• It’s helpful, not hurtful
• Nothing surprising
• Share at least 24 hours beforehand
• Read it out loud
• Invite edits to the performance review
• Don’t use AI, use your heart (I know…but trust me on this)

It’s helpful, not hurtful

This isn’t a PIP or disciplinary, this is a hand reaching out to pull someone up, to make them better. Your job with this feedback is to build the person up and give them a fighting chance to be a good contributor (or manager if upwards).

Nothing Surprising

This isn’t the time to side swipe a report with brand new information (or if it’s an upwards review, it’s not the time to take swipes at the manager). If someone is underperforming, they should already know they are underperforming before the performance review, this is a time to note the why and a plan you have for them to not be underperforming. At a minimum, they should be aware they are underperforming 1 month ahead of the performance review, ideally longer but 1 month is an internal measure.

Share at least 24 hours beforehand

I hate getting blindsided in a meeting with feedback. Give your folks some respect and share at least 24hrs before the meeting. I do this with a private google doc that they can read at their leisure and sleep on. This flattens the emotions out and helps temper the conversation better.

Read it outloud

How do you know if someone actually reviewed the performance review? You’ve read it outloud to them on call. Pretty simple. I always do this even if it’s the most senior engieneer or leader - they get the same voice my kids do at bedtime when I’m reading them a book.

Invite edits to the performance review

This is an HR document and is read without context by other people. Encourage them to consider it being a part of their file at the company and offer edits. You obviously need to do this before you formally submit the file and such but it’s a good sign of trust and engagement with your folks.

Don’t use AI, use your heart (I know…but trust me on this)

Do the work and don’t take short cuts. This isn’t the time to be efficient, this is the time to review every word and phrase you write to your report. If you read it out loud to the individual, you’ll find different cadences or meaning and need to do a live edit which I really enjoy and breaks down the barrier for the individual to contribute.

I didn’t use AI for this, but did plug it into a word counter/spell checker. Apparently outloud is two words