Delivering Year End Performance

Dedicating time to deliver performance reviews is a critical part of the end of year

process. It is important to have only one agenda item for this one-on-one discussion…

the individual and their performance. I tend to do most of the listening, allowing time for

them to summarize the year and revel in their accomplishments.

I start the discussion by asking the person to describe their biggest accomplishment. I

often have a good idea about what they will say, but I can also be surprised by their

focus and how they describe their achievement. This can be very telling. Since I make

every effort to have these discussions in person, it is so fun to see the person’s face

light up about their work and impact and how animated they become when describing it.

I follow that by highlighting some of their other accomplishments from my perspective,

often focusing on something they hadn’t included in their self-evaluation or something

from early in the year, they may have glossed over. My goal in doing this is to show them

I have considered the full year, not just the past few months in my review.

I also ask about how they have evolved over the past year and how they wish to bring

that momentum into next year which starts a discussion about what impact they want to

have moving forward. This lays the foundation for personal development planning.

As a manager, I find end of year discussions energizing and valuable. What is your

approach to the performance discussions with your team? How do they know their

impact has been valued?