not show you the playbook. Instead, he/she says, “I don’t have time to explain. Just figure it out and do the right thing.” Fast forward to game day. You hear the play called by the quarterback in the huddle but have no idea what it means. You find out later (aſter the interception) that you were expected to go deep and cut back to your right, but you did just the opposite. Who is really to blame here? Al- though perhaps not the best analogy, the same concept ap- plies to letting employees know your expectations of them and ensuring that they understand. 3. Why Do Employees Need to Know How They Are Performing Against Expectations? Although we tend to mistakenly think of performance re- views as an annual structured occurrence, it actually should be a year-long process that culminates in the formal review event. One of the common management failures I have wit- nessed (when reviewing the reviewers) was the “surprise” performance deficiency. Generally speaking, allegations of an employee’s performance deficiencies should not come as a surprise to the employee! If this happens at the annual review, it strongly suggests your failure to communicate throughout the year. How many times have I heard, “If there was an issue with my xxxx performance, then why was I not told during the year so I could discuss and address it before my annual performance review? Now I’m told this will result in a lower pay raise for me.” It’s a valid point! 4. Why Should I Spend the Time to Properly Prepare for a Performance Review? Whether you have few or many reviews to handle within a relatively short timeframe, it is foolish to wait until they are due before you begin the process. Let’s face it. If you are prop- erly engaged with your employees, you should know most of what you are going to communicate long before you need to write it down. Come on, admit it: You still suffer from what we used to refer to as “term paper procrastination syndrome,” or perhaps because you are no longer in school, it has been replaced by “tax preparation syndrome.” Stop blaming the employees and begin early. Spread the written reviews out and, when ready, spread out the oral por- tion but make sure they are on time. If you do a last-minute marathon session and rush them as a batch, you will probably do a pitiful job that is grossly unfair to the employees. Hint: If you had a boss like me who was rating your performance on how well you did your subordinates’ reviews, what grade would you receive? Quality and timeliness are key factors for WWW.ALOA.ORG consideration. Do you expect your employees to do their jobs on time and as prescribed? Then why should you hold them to a higher standard than you hold yourself? 5. Why Should I Avoid Procrastination in Scheduling Per- formance Reviews? Ask most managers or supervisors who are responsible for handling reviews why they don’t get these done on time, and you will likely hear how they are too busy doing their jobs, or similar excuses. News flash: Doing employee perfor- mance reviews in a timely manner is not an interruption of your work. As a manager or supervisor, it is an integral part of your job! In fact, it’s arguably one of the most important elements of your job. If you are behind schedule for an annual (or any) per- formance review (especially those that will result in a pay increase), you should accept responsibility for your failure, tell the employee when you will get it done, apologize and — if applicable — make any pay raise retroactive. Employ- ees should not be expected to suffer adverse consequences for your managerial inadequacies! Where applicable, if this indictment pisses you off and you need to blame someone, look in the mirror. The real reasons many managers or supervisors tend to procrastinate and avoid reviews is some combination of the following: They have never been trained to do these, are not properly prepared, have not established a clear ba- sis for expectations/evaluations, have not communicated well with the employee throughout the review year or don’t have an efficient system. In instances where the manager has many direct-report employees, all of these reasons be- come amplified, resulting in a rush job that can be unfair to the employees. 6. Why Should I Engage in a Face-to-Face (Bilateral) Honest Performance Review Process? Your review process should go beyond the past year or review period. In other words, you should also discuss and establish with the employee the expectations for the coming year. Done properly, this forms the basis for next year’s review of performance and especially accomplishments. It’s also a good time to ask employees about their work or job ambitions or whatever else may be on their mind. If you don’t provide a comfortable environment for meaningful discussion (effective communication means two-way), you have wasted a great opportunity. One-way reviews turn off employees who may otherwise be able and willing to provide insights MAY 2020 KEYNOTES 17
