Many organizations schedule their performance evaluation process for this time of year. It’s often coordinated with the annual planning process and designed to give people a fresh start to the year.

Leaders might dread this time of year because the evaluation process can be challenging in several ways:

• The process might feel vague or ‘soft’ – especially when evaluating leadership abilities where metrics aren’t always clear-cut. And the process can be time-consuming and administrative.

• It’s often high stakes – affecting compensation, promotions, and organizational reputation

• It requires delivering difficult messages – whether it’s constructive criticism or explaining why a solid performer isn’t getting an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ rating

• It demands clarity about needed changes – even when the path to improvement isn’t obvious

To help in the process, here are five tips for making your performance evaluations more actionable and for you to feel more effective in your evaluation conversations.

1. Distinguish between evaluation and feedback. Feedback is providing information on how you’re experiencing a behavior so the person can choose how to adapt (or not). That is, the person receiving the feedback has options. As psychologist/author Liane Davey reminds us, evaluation is different in that it involves comparing the person’s overall performance versus a standard or compared to others. It’s often used to make organizational decisions, compensation decisions and promotion decisions. Feedback is certainly part but not the whole process.

2. Consider your outcomes. We can get twisted up feeling evaluations are a chore we have to go through periodically. And I know the evaluation process can feel enormously bureaucratic. Consider, though, how these are opportunities for people to understand how they are viewed in the organization and how they can use that information to make good career choices. And, ideally, it’s a part of your regular routine around supporting people in their growth.

3. How do you show up? Evaluations can be a stressful moment for both team members and managers. But you have control over your demeanor and mindset. The best evaluations set people up for success, to be able to do their job better and support their career goals. That means you, as leader, need to bring your ‘A’ game – clear, uplifting, and centered. Set some intentions for your way of being in these conversations. Be prepared, not just with your written and practiced delivery, but also imagine what questions the person is likely to ask. In the end, it’s a conversation between people trying to support one another.

4. Structure your input so it’s actionable. People often complain that the evaluation process doesn’t give them information they can act on to improve performance or set themselves up for future success. You can make the input actionable using the Continue, Start, Stop model:

• Continue: Highlight what they’re doing well that serves their work and should keep doing

• Start: Suggest new behaviors or approaches that could enhance their success

• Stop: Identify any behaviors that might be holding them back from reaching their goals

5. Handling it when people are disappointed. If people are surprised or disappointed about their evaluation, it’s either because 1) you haven’t been providing helpful input along the way or 2) they aren’t taking in the input you’re providing. So first do a check-in: have I been clear and upfront about how they’ve been performing during the year? If not, it’s worth expressing you want to get better at it. And you should work out a process for delivering feedback going forward. On the other hand, if this input is consistent with what has been shared with them along the way (i.e., it shouldn’t come as a surprise), it’s time to ask something along the lines of, “We’ve discussed this specific topic before. What might help you be able to respond to it?” And refer back to #3 – stay clear, uplifting, and centered in your conversation.

Know that if you’ve been attentive to giving actionable feedback during the year, most evaluation conversations will be pleasant and helpful – no surprises. You might be gearing yourself up for that one ‘difficult’ eval. Unless things are horribly sideways, that’ll be the exception, not the rule. Don’t give the one exception more attention than it deserves.

In the end, be forthcoming, consistent, and human. Your team can tell if you’re genuinely invested in their welfare and success – and they’ll know if you’re just going through the motions. Choose to invest in the process so your team members leave these conversations feeling supported and energized, with a clear understanding of how to succeed in their roles.

G’luck!

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