3 Performance Review Examples You Need to See

Few tasks among a manager’s responsibilities stir up as many mixed feelings as writing performance reviews. We’ve scoured expert resources to bring you examples of how to communicate your company’s needs and encourage productivity without breaking morale.

It’s easy to extol an employee’s virtues, but things get tougher when you’re faced with assessing their challenges and keeping your feedback constructive. How will you find a way to discuss areas where your employees need improvement without raising their defenses?

Employees aren’t often thrilled about the performance review process, either. Employee engagement company TINYPulse surveyed over one thousand professionals and discovered that 37 percent think the process is outdated, and 42 percent feel that managers leave important elements out of their reviews due to bias. Nearly a quarter said they feared performance reviews, and the trend was especially strong among millennials, who also said the process stressed them out.

via GIPHY

Although face-to-face feedback on a regular basis is an important tool for encouraging and motivating your team, the written review gives both the employee and manager something concrete to refer to. Let’s take a look at how to write a review that celebrates great performance and clearly communicates needed improvements.

What Is a Performance Review?

There are many types of performance reviews, and they differ from company to company. Some have grading systems. Others have question and response formats. Some are expected to be free-form. Whatever the case, commenting with clear, positive language is the key to keeping the review goal-focused and productive.

Most reviews will include your evaluation of the employee’s performance in areas such as:

• Quality and accuracy of work
• Ability to meet established goals and deadlines
• Communication skills
• Collaboration skills and teamwork
• Problem-solving skills
• Attendance and dependability

How to Keep Your Performance Reviews Constructive

A bit of psychology goes into writing a performance review that leaves both you and the employee feeling that the experience was valuable. This is where clarity of language comes into play. Let’s look at an example of the same critical feedback, one written with a negative tone, the other growth-focused and positive.

Negative:

Jill is always distracted and finds it difficult to meet project deadlines.

This comment is both hyperbole (Jill isn’t always distracted; otherwise, she’d never get a single thing done!) and a generalization. Starting any piece of feedback with “You always do X” is bound to raise a person’s defenses and create negative feelings. It’s also not actionable. If distractibility is hardwired into Jill’s nature, how will telling her what she already knows help her improve?

Positive:

A focus on prioritizing tasks early in the day will help Jill eliminate distractions to better meet project deadlines. I recommend we touch base briefly each morning to set daily progress goals.

This sort of feedback tells Jill that she needs to work on prioritizing and meeting goals, but it also offers a solution—a daily check-in to help her establish priorities.

Assume that most employees want to do the right thing. Unless Jill’s wasting time posting selfies on Instagram, it’s likely she’s well aware of her problem with meeting deadlines and wants to get better. Rather than pointing out the obvious (Jill struggles to prioritize), it’s important to offer a solution that will work for both of you.

Inc.com provides more examples of what not to write in any employee’s performance review. The Muse offers advice for giving honest feedback that won’t damage your relationship with your employee.

Three Performance Review Phrase Examples

Now that we’ve examined the psychology behind phrasing criticisms constructively, let’s take a look at some sample text from employee reviews.

1 The Good Performer

The first is a positive appraisal from the Snagajob blog:

Samuel exceeds expectations in the role of a sales associate. He adapts to change easily, works well under pressure with a positive attitude and is detail-oriented. Samuel goes beyond the call of duty by seeking out and following up on additional responsibilities, and contributes frequently to department meetings.

2 The Adequate Performer

This more critical take, for an employee who meets expectations but doesn’t reach for higher aspirations, comes from Bright Hub:

John meets manager expectations in the role of trainer. He adapts to ever-changing client demands and works effectively under pressure. John maintains a positive attitude and acute sense of detail, but often at the expense of effective time management. John demonstrates adequate communication skills and completes all requested tasks and required responsibilities. He is very considerate of other team members and works well independently or collaboratively. John shows great aptitude for leadership, but he doesn’t seek out additional professional development opportunities.

3 The Underperformer

Writing negative reviews that are both honest about the employee’s underperformance and motivational in a way that encourages improvement is a challenging task. LearnThat.com gives an example of constructive feedback for an employee whose frequent tardiness is limiting his potential:

When Jack is engaged in his work, he can be a very effective member of our team. Unfortunately, there is too often a time when Jack is late to work and not fully engaged until an hour into the workday. Over the next 3 months, we’d like Jack to focus on his attendance, be on time each day and ready to work at 8:00, and be the effective team member we require.

Think of giving critical feedback like making a sandwich. The criticism (Jack is often late) should be sandwiched between a positive comment (he can be a very effective team member) and some specific steps to help him improve (Jack should focus on attendance and be ready for work at 8:00 a.m. each day).

Writing performance reviews requires managers to be specific with their feedback, stay constructive, and provide solutions to help the employee grow. Pay careful attention to writing clearly, with a positive tone, and soon you’ll be writing performance reviews your employees won’t have to dread receiving.

5 Simple Ways to Write about Negative Issues with a Positive Spin

Have you ever written something only to have the recipient completely misunderstand your intent? Or been accused of abruptness when you thought you were being businesslike and efficient? There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to communicating effectively, but among the most important is tone.

I’ve spent nearly two decades in the online trenches in roles ranging from business owner to forum moderator to PR email writer extraordinaire—a true virtual diplomat. Here’s my best advice for writing about negative issues in a way that sounds positive and productive.

1Present solutions instead of problems.

It’s better to talk about what you can do rather than what you can’t. Formulate a solution or alternate plan and present that instead.

I can’t meet with you tomorrow morning because I’m booked.

Tomorrow afternoon works better for me. Would a 2 p.m. meeting fit your schedule?

Not everyone will remember to bring their handbooks to the meeting, so we should bring extras.

Let’s remember to bring extra handbooks to the meeting in case anyone needs a copy.

2State what you want, not what you don’t.

Why focus on preventing a negative outcome when you can encourage a positive one? Instead of beginning requests with “don’t,” try stating what you do want.

Don’t leave your leftovers in the break room fridge over the weekend.

Remember to take your leftovers out of the break room fridge on Fridays.

Do not bring laptops to this meeting.

Laptops aren’t necessary at this meeting, so leave yours at your desk.

3Keep hyperbole in check.

Sometimes exaggerated language is used to great effect (particularly by advertisers) to promote something or speak to positive issues, but when you use it in a negative context it can evoke bad feelings. Watch out for words like always and never. They’re more likely to mean sometimes than either of those extremes.

You always file your reports late.

I sometimes receive your reports after the deadline.

We never get anything done.

Let’s stay on task so we can get things done.

4Try “I statements.”

When you’re tackling a difficult issue, statements that begin with “you” (and especially “you always” and “you never”—see the previous tip about hyperbole) tend to sound like accusations. And accusations, of course, raise a person’s defenses.

When you’re bringing up something negative, keep the focus on how the situation makes you feel rather than what the other person did.

You never listen!

I find it hard to communicate when I’m worried that I’m not being heard.

You’re always on my case!

I feel frustrated when I’m frequently reminded to do my work instead of being trusted to meet my responsibilities.

5“I’m sorry, but . . .” means you’re not sorry.

When I was a kid, and I’d apologize for some heinous act of childhood treachery, I’d often apologize with, “I’m sorry, but—” My mom would cut me off in my tracks, saying, “Any time you add a ‘but’ it means you’re not sorry, you’re just defending yourself.”

When you’re sorry, be sorry. Excuses and other defenses render apologies useless.

We’re sorry your shipment was delayed, but we had a lot of orders this week.

We’re sorry your shipment was delayed. The number of orders we received this week took us by surprise!

I’m sorry I interrupted you, but I felt the conversation was headed in the wrong direction.

I’m sorry I interrupted you. Let’s keep the conversation on a positive track.

Here are a couple of things to consider before you send an email, write a social media post, or address anything negative in writing.

• Do an empathy check. Read what you’ve written as though you’re the recipient. How would you feel if someone sent this to you? Is there anything you can change to make the message more positive, or to focus on solutions instead of problems?
• Sit on it. Have you ever fired off a scathing missive and almost immediately regretted it? Give texts about negative issues a cooling off period before you send or post them. Chances are, you’ll be able to rewrite with a more positive mindset once you’ve had some time to process.

It’s not always appropriate to be upbeat and enthusiastic. A realtor, for example, wouldn’t want to sound chipper when she’s writing to tell a client that the value of their home has dropped significantly due to a downturn in the market. But maintaining a positive, solution-focused tone can make things like bad news or criticism less devastating.

How to Customize Your Writing in Job Applications

Writing job applications is a necessary evil that awaits most of us. On the plus side, applications allow us to reach for the stars—or at least for employers we would never be able to reach through recommendations or word of mouth. On the flip side, they offer the same opportunity to hundreds of other people who are also looking for a job. To make matters even worse, in this day and age you can’t use the same résumé and cover letter for every job post you see. You will see a lot of them, and you’ll send out plenty of applications, before landing a job. Employers expect personalized job applications. For you, that means either you’ll have to start each application from scratch, or you’ll need to create a template and learn how to customize it. You could also download templates, or even whole cover letters and résumés from the Internet, but that wouldn’t be smart, given how anti-plagiarism tools (like Grammarly’s) are good at noticing those kinds of things. No, customization is your best bet. If we agree that a standard job application consists of a résumé and a cover letter, let’s suppose you’ve done your research and written templates for them. Now, what?

Start With the Résumé

For the résumé, the whole idea behind the following set of tips is that you shouldn’t spend hours rewriting a résumé for each job application you send out. It’s better to focus on tailoring a few points that are proven to be important for getting your résumé into the right hands. Or any hands, as you’ll see in a moment.

Customize Your Objective

After your name and contact information, the next thing you need to include on your résumé is the objective, or the target job title. You should make sure it exactly matches the position you’re applying for. For instance, if you’re applying for a position as an assistant manager in retail, you shouldn’t write “assistant manager” as your objective—you should add the “retail” part and make it match the title of the position you’re applying for.

Do Not Forget the Summary

This is the part of the résumé that comes after the objective, and you use it to highlight your most important skills and achievements. In the summary, you should bring out only the things that have something to do with the job requirements. Those are your strongest selling points. There’s a method to this madness—recruiters don’t spend a lot of time reading most résumés. So you should give them everything they need to know about you—everything that makes you a good candidate for the job—right from the start.

Mind the Keywords

For all this work to mean anything, your résumé needs to get to a recruiter, and for that, it needs to have specific keywords. Why? Because applications are scanned by software for the most important words from the job post, and applications that don’t contain them rarely if ever get read by human beings. So you should check the original job post for specific keywords, and then make sure you include the same keywords, when appropriate, in your résumé. If the job post states that you need to be proficient in a specific program, let’s say Adobe Dreamweaver, and your résumé says you’re familiar with the whole roster of Adobe’s products, write down each individual product, Dreamweaver included. With that, you have finished customizing your résumé.

Do Wonders with Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter is the part of the job application in which you should expand on the information you gave in the résumé and do your very best to sell yourself as the perfect person for the job.

Start with the First Paragraph

The first paragraph is where you introduce yourself as a candidate for the job. You could make it about yourself, and about the job you’re applying for. Mentioning how you found out about the job is also something you should do because that’s one of the things that signals to the reader that they don’t have a generic cover letter in their hands.

Customize the Middle

Because you already customized the résumé to make it a better fit for the keywords and the job post in general, your cover letter should follow suit. Include the most important skills, traits, and experiences—probably the same ones you included in your résumé’s summary. If you can, show how your other skills support your claim of being the best candidate for the job.

Let Them Know You Listened (or Read)

Include the important terms from the job post in your cover letter. Sure, you should write about how your skills make you a great candidate and how they synergize to make you a being of pure awesomeness, but if that’s all you do, your cover letter will look far from personalized. It needs to reflect the things your prospective employer mentions in the job post because that’s how you show you’ve actually read the job post and took the time to write a cover letter specifically for this job. Just look at the job requirements as a series of problems and your skills as a series of solutions, and customize your cover letter so that it includes both. Don’t just say that you have five years of experience. Explain how their requirement of having at least three years of experience won’t be a problem for you because you have five. Make yourself an answer to their needs.

Commas in Dates

When writing a date, a comma is used to separate the day from the month, and the date from the year.

July 4, 1776, was an important day in American history.

I was born on Sunday, May 12, 1968.

But if you’re writing the date in day-month-year format, you don’t need a comma.

The project will commence on 1 June 2018.

Do use a comma if you’re including a day of the week with the date. Note the use of the comma after the date when it appears in the middle of a sentence.

On Friday, October 28th at four o’clock, we’ll have a small gathering in the office kitchen to celebrate Mark’s birthday.

Please come out on Saturday, April 15th, 2017, to show your support for the marathon runners.

When you’re giving only a month and a year, you don’t need a comma.

I haven’t seen this much snow since January 2002.

Words for Peace Around the World

We invent words all the time: movie, jeggings, Internet . . . Did you know underwhelmed has only been around since the 1950s? Of course, we drop words just as often. When was the last time you met a cordwainer? But important words tend to stick around and influence other words in all kinds of interesting ways. Let’s take a look at one of these words, which also happens to be one we hear a lot this time of year: peace.

The words for peace in many Romance languages are direct descendants from the Latin word for peace, pax. Spanish has paz, Italian has pace, and French has paix. Paix is the modern form of the Old French word pais, which was the word that English borrowed almost a thousand years ago and transformed into peace.

Before that, the English word for peace was frith, a cognate of the modern German word for peace, Frieden. Although frith disappeared, its linguistic cousin, friend, is alive and well.

In the 1960s, Americans began to use peace, and eventually peace out, as a way of saying goodbye. The Hawaiian word for peace, aloha, is used as both a goodbye and a greeting. In Korean, the standard greeting anyoung haseyo translates literally to something like “Are you at peace?” The Arabic greeting salaam and the Hebrew greeting shalom both share a common root, sal, which means—you guessed it—peace. This same root is also an element in place names like Jerusalem and in personal names like Solomon. The Russian word for peace, mir, was the name of a space station and is an element in given names like Mirna and Vladimir.

“Peace on Earth” is a refrain we often encounter in speeches, songs, and of course, holiday cards. Depending on exactly where on Earth you happen to be, the phrase might sound completely different in the local tongue. But no matter where you are, words that mean peace are certainly worth saying.

How do you say “peace”?

12 Mental Habits That Will Derail Your Goals

It feels the same every year: you set some goals for yourself, the year starts with the best of intentions, but then it’s October and you are looking at a partially completed goal and feeling pretty frustrated with yourself. It happens to everyone—literally. But not everyone struggles all the time. Here are twelve ways that your mind is sabotaging your goals and some approaches to getting your head right.

1 Lacking clarity on values and priorities

You have a goal or two (or five) in mind for the next year or so, but you’ve only really made progress on one of them. This happens when you lack priorities. Over time, you tend to do what’s easiest or quickest and neglect goals that are more complicated and require more effort. You can avoid this by simply prioritizing your goals.

How to Overcome It Basically, figure out what really matters to you and organize your goals accordingly. TED has a great playlist to help you put everything in perspective. Then, when you start to document the values and priorities that will guide your time management, remember to keep your list simple.

Not sure what kinds of priorities and values to pick? MindTools will talk you through selecting your values, and James Clear has a good list of values to get you started. He recommends picking no more than five.

2 Being a Perfectionist

People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it. —Edith Schaeffer

Have you ever caught yourself thinking: “If it can’t be done right, don’t do it at all”? Or the more intense version—“If I can’t do it perfectly, why do it?” This is the nirvana fallacy, and it stops us from achieving our potential because it discourages us from making even make small improvements. Charly Haversat, a recovering perfectionist and former professional athlete, discusses the damage perfectionism does to our productivity and how we can try a different approach: the pursuit of good enough.

How to Overcome It There are a few ways to stop perfectionism.

• Lifehack has a great article on how to get to “good enough.”
• Let go of the fixed mindset that locks you into to an all-or-nothing situation and embrace growth. You can read more about the fixed mindset and its opposite, the growth mindset, in Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
• Deeply entrenched perfectionism and control are signs of anxiety, a mental illness. AnxietyBC has put together a great step-by-step guide to help cope.

3 Isolating Yourself

Taking some time for yourself to focus is one thing, but cutting yourself off from people to “avoid distraction” or “be more disciplined” is another. Very, very few people have brains that allow them to function best in isolation. Odds are that your mind will do better if you talk to people and share your ideas. Not only will you boost creativity, but you’ll give your noggin a rest from intense work.

How to Overcome It If you don’t have friends you can discuss your idea or goals with, consider finding a specialized group for your interest. MeetUp is a great way to find niche groups of people on similar journeys in everything from training for a marathon, writing a book, or building a mobile app. If there are no good MeetUps in your area, consider finding a forum or starting your own blog.

4 Not Building Your Self Confidence

If you’re your own worst critic, you might be struggling with perfectionism (see above) and a distorted sense of your own value. However, research points to one reality: what we believe is true matters. If you believe you can, your performance improves significantly. If you believe you can’t, your performance suffers. If you’re feeling a little unsure of yourself, spend some time building up your confidence.

How to Overcome It

• Take some time to regularly invest in your confidence. This TED playlist can help.
• Before you start a difficult task, jot down a few times when you felt competent and successful. It’ll get your mind in the right place for success with the new task. Having trouble? Ask a loved one or friend to tell you what you’re good at.
• Use it or lose it! Test your confidence and focus on wins when possible. Forbes discusses how to build confidence here.
• Looking for more? TIME Magazine put together a research-backed list for building your confidence.

5 Thinking Too Big—Too Often

In western culture, we have loads of axioms that encourage us to “shoot for the stars” or “think big.” There is even a push in business to pursue “big, hairy, audacious, goals” or BHAGs for short. These are well-intentioned ways to encourage us to push ourselves, and they often work in getting us out of our comfort zones; however, focusing too much on the immensity of the problem or task can be paralyzing—especially if coupled with self-doubt or perfectionism.

How to Overcome It There are two keys to dealing with a big, hairy goal. Make sure your goal is SMART, then break it down into smaller, manageable bits over a smaller, manageable timeline. Hannah Braime of the blog Becoming Who You Are outlines a step-by-step plan for tackling goals.

6 Trying to Multitask

The science is pretty conclusive—multitasking is bad for you. What you’re doing is not actually multitasking but “task switching.” The habit slows cognitive processing, decreases efficiency, lowers IQ during task completion, and increases production of the stress hormone cortisol. Though multitasking may feel good (completing small tasks rewards your brain with dopamine), it’s not a winning long-term strategy.

How to Overcome It In addition to scheduling time for checking emails, texts, etc., it can also be helpful to try out some time trackers to help you focus your time. Toggl is a popular free time tracker. If you don’t want the hassle of setting up projects to categorize your time, try the Pomodoro Timer and just commit yourself to only working on one task during a given cycle.

7 Responding Inappropriately to Criticism

Criticism, even when it’s constructive, can be hard to cope with, particularly if the criticism gets to the heart of what you are trying to do. However, if you find yourself getting too emotionally involved with criticism, it can stunt your confidence and potentially ruin your progress toward your goal.

How to Overcome It The first step to dealing with criticism is understanding what kind of criticism it is. There are three types of criticism:

• Friendly criticism, or constructive criticism, is usually delivered with good intent and is tactful, so you can clearly see room for improvement.
• Unfriendly criticism is well intentioned but poorly communicated.
• Malicious or false criticism is delivered with the intention of inflicting hurt rather than creating an opportunity for development.

Once you understand the kind of criticism you’re dealing with, you can practice techniques to processr it correctly, including, among others, focusing on the suggestion and not the tone, not taking it personally, and smiling.

8 Trying to Plan It All in Your Head

If you’re trying to plan a goal completely in your head, you’re gonna have a bad time. You’ll forget things, have a much harder time staying on schedule, and struggle to focus.

How to Overcome It Get it out of your head. Whether on paper or digitally, dump all your ideas, goals, and timelines somewhere else. There are several planning techniques that can be used for any number of different goals or projects, but the most basic and often most helpful is the simple to do list. If you’re not sure what kind of list you need, take our quiz.

9 Getting Distracted

If you are constantly finding yourself checking social media, email, or texts, you are letting your focus slip and using these little tasks to procrastinate. Some research has shown that it can take up to twenty-three minutes for you to recover your focus after a distraction!

How to Overcome It Some of the most common techniques for reducing distractions are to

• schedule “distraction time”
• batch and do small tasks last
• remove yourself from the distraction

In addition to making a few habit changes, you can also get technology on your side to fight distraction. There are several tools for your computer and browsers that will help you manage the amount of time you spend on time-sink pages like Facebook.

10 Having an All-or-Nothing Approach

An all-or-nothing approach is damaging not only because it sets you up for perfectionism but also because you lose the ability to appreciate the progress you make along the way.

How to Overcome It The key here is to focus on what you are able to achieve. On a daily basis, this can be as simple as keeping a “done” list—literally a list where you write down everything you accomplish, even if it wasn’t on your original to-do list. For bigger projects, this can be harder, but try to plan regular check-ins to assess your progress. If you’re prone to all-or-nothing thinking, it’s important that you try to focus on what you have been able to accomplish overall and not just what you have not accomplished.

11 Rushing

You’ve got a new idea. It’s exciting, and you want to start, like, yesterday. That passion and energy is terrific. Use it, but make sure you don’t put off necessary planning and research. And definitely don’t try to do an inhuman amount of work in a human amount of time. A bit of planning and balance, even fresh out of the gate, can save you from burning out or even putting too many eggs in one basket.

How to Overcome It Invest some of your creative energy in helpful ways. Conversations about your ideas with trusted friends can help you keep things in perspective. To help preserve balance, Dr. Charles Sophy recommends monitoring a life-checklist, S.W.E.E.P.—Sleep, Work, Eating, Emotional expression of self, and Play.

12 Not Sleeping On It

If you have a big project or a big decision, it might not help to dive in before a good night’s rest. The fact is that your brain needs sleep to dispose of its waste properly. Going without sleep can severely impact judgement and work quality, while good sleep can keep your brain clear and healthy while also helping drive success.

How to Overcome It Unfortunately, for many it’s difficult to get enough rest. In addition to simply blocking off enough time for sleep, there are a number of lifestyle habits that can help you easily improve your sleep.

• Turn off electronics and television at least one hour before bed. Set an alarm to remind yourself—or use iOS’s new bedtime feature.
• Keep away from blue light after dark. A tool like f.lux automatically adjusts color settings on your computer so the light is better for your eyes—and brain.
• Spend at least twenty minutes under natural daylight every day.
• Exercise more.
• Reduce or eliminate caffeine and stimulant intake after lunch.

In the end, we all have our own unique obstacles that keep us from completing our goals. By identifying which of the above habits you are prone to and trying to incorporate fixes into your planning, it may be possible to make greater progress on your goals.

What other mental habits can keep you from achieving your goals? How do you overcome them?