Exceptional Employee Performance Review Questions
Exceptional Employee Performance Review Questions
Human beings are funny creatures – we often learn best and more deeply by doing and experiencing something themselves. Think about when you learnt how to ride a bike. Someone could tell you – well you sit here, balance yourself, push off then stick your feet on the pedals and then push the pedals around to propel you along. Great – but you only learnt by getting on yourself and giving it a go (and falling off a few hundred times in the process).
You have experienced yourself the power of learning through personal experience. So, why do we still fall into the trap of thinking that we have to have an answer for everything anyone asks us?
A powerful question at the right moment, which triggers thought and reflection and then action, will help a person learn more than if you just do it yourself.
How can you apply this to employee performance? When you sit down with your employee for their annual performance appraisal – how do you do it? Do you sit down and then start talking or listen and ask questions?
If you talk without listening, then you are not helping your employee to learn and improve their performance. So what do you ask? Here are a few of the questions that I have used over the years to help build relations with my team members, learn more about them and build their performance.
• Tell me your Myers Briggs/TMI profile and why it fits you (if you have done some form of profiling with your team members). What have you learnt about how you work in a team and how I can best work with you?
• What was your favourite task/role/project in the past 12 months and why? What made it so special? What made it successful? What did you do to make it work so well? This is a great question as it helps you to find patterns of success. You get to learn what motivates your team member.
• What was your biggest mistake/regret of the past 12 months and what did you learn from it? Another great question. Often this will help identify areas you need to keep an eye on in the future. For example, was there a particular personality they couldn’t work with, were they having problems with time management or trouble with balancing work and life? By having them reflect and learn from their mistakes you help teach that mistakes happen in life – it is what you do with them that are important.
• How do you like to be recognized/rewarded for a great job? Don’t just talk the first answer with this. Dig a bit deeper and don’t stay with “money” as the answer. Some people like to be praised in front of others – for other people public praise is a punishment and they would prefer to sink into the floor. How does this person like to hear/know they have done a great job?
• What is your future dream role? How can we put elements of this into your role? How can I help move you towards it? For this don’t be limited again by the current job or role. I had one team member whose dream was to run their own business. By committing to help teach them basics of budgeting, planning and a few other skills that they would need in their business I retained an exceptional employee for another 2 years, rather than losing their skills and experience. By having this open conversation, I was also able then to grow a more junior employee to fill the role when the employee moved on.
• What have you done to deliver more value to this company than you did 3-6 months ago? With this question you are getting the employee to consider how they value add, rather than remain at the same level.
• What new skills have you learnt in the last year?
• Why do you stay with this company? Employee retention is a critical part of building a productive workforce. Find out what makes your employees stay and you will be half of the way towards retaining your best employees.
• What would lure you away to leave this company?
• If you won Lotto, what is 1 thing that would keep you from quitting your job?
• What would make your life easier at work? Often little things cause people to leave jobs – like simple problems with communication and poor work layout and design. Many times employees won’t tell you these problems unless you specifically ask them. Make sure you always ask!
• How do you like to be managed? Am I watching too closely or not enough? Would you like more/less contact? This is often a hard question to ask and to hear the answer to. If you have built your relationship effectively, you may hear some problems with your management style. This is the time to listen and see if you can come up with a workable solution for both of you.
Once you have explored all of these areas then pursue the more traditional performance questions relating to tasks and targets and start by asking them how they think they went with these areas. Listen closely and only add in your two cents worth when you have clearly understood what they have said and why.
Ideally a performance discussion should be 80% the employee assessing and 20% you asking questions and adding in your comments and suggestions, as well as your perceptions. If you ask the right questions – you will build a stronger relationship with your employee and create more productive outcomes.
Exceptional Employee Performance Review Questions - To learn more about this author, visit Ingrid Cliff's Website.
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As a manager or leader in life, we often think that part of the role is knowing all of the answers when someone asks us a question. We automatically go into “solution” mode when someone presents us with a question or problem. The challenge with this approach is that we are then creating dependence on ourselves rather than creating independence for the other person.
Human beings are funny creatures – we often learn best and more deeply by doing and experiencing something themselves. Think about when you learnt how to ride a bike. Someone could tell you – well you sit here, balance yourself, push off then stick your feet on the pedals and then push the pedals around to propel you along. Great – but you only learnt by getting on yourself and giving it a go (and falling off a few hundred times in the process).
You have experienced yourself the power of learning through personal experience. So, why do we still fall into the trap of thinking that we have to have an answer for everything anyone asks us?
A powerful question at the right moment, which triggers thought and reflection and then action, will help a person learn more than if you just do it yourself.
How can you apply this to employee performance? When you sit down with your employee for their annual performance appraisal – how do you do it? Do you sit down and then start talking or listen and ask questions?
If you talk without listening, then you are not helping your employee to learn and improve their performance. So what do you ask? Here are a few of the questions that I have used over the years to help build relations with my team members, learn more about them and build their performance.
• Tell me your Myers Briggs/TMI profile and why it fits you (if you have done some form of profiling with your team members). What have you learnt about how you work in a team and how I can best work with you?
• What was your favourite task/role/project in the past 12 months and why? What made it so special? What made it successful? What did you do to make it work so well? This is a great question as it helps you to find patterns of success. You get to learn what motivates your team member.
• What was your biggest mistake/regret of the past 12 months and what did you learn from it? Another great question. Often this will help identify areas you need to keep an eye on in the future. For example, was there a particular personality they couldn’t work with, were they having problems with time management or trouble with balancing work and life? By having them reflect and learn from their mistakes you help teach that mistakes happen in life – it is what you do with them that are important.
• How do you like to be recognized/rewarded for a great job? Don’t just talk the first answer with this. Dig a bit deeper and don’t stay with “money” as the answer. Some people like to be praised in front of others – for other people public praise is a punishment and they would prefer to sink into the floor. How does this person like to hear/know they have done a great job?
• What is your future dream role? How can we put elements of this into your role? How can I help move you towards it? For this don’t be limited again by the current job or role. I had one team member whose dream was to run their own business. By committing to help teach them basics of budgeting, planning and a few other skills that they would need in their business I retained an exceptional employee for another 2 years, rather than losing their skills and experience. By having this open conversation, I was also able then to grow a more junior employee to fill the role when the employee moved on.
• What have you done to deliver more value to this company than you did 3-6 months ago? With this question you are getting the employee to consider how they value add, rather than remain at the same level.
• What new skills have you learnt in the last year?
• Why do you stay with this company? Employee retention is a critical part of building a productive workforce. Find out what makes your employees stay and you will be half of the way towards retaining your best employees.
• What would lure you away to leave this company?
• If you won Lotto, what is 1 thing that would keep you from quitting your job?
• What would make your life easier at work? Often little things cause people to leave jobs – like simple problems with communication and poor work layout and design. Many times employees won’t tell you these problems unless you specifically ask them. Make sure you always ask!
• How do you like to be managed? Am I watching too closely or not enough? Would you like more/less contact? This is often a hard question to ask and to hear the answer to. If you have built your relationship effectively, you may hear some problems with your management style. This is the time to listen and see if you can come up with a workable solution for both of you.
Once you have explored all of these areas then pursue the more traditional performance questions relating to tasks and targets and start by asking them how they think they went with these areas. Listen closely and only add in your two cents worth when you have clearly understood what they have said and why.
Ideally a performance discussion should be 80% the employee assessing and 20% you asking questions and adding in your comments and suggestions, as well as your perceptions. If you ask the right questions – you will build a stronger relationship with your employee and create more productive outcomes.
Exceptional Employee Performance Review Questions - To learn more about this author, visit Ingrid Cliff's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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