Year-end reviews have long been at the center of some contentious corporate conversations.

A McKinsey survey indicates most CEOs don’t find the appraisal process in their companies helps to identify top performers, while over half of employees think their managers don’t get the performance review right. A Gallup study finds just one in five employees agreed that their company’s performance practices motivated them. Ouch.

While recent data reflects that most companies are having more consistent performance dialogue with their employees, are we paying attention to the words we use within these conversations?

Words hold a lot of weight and can impact the way workers show up and contribute. With only two out of ten employees strongly agreeing that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work, one can make the strong argument that leadership needs to be paying close attention to the words they’re using to inspire their teams.

Last year, a Textio research report on language biases in the workplace shared findings on the language patterns within people’s real performance feedback documents—received by more than 25,000 people at over 250 different organizations.

Among the report’s noteworthy findings: Feedback to men tends to focus on the substance of their work, whereas women are 22% more likely to receive feedback on their personality. Women are also twice as likely to report being described as collaborative and nice, seven times more likely to report being described as opinionated, and 11 times more likely to report being labeled as abrasive. By contrast, men are three times more likely to report being described as confident, and almost four times as likely to report being described as ambitious.

We can all agree that personality-based feedback needs to become a thing of the past. Period. But in what other ways can managers be more mindful and conduct more effective performance reviews?

Recently, MBAchic caught up with two career coaches and experts to learn the most effective ways for professional women to show up in their performance reviews. Read it here.

Once again, MBAchic is teaming up with DEI Educator and professional coach Dr. Tamara Wilkerson Dias and Communications executive and career coach Britt Larsen to dive into the ways managers can best lead successful performance reviews.

While each employee-employer dynamic looks and operates differently, the advice these career coaches lend can help anyone refine their focus and bring their best selves to the table.

Reflect.

Heading into a review blind is a bad idea. You are no doubt busy with a million other commitments on your plate, but take the time to thoughtfully reflect on each individual employee’s performance holistically. Considering employees set aside a considerable amount of time to prepare for their performance review, managers should show mutual respect in their preparation process.

Dias believes her most productive review conversations have been ones where supervisors vocalized her professional performance or individual contributions to team projects.

“Reflect on what you’ve seen in the people that you are supervising,” suggests Dias.

“From this perspective, you’re not reflecting on your work, you’re reflecting on the person that you’ve supervised and what you’ve seen in them that has stood out to you that was a highlight or just a way that you felt like they’ve shined throughout the year.”

Pick the feedback direction.

All feedback was not created equally. Larson advises managers to either provide an overarching theme – like ‘you need to work on time management,’ – or choose to get specific about a singular problematic incident.

She suggests the former route is the most promising, “this is more of that mentorship type feedback and I think that is the best direction to go, that’s what your annual review should feel like, ‘I’m supporting you as your manager in improvement in whatever area you choose.’”

If you opt instead to focus on one specific issue or incident, be strategic.

“If you’re gonna go that direction, you need to back it up with what was lost. Was revenue lost, was trust lost, what happened that justifies you bringing it up in this formal capacity?”

Whatever your preferred approach, taking your employee by surprise with overwhelming negative feedback is bound to backfire. If and when an issue arises, clear communication should occur immediately following an event so that everyone involved can learn, improve and grow in real-time.

“There should never be a glaring miscommunication or confusion in either part. Both parties should come in knowing what they want to get out of the conversation and familiar with what is being discussed and covered,” explains Dias.

Set an agenda, and stick to it.

Whether an employee needs to bring a self-evaluation into the discussion or a potential promotion is on the table, a clear agenda will set the tone for a successful meeting on both ends and eliminate the element of surprise.

“Absolutely send out an agenda or an overview of the meeting so that a flow of the meeting has been established so that you’ve sent them expectations of how you want them to show up in that meeting,” explains Dias.

One of the most productive things leaders can do when preparing for review season is to remember reviews they’ve experienced in the past. What conversations caught you off guard and alternatively what conversations left you feeling energized? Mirror the conversations that will build more empowered teams.

“Remember, this is their meeting and [the feedback you’re providing] should not be a surprise,” says Larson.

Rather than waiting for an end-of-year review to air out issues or concerns, keep the lines of communication open and active throughout each quarter.

“I think we all have that experience where a manager maybe held onto something or the annual review didn’t match the tone of all of our previous communications and it became very formal and awkward, I think that comes from a place of nerves or wanting to assert authority, this is not the time or the place to do that. This is their meeting and that doesn’t mean you can’t provide feedback, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be productive for you as the manager, but this is their time to really advocate for themselves, so make space for that.”

Clearly define the next steps.

By being very clear and communicative at the end of the review, employees can leave the conversation with confidence and direction to understand next steps.

“Make sure that you leave knowing what their goals for growth are,” says Dias.

“Whether that is, we’ve talked about promoting you in a year or six months, or ‘you’ve mentioned going back to school so follow up with submitting that paperwork and moving forward,’ making sure that they are clear on now that the performance review has ended, ‘here are my goals’ and what I’m going to accomplish next.”

Honesty is the best policy.

Employees need to hear what managers really think about them – but be thoughtful and respectful about the way you deliver your assessment, regardless of whether you’re offering up compliments or critiques.

“I think that sometimes [managers] either sugarcoat stuff in your review because it’s awkward [to address] or they’re so general with positive feedback that you can’t really grasp what they’re getting at,” says Larson.

For example, ‘you’re great at communicating’ is a blanket statement that often fails to paint a clear picture of how an employee is showing up for the team.

When conducting past performance reviews, Larson recalls gathering specific client feedback to highlight areas where individual employees were excelling.

“Most people really thrive when they can understand what they’re doing well, but then also they need to have some stuff to work towards,” Larson says. “That also helps avoid [especially with women] personality-based feedback that frankly, we should just do away with.”

By offering pointed, honest and direct feedback, managers can motivate their employees to remain excited about their future within the company.

“You have the opportunity to really cast vision alongside the person that you’re supervising and not only give them a space to reflect on what they’ve done, but to also get them really energized on how they can keep growing in their career,” says Dias.

At MBAchic, we understand that a supportive community can provide invaluable resources, mentorship, and opportunities that propel us towards success, while also offering a sense of belonging and inspiration. If you’re new to MBAchic, we invite you to learn more and apply to join our Chic Membership. From digital book clubs to virtual workshops and webinars to exciting in-person conferences and mixers, we’re committed to creating a dynamic and inclusive space where you can thrive. Apply now to be welcomed inside later this fall.

Photo from Bethany Legg