Things Leaders Do

Employee Reviews That Don’t Suck (And Actually Grow Your People) Part 1

• Colby Morris

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Employee Reviews That Don’t Suck (And Actually Grow Your People)

Let’s be honest: most employee reviews suck. They’re vague, awkward, once-a-year rituals that everyone dreads—and nobody grows from.

But they don’t have to be.

In this episode of Things Leaders Do, Colby Morris breaks down how to build employee development plans that actually work—with SMART goals that connect to your team’s real career aspirations, and a system to track progress month after month.

You’ll learn: 

 ✅ How to ditch the checkbox review culture
 ✅ How to build SMART goals your team actually cares about
 ✅ How to break annual goals into quarterly and monthly wins
 ✅ How to create a simple, powerful one-page development plan
 ✅ And why most reviews feel like punishment—but don’t have to

If you want to stop phoning it in and start building a culture where reviews lead to real growth, this episode is your roadmap. Plus, Colby shares real-life stories (yes, even the ones where he learned the hard way), so you can skip the mistakes and level up your leadership game faster.

🔔 Subscribe. Share it with the leader who’s still using last year’s copy-paste review template. 

And if you’re looking for keynote speakers, workshops, or coaching that doesn’t suck either—Colby’s your guy.

Connect with Colby on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/colbymorris/)

or at his webpage: nxtstepadvisors.com (no "E" in NXT)


Speaker 1:

Welcome to Things Leaders Do, the podcast that uncovers the secrets of becoming an extraordinary leader. If you're a leader who's constantly seeking growth, inspiration and tangible ways to level up your leadership, then you've come to the right place. Remember, the world needs exceptional leaders, and that leader is you. Now here's your host, colby Morris is you?

Speaker 2:

Now? Here's your host, colby Morris. What if I told you that your next annual review didn't have to be terrible? What if your next annual review could be a conversation? It could be the most energizing, goal-focused meeting of your entire year. Sounds impossible, let's not. Hello leaders and welcome back to the TLD podcast. I'm Colby Morris and I have led from just about every seat frontline manager, middle manager just about every seat frontline manager, middle manager, executive. I've sat on both sides of the review table and I've learned that when you do this right, when you build your reviews with purpose and intention, it stops being a formality. It starts being a catalyst.

Speaker 2:

Today is part one of a two-part series on employee development and annual reviews. This episode is all about building how to craft reviews with intentional goals, how to tie those goals to employees' dreams and how to break it all down into quarterly and monthly wins that keep momentum going all year long. Next week, we'll dive into how to actually conduct the review and why spoiler alert no one should ever walk into a review surprised, but for now. But for now, let's build something worth reviewing. Now let's talk about why reviews matter and why currently most don't. We've all been there that awkward review meeting. You're pulling performance out of thin air, your employee is trying to decode your tone and everyone is just praying for it to end without a scene. The problem Too many reviews are based on memory and vibe instead of clear, shared progress. But when you flip the script and focus your review on development, everything changes. You need three things you need connection, which means you need to know your people, not just their tasks. You need clarity. You have to set goals that are specific and meaningful. And you need consistency. You have to break them into bite-sized pieces and check in often. So let's start with clarity. That means goals, real goals, not try harder stuff. All right, step one to write better SMART goals. Look, we're not handing out participation trophies here. We're building growth plans. That means SMART goals. Many of you already know this.

Speaker 2:

Smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Let's look at a basic example. Someone said they want to improve team communication. That's a wish, not a goal. Okay, so let's try this Host a 15 minute daily team huddle to increase cross department collaboration by 25% over the next quarter. That is specific. A daily huddle, it's measurable. 25% increase in collaboration it's achievable. It doesn't require that person to reinvent the wheel. And it's relevant. It directly impacts their role and it's time bound One quarter. It's clear, it's ownable, it sets the stage for tracking and feedback. All right.

Speaker 2:

Step two You're going to tie the goals to what they want, not just what you want. See, this is where a lot of leaders miss it. We set goals for people, not with them, and while performance matters, development is personal. Here's what I've learned when people feel seen, they lean in. So before you assign a goal, start with curiosity. Ask things like what would make you more proud of your work this year? Or what skill do you wish you had more time to develop? What role do you want to be in, let's say, 18 months from now?

Speaker 2:

Okay, let me give you a real world story. I had a team member. Let's call her Jessie. Jessie was a strong operations lead. Like she crushed her number. She managed projects like a machine, but she always avoided leadership responsibilities. I assumed she just didn't want to manage people. But in one of our one-on-ones I asked her what's one thing you've never had the chance to try at work, but maybe that you've always wanted to? She paused and she said I've always wanted to build a training program for new hires. I just never thought I'd get the chance. Boom, at one moment shifted everything. So her SMART goal for the year Design and pilot a new hire onboarding program for the operations team, rolling it out by Q3. Right, we broke it down by quarter and checked in monthly. By the end of the year, not only had she built the program, but she gained the confidence to take on a mentorship role, and now she leads a team of five.

Speaker 2:

You don't get that kind of engagement by assigning goals. You get it by listening, aligning and supporting. All right, let's move to step three. We're going to break goals down into manageable wins. What does that mean? Here's the thing about annual goals. They feel like a new year's resolution in July. Okay, they're kind of distant, kind of blurry, usually forgotten. So what's the fix? We're going to break it down.

Speaker 2:

Okay, goals need a quarterly milestone and a monthly action in order to stay alive. Okay, I'm going to give you a few examples. Let's say, let's give you a sales example your annual goal is to close 34 deals. Well, if we do the math, that quarterly milestone is to close eight to nine deals every quarter. Break that math down a little bit more. That means you need to close two to three deals every month. Okay, it's easy math, it's predictable. Pacing Okay, it's built in success checks. Let me give you a non-sales example An administrative role Okay, that annual goal reduce scheduling errors by 80% that quarterly milestone. Implement scheduling software, train staff, monitor accuracy rates. What would your monthly action be? Well, we're going to audit schedules weekly. We're going to gather staff feedback and refine the workflow.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that's leadership level, clarity and it works for any role support staff, creative roles, even HR. Okay, let me give you a skills-based example. Say someone says I want to improve my leadership skills to prepare for a management role. Okay, well, we need to break that down into what that actually looks like. Okay, so I'm going to give that person a quarterly milestone. I'm going to say something like I want you to complete a leadership course and lead one internal project. You, to complete a leadership course and lead one internal project. Okay, that's every quarter your monthly action. I want you to read one leadership book and shadow a senior manager in one meeting per month. Okay, so you start doing the math on this. Okay, that's a lot of leadership books, that's a lot of shadowing a senior manager, that's a lot of leadership courses, a lot of leading internal projects Okay.

Speaker 2:

When you break it down like this, you're giving your team a roadmap Okay, it's one they can follow without like getting overwhelmed or off track. Plus, it gives you a reason to check in monthly okay, Not just at the end of the year when it's too late. All right, let's talk about a tool, the one-page review planner and I do have a PDF on this if you'd like it, but it's really simple. You can actually create your own. I'd love to send you one, but it's not that deep. All right, it's a simple one page template. At the top, you write two or three smart goals that's tied to that employee's aspirations Okay. In the middle, you write quarterly milestones Okay, with room for taking notes or how are you going to score that tracking piece. And then at the bottom, monthly actions Okay, just small practical steps that you can review together every month. And then take that page and stick it in your one-on-one folder. Use it during your one-on-one check-ins. That's what helps keep you aligned and focused all year long. Okay, so here's your leadership move for this week. I want you to kind of see what this looks like in action. I'm going to kind of shift here.

Speaker 2:

I once had an operations manager let's call him Chris. He was phenomenal at putting out fires. He could literally troubleshoot anything, but he was always reactive and not really proactive. So I sat him down and said, chris, if you didn't spend your whole week responding to problems, I call it being a fireman. Okay, what's one thing you wish you had the time to build? He laughed and he said I've always wanted to design a playbook so our team knows what to do instead of having to ask me every time. Awesome.

Speaker 2:

So we turned that into a smart goal. What did it look like? Build a team operations playbook with all the SOPs for all repeatable tasks by Q3. Now for those of you who are new to leadership management, sops, standard operating procedures Okay, let's break that in quarterly. Okay, outline the SOPs and just gather information in Q1. Okay, in Q2, I want you to write and test the content. In Q3, I want you to launch it and train the team. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So what do we do monthly? How do we make that happen? I want you to launch it and train the team, okay. So what do we do monthly? How do we make that happen? I want you to choose two, maybe three processes per month to document. Okay. Hold weekly feedback sessions with those team leads. Okay, by the time review season rolled around, chris had eliminated half his own interruptions. The team was running smoother than ever.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you don't get that result with vague goals. You get it by asking the right questions and building intentional plans. So again, here's your move this week. I want you to pick one person on your team Okay. Ask them about their future, find out what they want, and then build at least one smart goal with them. Okay, break it into monthly and quarterly chunks. Okay, that's not just good leadership, that's great development.

Speaker 2:

Next week, we're talking about how to deliver the review, how to make it a conversation, not a surprise party with bad lighting. We're going to talk cadence prep how to make sure even tough reviews build trust instead of breaking it Make sense. I hope you listened that week too. Hey, if this episode helped you, I have two asks. Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and please share it with another leader who's ready to build a stronger team and a better culture, because we grow faster when we grow together. And, hey, if you want to connect, keep the conversation going. Ask a question. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and I'd love to hear from you. Okay, that link is in the show notes. If your organization is looking for leadership coaching, keynote speakers or workshop facilitation, I'd love to help. I've worked with leaders at literally every level and I bring actionable strategies to the table, not fluff. Okay, so let's talk. So this week, remember, don't just evaluate, elevate, and you know why? Sure, you do, because those are the things that leaders do.