What to do in a Performance Review for Incredible Motivation

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words “performance review”? Is it something you look forward to or do you think they’re a waste of time? Performance reviews can be a tremendous catalyst for personal and organizational development, however, their effectiveness depends on the way they’re implemented. In this article, I talk about ways to ensure you get the most out of such evaluations. By knowing what to do in a performance review, you can hold your manager accountable. If they don’t do a good job in this area, it’s important to be proactive, start a dialogue and ultimately get the feedback that you need!

What is a Performance Review?

A performance review is a two way conversation between an employee and their manager to cover topics such as:

• Performance Feedback
• Professional Development
• Areas for Improvement
• Obstacles & Challenges
• Goal Setting
• Clear Next Steps

Traditionally, performance reviews were held annually and focused soley on what happened that year. The manager gave a subjective evaluation of the employee’s performance and communicated expectations.

More modern performace reviews take place at least every quarter, sometimes even monthly. In addition to being frequent, these meetings are a dialogue – two way conversations. Feedback is based on real data, gathered from various sources such as peers and self-evaluation. And although past performance is reviewed, the trajectory of the conversation is future oriented.

How do You Know if a Performance Review is Successful?

Receiving regular feedback is crucial for our professional development. It’s nice to be recognized for great performace, however, getting feedback on areas in which we can improve is often more benficial in the long run. Sometimes we’re not aware of these areas and need guidance in order to make progress. Performance reviews are a perfect opportunity to further such a dialogue. I say “further”, because the things your manager brings up during the evaluation should not come as a huge surprise. Ideally, you should recieve feedback on a regular basis and already have a general idea of what will be covered.

What are indications that the performance review was a success?

• You feel motivated
• Next steps are clear, you have a sense of direction
• You know the areas you need to work on and feel you have the support needed to improve
• There was enough time to talk about the things that were important to you
• Your manager was prepared, listened actively and took your concerns seriously
• You know what you need to do to reach your goals
• Overall you have the feeling the review was useful and brought you another step further

Elements of a Motivating Performance Review

In order to enhance your motivation, performance reviews should include three crucial elements: goals, job crafting, and strengths. By enhancing your job along these dimensions, you’re more likely to:

• Perform better
• Feel more engaged
• Be more committed
• Have more positive emotions
• Experience higher levels of well-being
• Be more productive

Knowing What to do in a Performance Review with GOALS

The following tips from by Fred C. Lunenburg incorporate Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory of motivation, which highlights the crucial link between goals and performance. Use these tips to structure your goals in a way that drives high motivation and leads to optimal performance.

8 Tips to Make Sure Goals Are Motivating

1. Goals should be specific

2. Goals should be challenging

3. They should also be used to evaluate performance. Let’s say one of your goals is to learn a language fluently, so that you can work in a foreign country. Your motivation to learn will be higher if you’re performance review includes how well you’ve advanced your languages skills.

4. Feedback is crucial if goals are to result in peak performance. Firstly, feedback helps you to know how well you’re doing. Secondly, feedback helps you know what adjustments you can make to progress more quickly.

5. Goals need to matter to you. Let’s say you’re assigned a goal that you don’t really accept. You probably won’t work as hard to reach that goal. However, if you can participate in the goal-setting process, you will probably be more committed and motivated to work on that goal.

6. To spark your motivation, goals must be linked to a deadline. This creates positive pressure and helps keep you on track. Knowing when things need to be done will help you manage your time more effectively. I don’t think iron clad deadlines are always beneficial – it is ok to adjust the timeline as needed. However, if you don’t make regular progress, your motivation will eventually dive.

7. In general, learning goals lead to better results than performance goals. Having a learning goal means you want develop competence by mastering certain skills or tasks. This is crucial for problem solving, being creative, testing out new ideas and adapting to challenging situations. Such goals are intrisically motivating.

8. Group goal setting is just as important as individual goal setting. In fact, the best results emerge when team goals and individual goals are compatible. When this is the case, you are more satisfied, productive and contribute more to the team.

Knowing What to do in a Performance Review with JOB CRAFTING

Employers should aim to create jobs that motivate their employees and support their well-being. Unfortunately this is not always the case. So it’s important to take hold of the reigns and proactively create a work environment in which you can thrive. Job crafting refers to actions you take in order to shape the boundaries of your job to create an environment that fits your preferences, skills and competences.

Job Demands-Resources Model

The job demands-resources (JD-R) model is the basis for job crafting. It divides job characteristics into job demands and job resources.

Job demands are those aspects of the job that require sustained physical or psychological energy. There are demands that are helpful for reaching goals and can lead to more job satisfaction. These are referred to as challenging job demands. For instance, after working hard all day you feel tired when you get home. However, you also feel good about getting so much done and have a sense of accomplishment.

On the other hand, hindering job demands are stressors that make it harder to achieve your goals. Prolonged or overexposure to hindering demands is draining and can lead to burnout. Examples include “red-tape” or emotionally charged interactions with demanding customers.

Job resources are the things that help you to reach your goals. They may reduce negative stress, energize you and enhance your personal growth, learning and development. Examples of job resources include performance feedback, skill variety, autonomy and support from colleagues. Research shows that if you have access to high levels of job resources you’ll be more engaged at work.

How to Craft Your Job

Baed on the JD-R model, job crafting refers to actively changing the job demands and resources of your job. There are mainly four ways to craft your job. You can increase job resources by adjusting the structure of your job. For example, you can talk with you boss about having more autonomy and opportunities to develop or use more skills.

Another way to craft your job is to increase social job resources such as feedback, coaching or support from colleagues. You can also increase challenging job demands. One example is to take on more responsibility. Finally, aim to decrease hindering demands. Examples of this include limiting frequent interruptions or reducing conflicts with colleagues.

Knowing What to do in a Performance Review with STRENGTHS

Strengths are positive traits that you can refine or enhance with knowledge and skills. They come from within and refer to the natural capacities you enjoy using. Strengths engergize you and make you feel authentic. They shape how you behave, think and feel. Furthermore, they can help you function, develop and perform optimally.

Research shows that using your strengths has multiple benefits: You feel more energized, engaged and perform better at work. You also experience more positive emotions which increase your willingness to help others.

One way your managers can help you to use your strengths is to give you autonomy and flexibility in how you do your job. With high autonomy you will naturally use your strengths more and perform better.

How do You Know What Your Strengths Are?

So how do you know what your strengths are? One way is to use questionaires such as the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) survey from Seligmann. This identifies 24 character strengths widely valued across cultures organized into six broad virtues.

1. Wisdom: creativity, curiosity, judgement, love of learning, perspective

2. Courage: bravery, honesty, perseverance, zest

3. Humanity: kindness, love, social intelligence

4. Justice: fairness, leadership, teamwork

5. Temperance: forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation

6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

You can take the free survey here to find our what your character strengths are – it takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Other ways to know your strengths are to get feedback from others or spend time reflecting. After exploring your strengths, you usually end up with a list of three to seven main ones.

Because using strengths is critical for thriving at work, it’s important to consider how to develop and use them more.

Exercise – Knowing What to do in a Performance Review

Part 1 Goals

Please take some time to consider to what extent you met your goals in the last three months. Think about what went well and what things you would like to improve on. How satisfied are you with your overall performance?

What are your goals for the next three months? These may include personal development goals, sales goals, projects etc. What would you like to achieve and how will you know if you did a great job?

Using the questions above, fill out the following form to make notes about your work goals:

Goal Achievement Last Three Months

Goal 1:

Goal 2:

Goal 3:

Goal Achievement Next Three Months

Goal 1:

Goal 2:

Goal 3:

Part 2 Job Crafting

The following list contains „enabling“ and „disrupting” factors related to your experience at work. Please choose 1-2 enabling factors and consider how you could proactively increase them in your work experience. Then choose 1-2 disrupting factors and consider how you could proactively reduce them.

The point of this exercise is to increase the factors that help you carry out your tasks and encourage your personal development. This exercise should also help you to reduce changeable factors that actively disrupt you at work or are a great source of stress.

You may, of course, choose “enabling” and “disrupting” factors that are not listed below, but please keep in mind that they should be changeable aspects of your job.

Enabling Factors

Example 1

What: I would like to get more feedback about my performance at work so that I can get a better idea of what I do well and what areas I can improve in.

How: I will schedule a 15-minute meeting with my manager every three weeks to discuss my performance. I will also ask my manager to use concrete examples to support their feedback. To better facilitate this process, I will set up a regular appointment in our calendar system.

Example 2

What: I wish that I could use some more of my skills at work. I generally like the work that I do, but I don’t have the opportunity to use my presentation skills. I would like to give presentations, so that my work becomes even more interesting to me.

How: I will identify opportunities to give presentations. For example, I can introduce my department during the on-boarding sessions for new employees. I can also volunteer to present updates from our department at the next company meeting. My manager and I will schedule one or two presentations in the next three months.

Disrupting Factors

Part 3 Strengths

Please make a short list of your personal strengths. This may include factors related to your personality or things that you are good at and enjoy doing.

Personal Strengths

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Which of your strengths do you use most often at work?

Strengths You Use Most at Work

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

How could you use the strengths mentioned above even more at work?

How Could These Strengths be Used Even More?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

You probably have strengths that you don’t use or hardly use at work? What are ways to integrate the use of these strengths into you job?

Strengths You Don’t Use at Work	How Could You Integrate These Strengths into Your Job?
1.	1.
2.	2.
3.	3.
4.	4.
5.	5.

Summary – Knowing What to do in a Performance Review

In this post I covered three crucial elements for a motivating performance review: goals, job crafting and strengths usage. It’s crucial to consider goals. When reviewing goal achievement reflect on what went well and what was difficult. Learn from your mistakes and set specific, challenging goals for the next few months. This gives you direction and clarity about your next steps.

In a performance review you should also consider the structure of your job. What factors energize and motivate you? Try to increase these things. Furthermore, it’s important to consider what factors hinder you from doing a great job. Work on decreasing these things if they are changeable. Proavtively changing job demands and resources is called job crafting.

Lastly, you should find ways to use your strengths more. This may include taking on different projects or focusing more intensely on the the tasks that enable you to use your strengths.

It’s great if your boss helps to foster your growth and development by discussing these matters with you. However, this is not always the case. With this post you’ve learned how to leverage a performance review in order to increase your motivation and get the feedback you need. Be proactive about influencing changeable job characteristics with the goal of creating an environment in which you can thrive.

Resources

Kong, D. T., & Ho, V. T. (2016). A self-determination perspective of strengths use at work: Examining its determinant and performance implications. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(1), 15-25.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Goal-setting theory of motivation. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-6.

Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2015). Job crafting and job performance: A longitudinal study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(6), 914-928.