Accountability From Review Meetings

Having a Regular Review Meeting Improves Employee Accountability for Projects

As well as review meetings after a project helping to develop an employee's focus and participation in the refining of projects to improve them for the future, review meetings also add an element of accountability for tasks.

By giving employees an opportunity to analyse, evaluate and discuss the good parts and the bad parts of a process and allowing them to put forward their own ideas and suggestions for improvements, they will then take ownership of these changes and so are much more likely to work hard to try and increase the chances of the amendments being a success.

Collaboration on Plans Typically Results in Greater Teamwork

Workers who feel like they have been wholly or at least partly responsible for a change are likely to have a much greater motivation and desire to make it succeed in order to prevent anyone from turning round and blaming them should it not work out as envisaged.

If in the review meetings managers and workers agree on the changes and have all come up with them as a result of collaborative discussions, then the whole group will have a common goal to make it a success.

Not only will this mean that everybody should then work hard to make it succeed, but should also lead to greater teamwork as they unite behind this common cause.

The Importance of Written Records

It is important that a written record is made of the discussions and outcomes that are decided in the review meetings so that not only can progress be checked, but also provides a definitive record to state clearly who is responsible for which element of the improvement and who is supposed to be doing what.

Review Meetings Can Develop Focus and Participation

Business Coaching and Review Meetings Serve to Develop the Skills of Employees

Review meetings performed after the completion of a project or task are a great tool in the business coaching armoury. Business coaching is all about developing the skills of an individual in order for them to improve their performance in their particular job role, and these review meetings can help them to develop skills such as communication, team working and their analytical and problem solving skills.

These Meetings Also Provide a Forum for Employee's Ideas

The review meeting also enables them to increase their focus on the task and the needs of the company, and allow for active participation in the development and strategy that future tasks of a similar nature will take. By increasing employee input and participation in this manner, they are more likely to work harder towards the achieving and advancement of the task than they are if managers simply gave them a task and a list of instructions and told them to follow it to the letter.

Tackling Issues Early Will be Better for Everyone

In terms of focus, employees (and managers themselves) can easily slip into bad habits and ways of working which are in need of improvement but are never addressed because nobody takes the time to analyse and review them in full. By taking time to specifically delve deep into what happened, processes can be refined which leads to many benefits for a company or organisation in terms of their reputation and/or cost control (e.g. there is a reduction in the amount of mistakes which cause wasted time or materials).

So whilst it may require time to be taken out of a manager's and employee's working day, this time is likely to be well worth it if it can achieve those benefits going forward.

Business Coaching Reviews for Sustained Performance

There Will Come a Time When a Person Needs to Stand on Their Own

Aside from making changes to working practices or other areas/issues affecting a person's professional life and career, one of the most desired outcomes of business coaching is ensuring that changes to performance can be sustained going forward without the need for support from the business coach.

Whilst many senior managers and directors choose to receive business and executive coaching on an indefinite basis, for middle managers and employees the training and development budget is highly unlikely to stretch to accommodate continuous support from a business coach.

Although one-off refresher sessions may be able to be scheduled at a later date, for most people there will come a point where the support of a coach is no longer available and they need to be able to stand upon their own two feet to overcome challenges and issues.

Related Page: Performing Regular Reviews in Business Coaching

Providing the Tools to Overcome Many Challenges

The majority of business coaching provisions have an objective not of solving a particular problem, but giving a person the tools needed to overcome this and similar issues which may arise during the course of their current or future working life. Rather than just solving one issue, providing the person with the ability to overcome it will stand them in much better stead when other challenges come their way, giving them a greater chance of overcoming them by themselves without needing the assistance of a business coach or mentor again.

These tools can take the form of a number of different items, depending upon the nature of the challenge and the current skill sets of the individual in question, but can include:

• Training courses to increase knowledge, ability and skills which the person can utilise to overcome challenges or avoid such problems being created in the first place
• Increased confidence regarding ability and effectiveness at dealing with problems
• Increased and improved interpersonal skills. Many issues come about through a lack of assertiveness or poor communication and teamworking, so addressing these concerns can provide significant benefits to a business going forward

There are many more besides, and conducting regular reviews of performance both during the business coaching meetings, and indeed afterwards if possible, will enable the coach or manager to better identify what additional support is required in order to get the person to a position where they will be able to manage without the coach going forward.

There is little point in putting all of that effort in (not to mention the expense of calling in an external business coach) if the individual will then either forget it all soon afterwards or struggle and need help whenever a similar problem comes their way. The person needs to be able to survive on their own once the business coach is no longer available, and so the work that is done between the coach and the individual needs to take this into account right from the initial planning stage. Long-term sustainability should always be a goal.

Conclusion

Conducting regular performance reviews not only serves to identify difficulties which the person may be having in solving the particular problem they are struggling with at this moment in time, but can also highlight the areas and additional training which may be required in order to provide long-term benefits and allow the individual to overcome other challenges in the future.

Anxiety at Performance Reviews

Performance Reviews In Business

Performance reviews can often be a time of anxiety for both employees and for managers themselves. The conducting of performance reviews is covered on a number of different business coaching courses which aim to teach managers and supervisors how to use business coaching to get the most out of their employees and subsequently improve their performance in the workplace.

Performance Reviews Can Be Stressful

Performance reviews can sometimes cause anxiety for managers and employees, especially if they are performed fairly infrequently with long periods of time in between. As far as employees are concerned, not only will they be unfamiliar with what is about to take place, they are also likely to be worried about what the manager is going to say to them as it was such a long time since they last spoke that they are unsure about whether they have been doing a good job or not.

Managers Can Also Be Anxious

As far as managers are concerned, they are also likely to be anxious if they only conduct performance reviews every so often such as once a year. Not only will they not be used to sitting down one to one with employees perhaps, but they may also have anxiety about delivering negative feedback, particularly if the employee has no idea that they were doing something that did not meet the expectations of the manager, which they undoubtedly would do if they received regular business coaching and performance updates throughout the year. The manager may also be struggling to remember what the employee has or has not done over the last twelve months and are anxiously trying to think of things to write for their review.

Again, this could be avoided by performing regular review sessions and meetings in which the manager makes brief notes which can then all be used as a basis upon which to write an annual performance review for the worker.