Win The Second Half Of 2023 With Minimum Viable Performance Reviews

Read Time: 3 minutes 33 seconds

Work has rhythm. Seasons. The tide comes in, and it recedes.

Sports too. In the pre-season, everyone has championship dreams. By the trade deadline, that dream has died for many clubs. But those that make a deep run into the playoffs?

They’re harvesting fruit planted during the long grind of the season. They’re developing talent. Upgrading their roster. Staring clear-eyed at problems.

As a kid growing up, the Major League Baseball All-Star break represented two things for me:

• The halfway point in the long season

• A three-day drought with no real sports

Baseball was on break. Basketball and hockey had just crowned champions. Football and soccer were yet to hit training camp. It was so bad that ESPN invented an award show for sports because no athlete could claim they had a conflict (at least we got a couple of iconic speeches).

The beginning of summer marks a similar inflection point for most businesses too. It's the halfway point. Numbers start to take shape. And you can't help but ask yourself, "What's working? Where are we coming up short? Are we set up to win?"

And the answer to that question always comes down to one thing:

People.

• Recruiting → Do you have the right talent?

• Mission → Are they focused on the right things?

• Culture → Are they doing it the right way?

And while uttering the phrase "performance management" often gets a visceral reaction from leaders, it is a natural time to reflect on how people are performing.

And if the answer is "not so good," you're still at a point in the year when you can do something about it.

So how can you get a high-fidelity view without imposing more administrative tax on your team?

Run a Minimum Viable Performance Review.

The Goals

Let's start with what this isn’t. This is not an in-depth performance review. No 360's. No long debates. No stack ranking or cross-team calibration.

When done well, this process accomplishes two things:

1. It builds a heatmap (free template below) for the leadership team to uncover hot spots within the organization

2. It encourages each individual to step back and reflect on the work they've been doing

This process is about generating different data than you get day-to-day so you can lead more effectively. This can (and should) lead to a few follow-up conversations and adjustments, but that follow through is just good leadership.

The Questions

I understand and am motivated by our mission: (1 - strongly disagree; 3 - neutral; 5 strongly agree). I start here because even strong performers who aren't mission-aligned will burn out.

What percentage of your work in a typical week directly impacts that mission: (0%-100%). Any score below 80% is a red flag. Either the work is inefficient, or the leader isn't connecting it to the mission clearly.