Craig T. Owens

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Performance reviews are a great tool to help leaders measure and celebrate the growth of their team, but the standard model of quarterly and yearly reviews is a terrible way to go about it. In this episode, Greg and I suggest a different approach to reviews that relies on frequent coaching and giving your team “the answers to the test” to set them up to succeed.

• [0:15] We all have “have to” and “get to” leadership tasks in our organization, but we think performance reviews never should be in the have to” category. 
• [1:29] Performance review times are a great time to unleash potential in our teammates.
• [2:44] Greg shares how his daughter’s school does this well and how an organization he worked with did this poorly.
• [4:02] I teach leadership principles to a group of young men called “Guys With Ties,” and I always have them focus on future growth.
• [5:22] Leaders can only do effective reviews by having regular interactions with their teammates.
• [7:00] We suggest a better way to give out compliments and corrections.
• [8:35] Three key elements in performance reviews: (1) honesty, (2) timeliness, (3) looking forward.
• [10:54] How do we handle situations where the review doesn’t match the projected employee bonus?
• [12:55] Many of our teammates have probably had a bad experience with a previous performance review, so we need to address that upfront.
• [13:16] Accountability is a heavy word but it is a vital growth piece.
• [15:23] What happens when leaders are tired?
• [17:27] What does it say to our teammates if we’re always too busy to schedule a time for a performance review?
• [21:13] The culture we need to foster in our organization is an “improvement culture.”

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