You're conducting performance reviews. How can you guarantee feedback drives real progress?

To drive real progress in performance reviews, set clear, measurable goals. Provide constructive feedback with specific, actionable steps. Follow up regularly to track progress and adjust goals. Encourage self-reflection and create an open dialogue for continuous improvement. Use data and examples for objective feedback. Align feedback with career development and recognize achievements to motivate employees. Offer resources and support, such as training or mentoring, to help them improve. This approach ensures feedback is effective and leads to sustained progress.

Feedback or Feed forward as I would like to put it. This works on the premise that all individuals want to succeed. Pondering too much on the past, with discussion around Why this could not be achieved, we may end up in Detailing the wrong area Important would be to acknowledge the current state, Visualise the desired state and help the employee create an action plan The Performance Dialogue should focus on - Awareness - To the fact that a goal achievement has derailed - Reflection - dialogue around the adverse impact that it has created - Insights - focus on learning, discussion about ideas how the goal will be achieved - Action - help the employee plan his/ her actions towards achieving the goal. Support create an action plan

During performance reviews, the feedback should include both what went well and what went wrong. This approach will help us earn the trust of team members by demonstrating that we are not just faultfinders. 'What went wrong' needs specific data and suggestions for solutions; addressing these will lead to improvement.

Clear goal setting, regular "touch base" with supervisor to review goal progress (not just once a year), employee input into goals creates buy-in, show how individual goals link to organizational success, celebrate individual/team/organizational goals achievement.

Provide clear, specific, and actionable feedback that focuses on behaviors and outcomes, not personal attributes. Set measurable goals and create a development plan with timelines and resources. Encourage a two-way dialogue to understand employee perspectives and involve them in the goal-setting process. Schedule regular follow-ups to monitor progress, offer support, and adjust plans as needed. Recognize improvements and provide continuous encouragement. This consistent, collaborative process ensures feedback leads to meaningful and sustained progress.

Most employees are self-aware enough to debrief their own performance, so before leaping into your feedback, ask them questions about how they think their year went, where they stumbled, and how they want to improve in the next year. You may find that they come up with important performance issues and ideas that you never would have thought of. After they debrief their performance, you can add your own thoughts.

Performance reviews should always be a conversation. The focus must be on the employee's development, with follow-up actions aligned to support this goal. Employees should have the opportunity to provide input, and their contributions should be acknowledged. This doesn't imply agreement but shows that their perspectives are being heard. Involving employees in this way fosters a sense of participation, enhances motivation, and signifies progress.

Performance reviews should be a dialogue. The appraiser should listen and ask questions when and where needed. Appreciate the good work. Unfortunately, in academic circles of India, appraisals are only for name sake. Salaries and promotions are not linked to performance. Unless this changes, there is no qualitative growth.

I believe the higher up one is in an organisation, the lesser one needs to talk. Focus needs to shift to deep listening and asking questions that will help the team member grow beyond his/her current limitations...that is the essence of a two-way dialog during performance reviews. And these conversations are needed on an ongoing real time basis and not post-facto.

*Two-way communication*: Encourage open dialogue, actively listening to responses and concerns. Ensuring a conducive environment for the team to open up and speak up their mind with no inhibition.

It's responsibility of Manager to appreciate and at the same time ask questions on particular objective where employee couldn't meet the expectations. Probe what happened and how you felt could have been done better. This allows employee to reflect and take feedback constructively.

Specificity results in attention to detail both on an employee’s personal behaviour traits and also technical traits. When the manager explains in vivid detail, with examples, the observation on the job, the inherent feeling for an employee is - they feel truly valued. They realise they matter to the business. Hence there will be specific actionable to correct or improve for them to achieve their goals. In this case, the periodicity of this feedback is crucial. Some managers avoid difficult discussions and wait for yearend review. That tendency needs correction from their manager which will be the ask for the managers manager on providing feedback on managing teams.

*Objective evaluation*: Base feedback on objective criteria, reducing bias and ensuring fairness. Feedback should also be Development focused. Emphasize growth and development, rather than solely evaluating performance.

Be Specific and Example-Driven: Specific Feedback: Avoid vague statements. Provide specific examples of behavior or outcomes. Behavioral Feedback: Focus on observable actions. For instance, instead of saying, “You’re not a team player,” say, “I noticed that during the last project, you didn’t actively collaborate with others.”

Biggest motivation to anyone is when one invests time in developing the employee or reportee. He feels valued and is ready to contribute positively and in a constructive manner.

Development plan should consist a quick fix and measurable action. This would ensure the visibility of improvement thus keeping the individual motivated and confident to achieve the goal post.

Development plan is utmost importance to cater quality services and to enhance performance. A proper Development plan indicates better organizational skills for one's growth and forsee the key aspects of an individuals growth to meet business expectations. It will further help you to realise your core needs for improvements and to meet business goals.

Documentation is the crucial link to track the journey of an employees career. All discussion on performance results in a positive outcome favouring the actions required by the employee to grow or excel in their career. For a high performer , this documentation would result in a development path to move to next career progression and for a poor performer, it will be an attempt to push him to stretch himself to perform better and move to the next scale. Development plan requires time investment and critical thinking with support from the human resource professionals to make it implementable and justifiable for the employee. Not all development plans lead to a training program planned internally or externally.

A manager who trusts and believes in the employee , will look at all ways possible to make the performance discussion effective. This is one crucial quality of a manger. Constructive criticism, recognition, pat on the back , all gets covered in the due course of managing performance. Ensure to maintain the essence of leadership- trust and confidence in the team.

I agree to the same that being considered to be a part of achieving your goal, one or a team needs guidance and a performance check to track the progress. A leader will always appreciate the efforts made by an employee to achieve the goal and simultaneously point out the areas of improvement and the pace to achieve the desired goal in his feedback. This will help the team motivate and be more focused in planning further steps.

Positive reinforcement in performance reviews is a great way to motivate employees and boost their confidence. By focusing on strengths and accomplishments, one can encourage excellent performance and foster a positive work environment. 1. *Specific praise*: Clearly state specific achievements and how they positively impacted the team or organization. 2. *Focus on behavior*: Emphasize the actions and behaviors that led to success, rather than just the outcome. 3. *Use examples*: Provide concrete examples to illustrate the employee's strengths and accomplishments. Also touch upon the following. Recognition, Regular feedback, Development opportunities*

Performance management is not just about giving feedback, but opening a conversation with the employee. In order for the information that is given to make a real impact, there needs to be follow up and reinforcement. You need to give the employee tools and input on how to be successful, not just tell them what they are doing wrong.

Positive reinforcements will help an individual to be resilient in every challenging moment. It requires oneself to develop Emotional intelligence as it is necessary for professionals to be emotionally resilient in work place environment to avoid toxicity. People who adopt positove reinforcement for their day to day life are seems to be successful in life whereas people with negarive thought's are likely to cause problems in the workplace. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain helathy boundaries to instill positivity upon oneself for the betterment of the workplace.

Una parte fundamental para mejorar el rendimiento de las personas en su desarrollo de competencias ya sean blandas o técnicas, es hacer un seguimiento y acompañamiento constantes, no solo para preguntar como va, sino para ofrecer apoyo, ya que la mejora de habilidades suele ser bastante retadora para los trabajadores.

It's responsibility of Manager to appreciate and at the same time ask questions on particular objective where employee couldn't meet the expectations.

Yes, I totally agree with this statement as this heavily emphasizes on growth for one's performance. It is better to have one to one doscussions with employees to see their overall strengths and weaking twice in a month to provide constructive feedback.

Discussion and feedback can be further made concrete with SMART goals and actions at the end of it. This includes clear direction and deliverables with timelines. Regularly check-in with the employee that these goals and deliverables are on track or needs further support. Be open to listen on challenges and use personal coach to ensure that the employee progress towards the right direction.

All the comments so far are true and fundamental in driving real progress. In my experience, there is another thing that is critical in driving progress - goal congruence. The employee's career aspirations need to be aligned to the organisation i.e. the employee needs to also see 'what's in it for me'.

What i practice is frequent and regular sessions with my direct report and with the team to avoid surprises. It helps the individuals focus and the team to help each other in case there are goals which are lagging.

Es importante que estos procesos no solo sean un requisito corporativo, sino un espacio real de diálogo entre jefe y subordinado. A menudo, estos espacios se utilizan únicamente cuando "es necesario", lo que les hace perder por completo su esencia y deja de ser productivo. El jefe debe buscar reunirse mensualmente con su equipo en reuniones individuales cortas (20 a 30 minutos) y hacer seguimiento. Esto es lo que significa ser un jefe (o líder, como se prefiera).

Feedback if mindfully & gently given, drives people organically.. Remember we are dealing with humans who are wired with many complex emotions. Let’s be kind!! Practice silent leadership with open ended questions that puts words in people’s mouth. Most often then not, the employees opens up themselves & almost always will tell the tale themselves of how they did and how they can improve. Afterwards, using the same / aligned direction, set action plan for improvement areas with monthly / quarterly touch points.. The secret is to let the employee themselves share/own the improvement areas for them to drive the change!!

One important aspect is to separate the person from the performance .. Many a times this aspect unconsciously comes into our conversation .. where “ the you did this or didn’t do it” type statements come in which shifts the focus from the behavior or actions of the person to the character of a person ..