What I always wanted to tell you
Do you also have annual meetings coming up? I currently have two slots blocked every week for this. If I'm honest, I sometimes think beforehand: is this really necessary? After all, I'm in constant contact with most of my team members anyway. But what can I say: afterwards I'm grateful for each of these appointments. In everyday life, there's far too little time to have an in-depth discussion about how the collaboration is really going.
It helps me to prepare as well as possible for the discussions. For example, to get feedback from other colleagues beforehand: How do they experience working together? What impressed them? How can they support each other even better? These preliminary discussions help me to compare my personal impressions and expectations with those of the team.
Frank V. Cespedes is a lecturer in entrepreneurial management at Harvard Business School. In his article “How to conduct the best annual review,” he recommends five things to ensure that the joint review goes well:
Make your positive attitude clear Of course, annual meetings shouldn't be all sunshine and roses; these appointments are a great opportunity to voice criticism. Nevertheless, a generally positive atmosphere during the meeting is helpful. If you don't manage to create that, you should think about breaking up.
Describe what you observed It's easy to praise or criticize someone, but if you want them to feel truly seen, you should be able to provide specific evidence of why they exceeded or fell short of your expectations.
Explain the consequences of an action Many employees are not aware of the consequences their actions or behavior have on the overall result. Use the conversation to talk about work processes and the sphere of influence of each individual.
Ask your counterpart for an answer Annual reviews should not be a one-way street. As a manager, ask for feedback and for feedback on your impressions. Are you misperceiving your counterpart? Are there private concerns that you don't know about?
Make it clear what happens next An annual meeting will only be successful if both sides leave with a clear understanding of how they can improve their collaboration in the coming year. Agree on rules and new goals together.
Cespedes ' tips helped me prepare for the annual reviews. I hope that this will help me avoid the so-called Rashōmon effect , which describes the completely contradictory perception of one and the same thing. The effect is named after the Japanese film "Rashōmon," in which four eyewitnesses perceive and describe a murder very differently. I also learned this from Cespedes' article .
We wish you much joy in reading and above all good conversations.
Gesine Braun Deputy Editor-in-Chief Harvard Business manager
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