Why Performance Reviews Fail!

If you have ever been in the position where you had to give someone a performance review, you probably know why so many people dread them. If the person being reviewed has a different perspective on their performance than you (they see themselves as a 5 (out of 5), while you see them as a 2.5), the potential for them hearing your assessment of their performance as valuable information is small. In fact, they are very likely to feel insulted, misunderstood, undervalued, and resentful, which doesn’t bode well for them acting to improve their performance. In fact, it could motivate them to look for another job.

For those of you who follow my “Life from the Top of the Mind” system, you know that the reason they react this way is because they have been driven into their lower, reactive brain (the brainstem) where their choice is either fight (argue with you about your assessment) or flight (sit and fume while you drone on about the validity of your assessment).

What you want, of course, is for them to improve, which means you are looking for them to change their behavior in the future. Therefore, I suggest that you engage them in a way that they shift from their reactive brain (that is focused on the past) to their receptive brain (the neocortex, that is focused on the future) where they can actually hear, understand, and act upon what you are wanting them to know. Or, as this week’s quote suggests, that you turn a performance “review” into a performance “preview.”

This will require that you first listen and work to understand their perspective (even if you don’t agree with it). For example, if they see themselves as a high performer, this means that being perceived by the organization as valuable is important to them. That’s the good news!

You will want to partner with this, and show them how they can become more influential in how they are perceived by adopting new behaviors. This can also become an opportunity to clarify expectations, because if they see themselves as a 5 (out of 5) while you only see them as a 3, then chances are there are some misunderstandings in how these numbers are assigned.

Regardless, however, the reason that a “preview” has the potential to be more successful than a “review” is because you are looking toward the future (which is the only time you can change behavior), and this solution-focused conversation is engaging the future-oriented part of their brain.

For those who are wanting more information on how to pull this off, I have created a model that I call, “The Six Blocks Or Obstacles To Effective Influence and Communication, and An Antidote To Each.” If you would like me to come and teach this model to your managers, supervisors, or anyone else who is responsible for improving the performance of others, feel free to contact me.