That’s natural, given that so many of us have varying personal experiences with performance reviews in our careers that influence us one way or another.
Here’s what you can do to gain buy-in from your leadership team on why rethinking performance reviews is necessary:
Emphasize the problems of your existing system
Ultimately, you’re not looking to change for change’s sake — but to solve a real, underlying need in your organization. You’ll want to focus on what these needs and problems are. Data often speaks louder than anything, and so you may want to share statistics and anecdotes for what isn’t working with your existing performance review system. For example:
__% of the team feels the current performance review system takes too long to complete.
__% of the team does not feel the current performance review system helps them improve their performance.
__% of the team would like more regular feedback on how they could be improving.
Reorient around the #1 thing your executive team cares about
Many organizations have one big hairy goal they’re going after. What’s yours? Shine a light on how if the organization wants to achieve that goal, how critical having a culture of feedback and continuous improvement is to reaching that goal.
Illustrate what could potentially be the end result of this new methodology
It’s always hard to imagine what doesn’t exist. Paint a picture for your executive team of what is possible if you have a performance review alternative that actually encourages honest feedback, continual improvement, and high performance. How much smoother would things run? How much more progress would the organization make? Isn’t that worth giving a try?
Show how this is something that’s been working for your own team, personally
You could also roll-out the full KYT methodology for a performance review alternative in your own team as an example for what works. Sometimes seeing the evidence is the best way of convincing folks that they too should try it. 🙂
Not sure if this is enough? Feel free to email us at support@knowyourteam.com with your situation. We’d love to give even further guidance on what the best ways for showing your executive team an alternative path might be.
