Your intuition has served you well; the annual performance review is uncomfortable and just does not seem right. In a very fast-paced world where tasks and activities are changing every 2 minutes (IORG Survey 2013), and where a week can be measured by an enormous number of events, transactions, engagements, and activities, it just does not seem right that a person’s performance is reviewed once a year. Something is out of kilter.
We perform, learn, grow and develop almost all the time. In fact, many companies either consider themselves now, or aspire to be learning organisations. As learning is a continuous process, it seems logical that reviewing personal progress should be too.
Ongoing review is often currently provided by managers providing feedback, and almost invariably, this feedback is task-oriented and negative. When I am working with a group, especially learning emotionally intelligent coaching, I will make a simple statement such as, “I would like to give you feedback”, and ask the group how they feel when I say this. The response is nearly always “defensive”, “negative”, “worried”, “uh oh”.
It is time to move past such primitive conceptions of building personal and job capability. Annual reviews and Negative feedback are things of the past. Emotionally intelligent conversations are in. Formal and informal coaching is very in. Structured Monthly, Bi-monthly or Quarterly Personal Reviews have to be in too. Accenture has got it (“Quartz: Accenture is freeing 300,00-plus employees from performance reviews”.)
My individual progress and development is far too important to be left to an annual guessing competition.