Negative Performance Review

Posted by
Joni Rose
Jun 21, 2007

A friend of mine is a new manager and she had to give her first set of performance reviews this week. Delivering a negative performance review is never easy. What I found interesting about our conversation was how she wished the employees who were under performing would listen to and read the performance review as constructive criticism. She wished they would focus on how they could improve their performance and not wallow in the negativity of it or argue its validity – especially when the performance review process was a collaborative effort of many managers and peers. “How can she argue with the performance review when ten people agreed with my assessment of her performance, including her peers?”, my friend said in a frustrating tone.

People that have a tough time handling criticism from a boss tend to argue, sulk or ignore negative feedback even if its intention is to be constructive and instructive.

They see this as an attack and become defensive – the armour goes up as they attempt to protect themselves from harm.

What can the manager do to help the situation? Understand that when the employee argues or withdraws they are feeling attacked and have shut down the listening and dialogue. Take a step back and turn into a coach asking them to focus on what can be improved and how they plan to improve. Let them do the majority of the talking and refrain from vagueness – state the facts and have examples prepared and be able to define what excellence looks like.

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