A Performance Review For The Performance Review

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that performance reviews are back after a period of "benign neglect' that featured management's focus on other things (like a worldwide pandemic, an overnight distributed workforce, and hiring in the time of the Great Resignation). But the upshot of this article was the focus on performance reviews as a method to winnow out poor performers to shore up the corporate bottom line. It is time to do a performance review for the performance review. What performance reviews are done exceedingly well? Those performed by managers who take the time and make the effort to create balance, calling out concrete examples of work done well, work that is just good enough, and work that falls short of expectations (and why). What reviews are acceptable? Those appraisals that are delivered in a professional, but rote and unthoughtful manner, using programmatic language and lacking real insight into or discussion about goals that were set, why