At Ipswitch, we review all employees twice a year. Each time reviews approach I, and I’m sure other managers, dread the looming deadline. What seems like endless hours of soliciting input, reviewing objectives, giving feedback, and setting objectives for the future all make for an unglamorous, in-the-trenches, often-times painful experience. Hard enough when there are nothing but positives to state. Brutal at times when there are difficult issues to address. For conflict-avoiders (like most people, including me at times), there’s nothing like the unavoidability of the review process to make you squirm.

It’s not just about addressing performance issues, either. Reviews remind us of the management cycle of setting objectives, ensuring people have the right work environment and resources, giving regular feedback, offering corrective action, and continuing back around the cycle over and over again. When we write reviews we are too often confronted with insight into how we ought to be managing. That’s why in the end I love reviews. After they are written and delivered, the company is better aligned, people know what their goals are and how they are performing against them, and managers gain insight into how they can manage better.

Posted by Roger Greene | Permalink
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