Things Leaders Do

Part 2: How to Deliver Employee Reviews That Don’t Suck (And Actually Grow Your People)

• Colby Morris

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How to Deliver Employee Reviews That Don’t Suck (And Actually Grow Your People) Part 2

Too many employee reviews feel like an ambush.

But when leaders approach reviews as the culmination of a year’s worth of growth—not a once-a-year evaluation—everything changes.

In this episode of Things Leaders Do, Colby Morris walks you through how to conduct employee reviews that build trust, reinforce clarity, and inspire performance. This is Part 2 of our series on Employee Development and Annual Reviews, and we’re focused on the delivery—how to lead the actual conversation with confidence and care.

You'll learn:

  • How to make monthly 1:1s the foundation of your review process
  • Why great reviews are never a surprise—and what to do if they are
  • When and how to schedule reviews to reduce anxiety and build consistency
  • How to reframe the review as a story, not just a score
  • A simple, objective framework to evaluate SMART goals using real data

Whether the year was full of wins, setbacks, or something in between, this episode will help you turn your review process into a people-first leadership tool—not a performance trap.

Want more leadership insights or training for your team?
Colby Morris provides keynotes, leadership coaching, and custom workshops to help organizations build strong, people-first cultures.

Connect with Colby:

Subscribe, share, and start leading reviews that grow people—not blindside them.


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's worse than a bad employee review? An employee review that blindsides someone, the kind where their face drops halfway through and they say wait, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. Yikes. That's the kind of leadership moment that can break trust in five minutes, one conversation that undoes an entire year's worth of effort. But it doesn't have to be that way. Hey leaders, welcome to the TLD podcast. I'm Colby Morris and I've led from every seat at the table front line manager, middle manager and executive. I've made mistakes, I've learned the hard way and I've built systems at work. I'm here to help you become a better leader faster and to do that with actionable tools you can use today, not someday.

Speaker 2:

This is part two of our series on employee development and annual reviews. In part one, we covered how to build intentional reviews using smart goals and quarterly slash, monthly milestones okay, tied to your employees' aspirations, milestones tied to your employees' aspirations. Today I want to cover the actual delivery, the conversation itself, the moment of truth. A few things we'll talk about how your one-on-one set the stage for the review, why reviews should never be a surprise, when and how to schedule them for maximum impact. And what tone to use when you walk into the room and how to use objective, smart, goal-based measurements to take the guesswork and drama out of the process.

Speaker 2:

Let's get to it First. This starts with your monthly one-on-ones. If you're doing reviews right, the annual conversation should feel like a summary, not a sudden evaluation. Okay, but here's the trap I see too many leaders fall into. I see too many leaders fall into. They think of the review as the moment. Okay, the truth is, the moment already happened. Okay, that's in your one-on-ones. That's where growth lives, that's where coaching happens, that's where course corrections are made. So if your one-on-ones are currently only about tasks, updates, putting out fires, you're missing it, because without consistent monthly check-in on goals development, your review turns into a guessing game, literally for both of you. Here's how I frame it. This review is not a one-time judgment. It's the summary of 12 months of work that we've already talked through, bit by month and month by month. If you're leading well, your one-on-ones are the chapters of the story. Okay, the review is just the final page, and let me say this plainly Okay, Because it matters.

Speaker 2:

If an employee is surprised by anything in their review, that's on you, all right. Number two why review should never be a surprise. I want to dig into this because it's one of the most important truths in people-first leadership. No one should ever walk into a review guessing how they're doing. And if they do, that means you haven't communicated clearly or consistently enough as a leader, and those are big parts of your job.

Speaker 2:

Now, this doesn't mean every review is glowing. Some reviews will include hard feedback. Maybe they missed the mark on a project, maybe they didn't hit their goals, maybe behavior or cultural fit was an issue. But here's the thing Listen, if you've been having honest conversations throughout the year, then that employee already knows the situation. They may not love hearing it again, but they're not shocked. And that makes all the difference. Because when the review confirms what they already know, you shift from confrontation to reflection. Instead of wait what I didn't know, this was a problem. You get something like yeah, we've talked about that in our check-ins, I've been trying to get better and I know I still have work to do. That's the posture you want. Not defensiveness, not arguing, not scrambling to defend themselves, just clarity, just accountability, just forward momentum. That's what builds trust, even in the tough conversations, because the real power of leadership isn't in avoiding hard truths, it's in making them safe enough to talk about early, often and with your support, all right.

Speaker 2:

Number three, I want you to set the stage early and intentionally. Timing matters, and so does your tone. Don't make reviews feel like disciplinary meetings, like you're going to the principal's office and, for the love of your team, don't schedule it out of nowhere Like, hey, can you hop on a Zoom for 30 minutes tomorrow? I want to go over your year what? Set the stage with intention, at least two to four weeks in advance. Better yet, tie it into your regular one-on-one cadence. Let's say, your one-on-ones happen on the first Thursday of each month. Then here's how you frame it. Hey, let's use our December one-on-one for your annual review on the first Thursday of each month. Then here's how you frame it. Hey, let's use our December one-on-one for your annual review. Well, add a little extra time so we can talk about the year as a whole, what went well, what didn't, where we go from here.

Speaker 2:

That one sentence does a few powerful things. One it signals safety. There's no surprise attack coming. It affirms that you see the work they've been doing all year. And it frames the review as part of a process. It's not a performance trap. You want your team to walk into the review prepared, not paranoid. When that happens, the conversation is grounded, not guarded, and that makes the review productive and not procedural. All right.

Speaker 2:

Number four I want you to reframe the review as a story, not really a scorecard. Okay, this part is where you separate the managers from the leaders, Because, yes, the review contains ratings, outcomes, metrics, but that's not the most important part. The most important part is how you frame the narrative. Narrative, your employee didn't just hit or miss a number. They lived a story this year, and when you can reflect that story back to them with clarity and honesty, it does more than just inform. That inspires.

Speaker 2:

Was this a year of resilience? Was it a breakthrough year after a rocky start, a year of steady wins, deepened leadership? You're not just reading numbers from a forum, you're naming their season Something like you know, you started this year struggling with time management and you missed your Q1 deadlines, but it looks like by mid-year, man, you found your rhythm and in Q3 and Q4, you're one of the most consistent people on the team. That's the growth I want to celebrate today. Or, hey, we had high hopes with your stretch goals this year and while we didn't quite hit them, I saw consistent effort, willingness to adapt. You were coachable, you didn't make excuses, and that tells me a lot more than the numbers ever could. Your job as a leader is to hold up the mirror in a way that reflects truth but also shows who they're becoming. Don't miss this moment. It's not about what they did. It's about what they learned, how they grew and who they're becoming.

Speaker 2:

All right, number five I want you to use measurement in order to keep it fair. Okay, this part is simple, but it is powerful. See, when you tie your evaluations to SMART goals, the ones that were agreed upon early in their year, you remove subjectivity. You shift the conversation from opinion to outcomes. Here's the measurement framework. I use three basic measurements Okay, first one is exceeds expectations. That means they went above the target. The second one is meets expectations. They hit the goal as we defined. And then there's did not meet expectations, which means they fell short of the goal.

Speaker 2:

I want to go back to that sales goal. In part one, we said where you wanted to close 34 deals by the end of the year. Here's how I'd break it down If the goal was 34 deals and you wanted to say, okay, exceeds, and we're going to set a measurement for that. That means you close 35 or more. Remember the goal was 34, so exceeds is above the goal and then meets. In this case, again, with the goal being 34, I'm going to say you close 32 to 34. Okay, I can make that an acceptable range. If you're a little tougher than that, you can say, hey, 34 is the goal. You either meet it or you didn't. But in this case I said 32 to 34. And then anything below that number. So 32, 34, that means 31 or fewer. That did not meet expectations. Okay, and here's how I'd say it. It kind of both ends here. You know you finish with 36 closed deals. That's two over target. Man, that's a strong finish.

Speaker 2:

But what impressed me more was how you responded during that slow patch in Q3. You didn't wait around, you shifted your approach and you still delivered. That's one of the reasons I'm marking this as exceeds expectations. Or let's go to the flip side hey look, you finished with 30 deals. That's under our 34 deal goal. We've been talking about this throughout the entire year, so this isn't a surprise.

Speaker 2:

But we need to find a way to turn effort into execution more consistently next year. I know you have it in you, okay, and I'm here to help. When it's measured well and delivered with respect, even hard feedback becomes a moment of trust. Look, if you've listened to this point, I want to challenge you to do more than just nod along. Here's your move this week. I want you to pull up your team's development plans. I want you to schedule annual reviews two to four weeks in advance.

Speaker 2:

Okay, start gathering notes from your one-on-ones your employees' progress, their challenges, their wins, where you had to pivot. Frame each review not just as a report, but as a reflection, a story, a mirror and, most importantly, prepare the conversation with them in mind, not just what you need to say, but what they need to hear, because your job isn't just to evaluate performance. Your job is to elevate people. Do you hear me? Your job is to elevate people. Did you hear me? Your job is to elevate people. So make this review season one that builds trust, reinforces clarity and sets your team up for an even better year ahead.

Speaker 2:

If you haven't listened to part one of the series, go hit that one next. Okay, it's the foundation of everything we covered here, and it will help you build smart goals that actually mean something. Okay, and if today's episode helped, here's what I'd love for you to do Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss what's next. I would love for you to share this episode with another leader who has reviews on their plate. Okay, and then connect with me on LinkedIn. That link is in the show notes, but I love hearing from leaders just like you, and if your company needs help developing managers, improving culture or building systems that drive real performance, I do. Keynotes, workshops and coachings that make a difference, and I'd love to talk. So until next time, don't just evaluate, elevate, and you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.