key is consistency, says Robert. 

Sticking to the rituals and giving team members a chance to discuss their issues can identify problems early and build trust. 

When we are facilitating our 1-on-1s remotely, we are missing some key situational and non-verbal cues that help make our 1-on-1s really effective. As a result, we may be starting to feel the 1-on-1s are less of a connection and more of a checkbox activity, which is the opposite of the goal of 1-on-1s. 

Making small talk, bringing just your 1-on-1 materials and focus to the meeting, and turning the non-verbal into verbal will help you put some of the connection back into your remote 1-on-1s.

To lighten your 1-on-1s, change up your questions, change up the way you answer them, revisiting the purpose of your 1-on-1s and add some variance to your topics. Your team members will begin to appreciate 1-on-1s as an opportunity for a connection and an uplifting experience.

It’s the same as when our gym routines can become a little boring if Mondays are always leg days, Wednesdays are always core, and Fridays are always upper-body. Asking the same questions each week can become rather monotonous. Ask your team member specifically what they need to get out of your 1-on-1s.

When it comes to remote career conversations, follow these three tips:

1. Avoid yes/no questions
2. Keep a record of career progress
3. Revisit the plan

Even with remote work, by following our remote 1-on-1 tips and creating a documented process, everyone can feel invested in their career growth at the company. 

Keeping remote meetings fun

We heard from all kinds of companies about the ideas they had for keeping remote meetings fun. Meeting themes are popular, like wearing the team uniform of your favorite sports team, or when everybody gets dressed up and it’s somewhat formal.

Another way to keep things fun and have a dual purpose of people learning about their colleagues is to have quizzes. Whether it’s on the project they’re working on, or the subject matter they’re passionate about. 

What about celebrating wins remotely? Robert points out that in times of remote work, celebrating wins is just as important, if not more important than ever. Acknowledging a team member’s effort can go a long way toward helping the while team feel connected to the mission. 

He also notes that in remote work environments, the presence of a physical gift takes on a whole new meaning. Sure, your team might be distributed all over the map, but is that any reason NOT to enjoy a pizza party? 

Whether it’s remote work or post-pandemic new-new-normals when some of us start returning to the office, we will always aim to bring you the most up-to-date information about performance management. 

Have a question that we can answer for you? Want to learn more about how we do this at 7Geese using our own tool? Reach out for a tour. 

The post Everything we learned in one year of remote work life, Part 2: Tips for better meetings appeared first on OKRs and Performance Management | 7Geese.

Q: How can we tell the difference between a challenging goal and an unrealistic one? 

AM: For us here at 7Geese, it always starts with looking at the resources available to us. We always set our goals and then we decide, based on four different factors, whether it’s challenging and we can stretch for it, or if it’s unrealistic. 

Here’s what I mean when I say resources:

• The time that we have 
• The team members that are available to work towards that goal
• The capacity and capability of those team members
• And then, of course, the financial needs or budgeting required

If we can achieve that goal with some additional innovative ideas, with the existing constraints and resources, then we would consider that a challenging goal. If the budget’s just not there, or we don’t have the headcount to reach that objective, or if we don’t have the capability in-house to achieve that goal, then we would classify it as unrealistic. 

Goal setting with your known constraints and resources

When you’re setting a goal, take a step back and look at the resources that you have available to help you achieve it. Think of your team members, their capability, and their capacity to work on it. What resources do they have available to them? What internal and external constraints might they face while trying to succeed at reaching this goal? 

That will help you determine if it’s a challenging goal, where we need to be a little innovative with the efforts we’re putting forward, or if it’s unrealistic — and even with unprecedented levels of new resources, we still wouldn’t be able to achieve it. That’s a great way to tell the difference between a challenging goal and an unrealistic one. 

For more support, or to see how we do this at 7Geese using 7Geese, reach out for a tour.

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Q: What happens when a goal is not completed by the end of the quarter?

A: There are a few things to consider when this happens:

• Your team member
• The goal
• The appropriate next steps

Let’s start with your team member. It can be really demotivating to be working really hard the whole quarter toward something and not get there. Support your team members to reflect on not only where they landed, but why and how. Chat about successes, roadblocks they overcame, and the lessons learned they can apply to the next quarter. Completing a retro at the end of each quarter can provide great insight into creating the next quarter’s goals as well as how to wrap up this quarter.  

Now we consider the goal itself. If the goal was lofty and they still made it to 90%, celebrate the effort that went into stretching themselves as far as they did, but also consider did they stretch too much? If the goal was attainable and they didn’t make it to 100%, reflect on roadblocks that may have been blockers to their success and use this information to prevent similar roadblocks for the next quarter. Remember that roadblocks can be internal or external so focus on the roadblocks they can control. 

Last up we consider appropriate next steps. Throughout the quarter did the importance or impact of the goal change? If the importance grew, then it would make sense to extend the timeframe of the goal and move the deadline into the next quarter. This could be by a few weeks, few days, or the whole next quarter if needed. If the importance or impact of the goal shifted, you and your team member can decide to close the goal as it is and move on to the next quarter’s goal. The key here is to think about if we say yes to continuing to work on this past quarter’s incomplete goal, what are we saying no to completing in the next quarter? 

In 7Geese we also have the option to duplicate a goal or objective as we call it in the platform and keep or reset the progress if the work needs to continue. This can be a great option to capture the work that has already been completed and also the work that needs to be completed. 

So all in all, what happens when a goal is not completed at the end of the quarter is up to the team member and their manager. Reflect on the team member, the goal itself, and appropriate next steps to determine if the goal can be closed as it or have the deadline pushed back.

To see how we do this at 7Geese using 7Geese, reach out for a tour. 

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The transition was easier for some than others. As a company, the change to remote work for us at 7geese wasn’t without its challenges. Like many of our clients, our tech stack and tool kit meant that we could continue without any service interruptions. 7Geese has had a flexible working location policy and has been remote-ready since 2011. In the beginning, most of the friction had to do with helping people get adjusted and set up comfortably to work from home. 

We quickly discovered that our transition was not the only one we had to concern ourselves with. We have to create soft landings for our team as we adjusted, but we had to serve as a best practices example for our clients and act as a hub of information for things that we are were not working among our own clients and beyond. 

Learning and sharing “on-the-fly” 

We chose to respond to this need to take a bit of a war-time approach to our performance management. We received loads of questions from our customers, everything from adjusting to Zoom calls to how to maintain performance; we set out to answer them as honestly as possible. 

Responses were formed from our own present and past experiences and data coming in from companies worldwide. Now that it’s been a whole year, we thought we would compile all of those learnings into one epic remote-working advice post. 

Our process was simple. At the onset, our Chief of Staff published a post covering the key points about making the initial switch to working from home (WFH). Then, we switched things up. Our YouTube channel became the place where we could answer your questions with a personal touch. In fact, in the past year, we released over 60 videos. 

5 key learnings from a year of remote work during the pandemic 

“We practice what we preach and collect data from thousands of customers to be able to inform the industry best practices,” says Wendy. “As a company, we too must keep our team aligned toward common goals and achieving growth together. Our tools and methodologies are industry-tested and proven to be effective — not just by our customers but by our own team.”

Here are some of the key insights we learned over the past year of remote work during the pandemic. 

1. The answer to worrying about a lack of accountability is not micromanagement

The biggest fear many companies had in the shift to remote work was the lack of visibility. If it’s the first time a company or individual manager has experienced a remote work environment, it’s common for them to assume that productivity will suffer when they can’t actually see their team members in the office. Not only is that false — Harvard Business Review research indicates that knowledge workers are more productive from home — but it can also be detrimental to productivity and company culture to adopt that kind of mentality. 

“Some companies implement a policy where staff must notify their manager if they are going to be away from their computer for over 10 minutes, and to be available for video call anytime between 9-5,” says 7Geese Chief of Staff Wendy Pat Fong. “We don’t do this. We believe rules like this can erode trust with a team and risk treating adults like children. Instead, we recommend a series of required team check-ins to boost transparency.  They should be quick and simple with obvious agendas so that in the event of a video-call breakdown, you can move the update to email or Slack.”

Our client Julie Lachapelle, People Operations Specialist for Webflow, agrees. “Micromanaging is a symptom of lack of trust and lack of clear expectation around delegation,” says Julie. “There’s a really great tool called ‘Five Levels of Delegation.’ Level one is ‘assess and report’ — asking the person to assess and report back to you. Level five is full delegation. You make your own decision and come back and tell me how it was. You must know where that person stands within those levels and articulate that expectation so they don’t feel either micromanaged or abandoned by you. That way, you can have clear communication, but you’re not tracking someone’s tasks or how they’re working every day.” 

The 5 levels of delegation

2. With WFH, recognition might be even more important than ever 

Since way back in 2012, we’ve known from a Bersin by Deloitte survey that companies who were in the top 20% for building a “recognition-rich culture” had 31% lower voluntary turnover rates. 

At 7Geese, recognition is a key component of our organization’s growth-mindset, and it’s a feature within our product. The giving and receiving of recognition is a ritual that we wanted to keep strong during COVID-19. We wanted to make sure that team members’ number of times acknowledge one another’s contributions did not fall off simply because we were not working side-by-side anymore. That’s why even we were surprised by what happened. 

“Even with the sudden shift to remote work and the various adjustments our team has had to make, our recognitions are up 30%, when compared to our monthly average,” says Wendy. “At a time when it was perhaps more important than ever, our people are stepping up to recognize and support one another.” 

3. Virtual team meetings and events can be fun and rewarding

As companies began to adjust to working from home, we heard more and more stories about creative ways to bring some fun and collaboration to their meetings. In our interview with Julie Lachapelle, she shared how the team at Webflow has made their virtual connections more fun by adding themes. “You dress for the theme, or you have a background that reflects your next vacation or something like that,” says Julie. “We start with a short show-and-tell about it, if the meeting allows. Obviously, if it is a serious meeting, maybe you don’t want to do that there, but that’s been very helpful for us. Also, I love Snap Camera. It’s a Snapchat tool you can download on your browser and add a filter to Zoom.” 

Across the board, we heard reports of increases in tools like Slack and Discord for connecting teams via text or voice chat. Planning holiday parties, quarterly kickoffs, and other team-building events took a new shape as well. “We’ve also heard about companies that have sent snacks and groceries to their team members’ homes, instead of the snacks and such around the office,” says Ashleigh Mysercough, Senior Performance Coach at 7Geese, a Paycor Company.  “This could be from the same budget previously allocated to stocking the office kitchen.”

4. Zoom fatigue and feelings of isolation are very real 

Not everyone made the shift to remote work seamlessly. The adjustment came with a lot of challenges. For most knowledge workers, remote work meant a lot more video calls, and all of that, paying attention on camera can be tiring. Meetings that could have been an email reached a new level of tedium. Leaders began to realize that it wasn’t always necessary to have everyone appear on camera, especially if they weren’t comfortable doing so. 

As the months wore on, conversations and strategies about caring for team members’ mental health became more common. In response to a question about how to provide psychological safety for people during the pandemic, Robert St. Jacques, our GM of Professional Services, advised leaders to “take care of yourself first. Similar to the instructions you get before every flight on an airline. If the oxygen masks fall, you need to place yours first and then place the masks on the other folks who may need help. Make sure that you yourself are in a good place; you’re taken care of. More importantly, you yourself shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. You need to make sure that you take care of yourself first before you can take care of others.” 

To help their more introverted team members connect, Webflow came up with an interesting approach using Slack. “We have a project my team member started yesterday called an introvert daily connection,” says Julie. “It’s a Slack channel called ‘15 Questions.’ She’s going to post a question, and all of us introverts that are not wanting to go on Zoom to connect, are answering in a written form. That’s just one different way that we’re exploring how to connect with our team.” 

Julie and the team at Weblfow are very conscientious about how their meetings and team check-ins are attended, based on a person’s personal preference. “I think another note is to not ‘Zoom shame’ anyone if they don’t want to put their video camera on, or they prefer commenting in the chatbox,” says Julie, adding that text-based chat can still keep off-camera attendees engaged. “Keep that active. I think that’s a very kind thing to do. If your team has a strong feedback culture, you’ll hear about ideas in the way they prefer to engage. Don’t dismiss those. It’s really great to partner with your team members all across the company to really get ideas and make sure they’re feeling comfortable, empowered, heard, and seen, but in a way that they’re comfortable with as well.” 

5. Remote work is now business-as-usual, and we still have communication gaps to fix

Even once the pandemic is behind us, as it seems it will be by the summer of this year, many companies will remain remote or adopt a hybrid approach with some in-office and some WFH home days. Now that we have seen that the remote model can be successful, we can begin to divide ways to improve upon it. Even though many of us are as productive or even more so in a WFH environment, we are still missing some of the magic possible with in-person collaboration. 

“All of the really great high bandwidth communication that used to happen is now much rarer than it has ever been,” says Ben Kaye, Director of Product at 7Geese, a Paycor company. “High bandwidth communication is usually face-to-face; the reason why it’s high bandwidth is that so much information is being transmitted. It’s not just the words coming out of my mouth but also my facial expression and other non-verbal cues. There’s a ton of information that gets transmitted when you have a face-to-face conversation. When you have low bandwidth communication — things like email, chat, or asynchronous video — a lot of that gets lost. At 7Geese, we spend a ton of time thinking and talking about how to help companies have better conversations and close this communication gap. What makes for good conversation is really no different than our personal life.” 

In part two of this series, we’ll offer tips for helping close those communication gaps and how to have better remote work meetings, especially performance management-related meetings like reviews and 1-on1s.

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Q: How often should managers review the progress of the individual and team goals?

AM: Follow the science of goal setting (yes that’s a thing). Weekly or at least biweekly is the recommendation. We love to see team members checking into the objectives or goals they own every week. Then they can connect with their managers the following week to discuss any successes, remove roadblocks, and validate the next steps. This provides real-time feedback on goal progress and allows us to pivot quickly.

For team goals, we love to see the whole team complete the check-in together, during a team meeting. This can be weekly or biweekly depending on the team meeting cadence. Checking in together helps to keep engagement with the team goals. It keeps everyone aligned and ensures that roadblocks are brought up quickly and solutions are found together. 

We love to see managers reviewing the progress of individual goals weekly with their individual team members and at least biweekly with the team. 

Use performance management software to manage company, team, and individual goals

In 7Geese we have great ways for managers to target their progress reviews with check-in reminders, status updates, and management by exception. 

To see how we do this here at 7Geese, using 7Geese, reach out for a tour. 

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Q: How many goals should each individual set per quarter?

AM: At 7Geese we use the OKR (objectives and key results) philosophy and best practices, which show that 3 -5 OKRs per person, per quarter, is the sweet spot. 

The reason for this is that in one quarter, one three-month time span, working on 3-5 goals, each with 3-5 measures of success, is a good amount of work. 

Let’s say we have four goals with 4 measures of success. In the OKR world, that would be four objectives with four key results each. That would mean we have approximately three weeks of dedicated time to achieve each goal. 12 weeks divided by four goals = three weeks per goal. 

Now, if we decided to have eight goals with four success measures each, that would be A LOT of work to get done in 12 weeks and wouldn’t set us up for success. We’d be more likely to get to 50 or 60% of the 8 goals compared to 95 – 100% of the four goals, which I think we can agree would be better overall in terms of job satisfaction. 

The kinds of goals to set each quarter

Now what about what kind of goals these 3-5 need to be each quarter? Well regardless if you are a CEO or an individual contributor, we love to see 2-3 goals that are business aligned and one or two that are personal/career development aligned. 

Why? If you conquer the personal and career development goals, that will allow you to apply your skill-building as you are contributing to the business goals. This is what makes you and your business go further, faster. Personal quarterly goals could be tied to annual Professional Development Plans or they could be a space for you to hone your skills for your current role. 

If you’re a manager, people leader, or coach, we love to see one goal per quarter all about how you show up in that capacity and how you want to be better. This continuous personal improvement is just as valuable as your business-aligned goals. Measure what matters and what matters will get done. For more information on how to set your goals and see how we leverage different goal types in 7Geese, reach out for a tour.

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“100% yes, is our answer,” says 7Geese Performance Coach Ashleigh Myerscough. 

2020 may go down in history as a turning point in the way we work and respond to crises. Now, many companies are beginning to adjust to new remote work models, having adjusted their priorities and goals in response to how their companies have been affected. As we settle into our new rhythms and strategies, it’s natural for leadership to wonder whether performance reviews still have a place. Is it fair to be evaluating our people for their work during a period of time when “performing” had to take a back seat to pragmatism and forced change? In a word, yes. 

The subject of performance reviews can be polarizing burning the best of times. It’s important to remember that when done properly and for the right reasons, they give the individuals withing our company’s the kind of feedback and recognition they crave. “Giving feedback on a quarterly basis and focusing on the quarter not only provides an element of certainty, but it also provides shorter feedback loops in order to see what’s working and what’s not,” says former 7Geese GM of Professional Services Robert St. Jacques. 

How the switch to remote work has affected productivity and performance management 

For companies who are experiencing remote work for the first time, it can be unsettling to have less transparency into what people are doing. We’ve seen this occurring with many of our clients. 

“Leaders report feeling in-the-dark about how much progress has been made on projects progress and worry whether people are still accountable for results,” says Wendy Pat Fong, Chief of Staff at 7Geese. “We’ve fielded a lot of questions from clients about how best to support remote working. The answer to worrying about a lack of accountability is not micromanagement. The solution is more transparency and more precise communication.” 

Your goals and targets have likely seen some adjustments or deferrals. It may not be prudent to measure people with the same criteria and objectives as before these changes took place, but is prudent to keep the usual lines of communication and feedback open. 

Why reviews are as important as ever 

In times of uncertainty, we need to communicate more, not less, says Robert. “Tell people the truth and provide them with as much information as possible. People don’t like uncertainty. Uncertainty creates a vacuum. So don’t create vacuums of a lack of information. Provide people with information, even over-communicate.” 

“Let’s remember that the goal of a performance review is to impact performance by influencing behaviour,” says Ashleigh. “Just because 2020 threw some really big curveballs into our plans, doesn’t mean that there aren’t valuable lessons and opportunities worth reflection upon.” 

This can take many forms with different individuals in the company. Even in a time of crisis, this can help provide people with the true north they still crave. Some will be looking to grow and want to know that the company still recognizes their efforts and career growth plans. “For your high performers, they want the feedback,” says Robert.  “Being in the top one percentile is not good enough, they want to be in the top half of one percentile.” Others will need to feel the company’s support as they align their own performance with the company’s goals. 

Your company’s goals may have changed, but your desire to learn and grow remains.  Your review process or criteria may need some changes, but offering your people that feedback is as vital as ever. 

Should you be having compensation conversations with your team? 

Whether you continue with compensation discussions depends a lot on the kind of position your business is in. 

“Should we be running regular reviews right now?” asks Ashleigh. “Maybe, maybe not. If your regular review includes compensation-forming components but the business is not in a position to action those components, then no. We would want to acknowledge that in the review, change up the language and share that new purpose but still provide feedback and opportunities for our team members to continue growing.”  

If your business is in a position to proceed with compensation changes, you can proceed as planned. It’s more important than ever to remember to focus on rewarding behaviors, not strictly “performance” or outcomes alone. As ever, you need to focus on the processes that drive the outcomes you want to achieve. 

How to conduct remote performance reviews

Here are a few helpful tips for conducting remorse performance reviews, while giving special consideration to the current circumstances. 

1. State the purpose of the review

This is important, especially if there have been changes to the process, like in the compensation example above. 

2. Reflect on lessons learned and how to apply them

“Orient your team towards the future,” says Ashleigh. “Use what we’ve just been through to provide opportunities for new challenges moving forward. Acknowledge that this has been a challenging time that we’ve just performed through.” 

3. Turn your cameras on

So much of our communication is non-verbal, so turn your cameras on, enabling both parties to see each other from the waist up. “When you’re having these conversations, remember we lose a lot if we can’t see each other,” says Robert. “If you only see a face, you lose some of the body language. I know it sounds a small and pedantic thing, however, when you’re doing the video, I would suggest both you and your employee are away from the camera. That way you’re able to see more of the person’s reaction, expressions, and general body language, to better understand the whole communication piece.”

For many of our clients, continuing with a transparent performance review process, even in these challenging times, has helped them continue to perform and align around their goals. “It’s been instrumental in shaping the behaviors in our Singapore organization this year to one of more ownership, self-direction, peer recognition, and openness,” says Vicky Chai, Chief People Officer at SingLife. “The transparency of performance reviews, surveys, and targets has nurtured more trust and hence better engagement with our employees. 7Geese is a massive tool for change for us!” 

More tips and info about conducting effective performance reviews

In any circumstance, it’s best to follow some best practices in order for your performance reviews to be effective. Here’s a quick checklist of what a strong performance expectation should include: 

• Alignment with core values and company goals 
• Demonstrate culturally aligned behaviours that drive optimal organizational outcomes 
• Demonstrate optimal outcomes 
• Metrics that show expectations have been met 
• Mutual agreement between employee, manager and company

Ensure that employee goals are well defined, especially in the context of your company or team’s performance review process. At 7Geese, we set OKRs or Objectives and Key Results, a goal-setting methodology popularized by Google’s Rick Klau. 

Performance management should be an ongoing process that allows for discussion, improvement, and adjustments based on employee performance. To make the review process easier, consider conducting check-ins and tracking that you can reference often. Your performance management process should include some element of ongoing performance tracking. 

For more reading n performance reviews, check out our performance reviews ebook or watch our webinar, “How to reinvent the performance review process.”

To learn more about using 7Geese for performance reviews, read about our performance reviews tool, or reach our for a tour.

The post A Guide to Conducting Remote Performance Reviews in 2021 appeared first on OKRs and Performance Management | 7Geese.

Q: How can we make performance reviews objective for engineers? 

AM: With any employees, regardless of their position, we want to make sure that we’re evaluating based on the role they were hired for and how well they’ve reached the outcomes of that role. 

We must establish the review criteria with the team so there is perceived fairness. We also want to make sure they’ve got that feeling of autonomy and feel that they’ve got input into their role in success, and control over their outcomes. 

Ask them what meeting expectations in this role mean to them. Get specific about what behaviors are displayed when we say that we’re meeting expectations. 

Evaluate all forms of contribution

We also want to make sure that we’re capturing the work that engineers contribute in multiple forms. We’re looking at outcomes achieved as a team and as an individual, the specific outputs that your individual team member produced. 

We also want to look at contributions to culture as well. Engineers tend to work on more of a team basis so a great way to be able to pinpoint individual growth opportunities is to look at several areas: 

• Outcomes achieved
• Outputs produced
• Contributions to the bigger culture, and core values
• The feedback that they have received and actions are taken as a result

To learn more about how we do this at 7Geese, using 7Geese, reach out for a tour. 

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Q: How do you set up for a performance review? 

AM: Here are my tips for preparing for a performance review. It starts well before the review itself and is a continuous process. 

1. Have clear criteria

Throughout the review period, we want to revisit the review criteria with the team member, so we are all clear on what they’re going to be held accountable for. We want to collect and note examples of specific instances where team members succeeded or missed those criteria. 

2. Set the stage

Before we have that review conversation we want to set the stage. We want to schedule the discussion to be at a time when the team member is in the best place to receive feedback, and when you’re in the best space to deliver good feedback. Ask your team member whether they are more engaged and motivated in the morning, afternoon, or towards the end of the day. Do they prefer the beginning or the end of the week? 

Since we’re doing this potentially remotely, those little factors are going to have an impact on the employee experience. 

3. Prepare your answers

We want to make sure also that when we’re setting the stage we have answers to common questions, so when they get asked during the review you can respond to them right away. Common questions would be “What’s next,” “How did this rating come about,” “Where and how does this impact my raise or my bonus?”

For questions like these, the more answers you can have prepared in advance of the review, the easier and more welcoming that employee experience is going to be. 

4. Be present

During the conversation, we want to make sure that we’re present. To set up for the review ensure that you can both be distraction-free and without any back-to-back meetings to get to. 

If you’re remote, do your best to have your cameras on, clean up the background behind you to make sure that the team member is not distracted by what’s going on in your background. Close your extra tabs and mute your notifications, so that when you’re in the review you can be really present.

To learn more about how we do this at 7Geese, using 7Geese, reach out for a tour. 

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Q: How can managers have tough conversations during reviews? 

AM: Whether it’s about underperformance, poor performance, or hitting the numbers but not fitting in with culture, being honest and objective is always the best policy. 

We want to review the criteria the team member’s results are being measured with and ensure that there’s a mutual understanding of those criteria. If there isn’t, it’s important to unpack the “why.” If we’re in the review and we’re having a conversation about a team member not agreeing to that criteria, we’ve missed an opportunity by previewing it and reviewing it before. 

We want to make sure we provide an opportunity for our team members to provide their understanding of their performance, or lack of, based on that criteria. 

Acknowledging our team members’ psychological needs 

Remember that at work, we all share certain psychological needs. We need some feeling of autonomy, a sense of belonging, as well as knowing our work has value. To provide a team member with autonomy, invite their input into their own success and the direction they’re going. 

We want to stick to the facts, so using concrete examples of misses and opportunities will help make sure that the team member and the manager are aligned. We’re not using stories, we’re using actual, measurable examples.

We want to reflect and then orient towards the future, so even if we leave the review in a disagreement, we have the opportunity to take what was learned and use it to impact the future in a positive manner. 

How to have fewer difficult performance review conversations

It will seem counterintuitive, but the way to avoid those difficult conversations is to have more conversations overall. 

To decrease the impact of these tough conversations during your performance reviews, conduct growth and development reviews along the way. 

Having conversations that are growth and development focused throughout the review period will provide more honest feedback on where a team member is in their performance, so you’ll have fewer of those tough conversations during your more formal reviews.

To learn more about how we do this at 7Geese, using 7Geese, reach out for a tour. 

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