The Leaders Guide to a Performance Review.
Performance reviews can make leaders and employees nervous.
Lower anxiety with a clear plan, communicated to both.
Because the process includes feedback, many people feel nervous about leading a performance conversation.
Your goal as a leader.
The objective of the performance review is to communicate whether a team member is on track or not. Thinking of it as an exercise in lowering surprises and getting on the same page can be useful.
If they’re on track, great. Use the opportunity to formally acknowledge that. If not, a review gives you a format to tell them in a structured way.
What does a ‘performance review’ look like?
It’s a structured conversation.
In bigger organisations, you’ll give team members a formal rating (e.g. met expectations, did not). There may be a bonus attached. In smaller ones, there mightn’t be a formal process, but sitting down with your team member achieves the same thing: making sure you’re both on the same page.
What’s a leader's job in a review?
Your job is to acknowledge what they’re doing well, and highlight any gaps between your perception of their performance and theirs.
What needs to happen in the conversation?
You’ll typically do four things in a performance review (in any order):
Acknowledge / validate your team members' contributions.
Give feedback to help them grow.
Encourage them to think about their long term career goals.
Get feedback to help you become a better leader.
In a little more detail:
Acknowledge/validate your team member's contributions.
In a 2009 study, 67% of people reported praise or commendation by their manager was a bigger motivator than any other financial or non-financial recognition. Sharing specific, tangible examples of how your team member progressed, contributed or made an impact, is a practical way you can do this.
Not sure how to frame it? Try documenting their AIL: achievement, impact, learning. Check out this quick guide to be guided through it in more detail.
Give feedback.
We need both affirmative feedback (validating what’s working well) and guidance (suggestions on what they can do differently). Both help us learn and grow.
The review gives you an opportunity to do both. Employees often tell us they wish their bosses would give them more specific examples. Ahead of the review, consider how you can pre-prepare a couple of examples to colour in your feedback.
Encourage them to think about their career.
Asking your team member to zoom out to consider their career goals helps them put feedback and performance reviews into perspective.
While you’re not their career coach (you can’t be, you’re not objective as their boss), you can be explicit as to what skills they can get in this gig, to help them with the next. That can help frame your feedback.
Ask for feedback on your leadership.
Your performance as a leader has a huge impact on how your team member delivers. If you use the opportunity to get feedback on your leadership, you may find ways you can help them in 2026.
Example prompters to source feedback on your leadership:
What’s 1 way you prefer to be managed that I might not have considered?
What do you need more or less from me, to be more effective?
What could I stop/start/continue in 2026?
Pro tip: ahead of the review, ask them to consider 1 piece of feedback to help you be more effective as a leader. As a personal example, recently I asked a team member what they wanted to get out of our 1:1’s. It was useful hearing what they needed, to do their job better.
A handy checklist for leaders:
Prepare tangible examples of their positive impact. Use the framing of AIL: achievement, impact, learning. (Check out this free guide to get more info on how to use this framework).
Provide feedback on ways they can grow. This free quick guide can give you ideas to approach the convo. (For a more comprehensive guide, our feedback eBook).
Outline your understanding of what is possible vs not possible. Check in with your HR reps or business partners to get clarity on the money/promotion/salary conversations. The more you understand the process at the organisation, the more open and honest you can be in your conversation.
What to say to your team members ahead of the review.
Your team members want to know what to expect. Give them a heads up highlighting how they can prepare. Asking them to complete an Achievement Audit is a great place to start.
What if your team member wants a promotion or more money?
Sensibly, they’ll see the performance review as a good time to discuss.
Questions to consider seeking clarity on:
How do I approach having a conversation about an increase in my salary? Is there a process involved?
What does preparing for a promotion look like? Is there a criteria, which I can refer to as a checklist?
Knowing that a promotion is never guaranteed, what skills would I need to display to be considered, in the future? Who would need to see evidence of those skills?
Your business partner, HR rep, or more senior manager can help clarify if you aren’t sure of your organisation's processes.
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