Want better performance reviews? Get a communication coach

In one of my former jobs, I had a boss that really liked my work a lot. My performance reviews were always full of really complimentary stuff. However, my boss felt that there was one thing that really needed improvement, and for two years running, I was told to work on this thing. Unfortunately, my boss struggled to identify the issue with specific examples or to explain how to improve. I was left with a vague direction that took me the better part of two years to understand.

When I did finally figure out what my boss wanted, it was hugely helpful to me and to those I worked with. It would have been so much better, though, if my boss had the communication skills to help me understand from the beginning, but that training did not exist for managers, or for anyone else in the organization at that time.

Amongst other things, I’ve been teaching communication and relationship skills for more than 20 years as part of my practice, and over the years I’ve learned so much about how to help people understand their intuitions, observations, and thoughts and turn them into useful information and action items, how to relate to others, and how to resolve conflicts. But training communication skills still seems to be low on the list of HR priorities in many businesses today. A recent article in one of my new favorite online talent development magazines, CTDO, made this point without intending to. It talks about the challenge of annual performance reviews and what it might require of an organization, and its managers, to do away with the once-a-year tradition.

Ryann K. Ellis, shares ideas about how eliminating the review may impact the organization and its employees in her article, Are Performance Reviews Worth Reviving? “ Many of the points she makes explain that managers and HR personnel don’t know how to communicate company wide and job specific needs, don’t realize how important regular communication is, or don’t communicate much at all outside of project specific meetings. Ellis cites that only “4 percent of HR leaders feel they are effective at accurately assessing employee performance.”

If most people involved in the review process can neither effectively communicate nor evaluate these reviews, are they worth the effort? I would suggest that we cannot possible know their value until those involved receive the communication training they so desperately need. Managers and HR folks are regular people, and most people are poorly equipped to even know what kinds of communications are helpful. “Should I talk about work? Should I ask about personal life? What’s too much and too little? How on earth do I offer constructive criticism? Never mind, I’m just going to hide in my office!”

How does a manager know if they haven’t communicated, short of not getting the results they want? Even results don’t really tell you if you are effectively communicating. You might believe you’ve been direct, kind, and open to new ideas, but your poor employee goes back to their desk in fear for their job because they did not hear what you thought you communicated. They may get the job done, but at what cost to their wellbeing and to that of the project or organization?

If you really want your performance reviews to be meaningful, useful tools for progress, let alone for any other communication to go well, coaching and training are imperative. Little else will help you, your managers, and everyone you work with and for, as much as learning effective communication skills. Our businesses, customers, and clients are too diverse in every possible way today to believe that old-school communication techniques will work. A good communication coach will be worth every penny spent because time, emotions, projects, and so much more will be saved from the mistakes we all sometimes make in conversation and communication.

So, no matter what kind of performance review you are doing, make sure you and your staff know how to clearly articulate the good, the bad, and the ways forward. You’ll not only get the best information about your employees this way, you’ll get the most accurate feedback on the true health of your organization. And that is invaluable.

PS - Check out CTDO. Seriously. The Fall 2016 Issue is worth a thorough reading. And check out my LinkedIn for more ideas and help with effective communication.