Things Leaders Do

Performance Review Feedback That Actually Sticks (Year-End Leadership Series)

• Colby Morris

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Year-end performance reviews often fail because feedback evaporates by February. This episode shows you how to deliver feedback that actually changes behavior—whether you've been doing one-on-ones all year or you're starting fresh in 2026.

What You'll Learn:

  • How to own it when you haven't been present (the 10-second script that builds trust)
  • The four steps for giving feedback when you've been MIA
  • How to introduce one-on-ones without the awkwardness derailing you
  • The three anchors of feedback that sticks: specific, future-focused, accountable
  • Why 85% of employees consider quitting after an unfair review

Key Stats:

  • 64% of employees say feedback quality needs improvement (Workleap, 2021)
  • Only 1 in 5 get weekly feedback, but half of managers think they give it often (Gallup, 2024)
  • Employees with regular manager input are 3.6x more motivated (Gallup, 2022)
  • Continuous feedback = 31% lower turnover (ClearCompany, 2023)

Questions I'll address:

  • How do I give feedback if I haven't been doing one-on-ones?
  • How do I introduce one-on-ones without it being awkward?
  • What makes feedback specific vs. vague?
  • How often should managers give feedback?

Part of the Year-End Leadership Survival Guide - 4 episodes to finish 2025 strong

Perfect for: Middle managers facing year-end reviews who realize they haven't been as present as they should have been

Need help building a feedback culture in your organization? Colby works with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training.

📧 linkedin.com/in/colbymorris | 🌐 nxtstepadvisors.com

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts | Share with a leader facing performance reviews

#TheThingsLeadersDo #PerformanceReviews #EmployeeFeedback #LeadershipDevelopment #MiddleManagement #OneOnOnes #ContinuousFeedback


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is the Things Leaders Do podcast. Look, over the next four weeks, we're doing something special. A year-in leadership survival guide to help you finish 2025 Strong and set yourself up for 2026. Each episode, 15 to 23 minutes, like usual, are practical, actionable tools that you can use immediately. Again, no theory, no fluff, just real guidance that you can listen to on your commute to work and implement the same day. And we're kicking off the series with everyone's favorite topic, performance reviews. I know. I know. You're thrilled. Nothing says holiday spirit, quite like sitting down to tell someone they're a three when they think they're a five. But here's the reality. You're about to have these conversations whether you're ready or not. And if you've been doing regular one-on-one with your team this year, this should be relatively painless. No surprises, just really documenting what you've already been discussing. But if you haven't been having those conversations, if this performance review is the first real feedback some of your people have gotten in months, well, you're in a trickier spot. And we need to talk about how to handle that honestly. Because here's what I see happen every December. Managers spend hours agonizing over performance reviews. They craft this, you know, careful feedback and then they deliver it. The employee nods, says, got it. Maybe asks a clarifying question or two, or maybe not at all. And then by mid-January, yeah, nothing's changed. The feedback evaporated like your New Year's resolution to meal prep every Sunday. And the data backs this up. 64% of employees believe the quality of feedback they receive needs improvement. That's nearly two-thirds of your team thinking, yeah, my manager gives me feedback, but it doesn't actually help me get better. So say we're tackling how to give feedback that actually sticks, whether you've been present all year or you're realizing that you need to think do things differently in 2026. Before we talk about how to deliver feedback, we need to address the elephant in the room. How have you been having your regular one-on-ones with your team this year? And I'm not talking about, you know, hey, got a minute? You know, the the drive-by in the hallway. I mean actual scheduled, recurring one-on-one meetings where you talk about their work, their development, what they need from you. If your answer is yes, you've been meeting regularly, having ongoing conversations, giving real-time feedback throughout the year, congratulations. Your performance review should be the easiest meeting of December. Because nothing you're about to say should be a surprise. You're basically just summarizing 12 months of conversations and putting it into writing. But if your answer is no, if those one-on-ones kept getting pushed off because of fires you had to put out or meetings that ran over, or that project that consumed your life for three months, well, then you're about to walk into a performance review where some of your feedback might feel like it's coming from out of nowhere to your employee. Actually, scratch that. It's not going to feel like it's coming out of nowhere. It is coming out of nowhere. You're basically about to hit them with the leadership equivalent of, by the way, we need to talk about something from March. They're sitting there thinking this is just the annual paperwork conversation, and you're about to drop a so about your communication style, like it's a plot twist in some thriller book. They're sitting there, wait, what? Since when? Why didn't you I I thought we were good. Here's what's wild. There's a massive gap between what managers think they're doing and what's actually happening. Only one in five employees get feedback weekly, but about half of managers believe they give feedback often. So half of managers think they're doing great with feedback, but only 20% of employees are actually getting it regularly. That's a problem. Because here's the thing you can't hold people accountable for expectations you never clearly communicated. You can't ding someone's performance rating for something you never told them was an issue until right now. That's not feedback. That's an ambush with a performance improvement plan. So if you haven't been present this year, you need to handle this review with extra integrity. Now I want to talk about how to do that. Let's say you're in the boat where you haven't been as consistent with check-ins as you should have been. What do you do? Well, first, own it. Don't dance around it. Don't make excuses. Okay? Don't blame the busy year like it's some external force that happened to you. Here's what you say. I haven't been as consistent with our check-ins this year as I should have been. And that's on me. I'm going to change that in 2026. And that's it. Simple? Honest. Takes about 10 seconds. Here's what's wild. That one sentence will do more to build trust than any perfectly crafted feedback paragraph you spent three hours writing. Second, I want you to be honest but fair. Okay, this is where it gets tricky. You can only hold people accountable for things you've actually communicated. So let's say you've got someone who's been consistently late to meetings, and it's been driving you crazy all year. But you never said anything because you didn't want to seem petty or like micromanagey or whatever excuse we tell ourselves. You cannot, I repeat, cannot now hit them with your punctuality has been a major issue this year. Major issue? For who? You never mentioned it. They didn't even know it bothered you. That's on you, not them. No, can you mention it as something to work on moving forward? Why absolutely. And here's how you frame it. Hey, I've noticed you've been running five to ten minutes late to team meetings. In 2026, I need you to be on time. Okay, it sets the tone for the whole team. See the difference? You're not penalizing them retroactively for something you never addressed. You're setting a clear expectation going forward. And this matters because the stakes are real. 85% of employees will consider quitting if they feel they received an unfair performance review. Think about that. If your feedback feels like it came out of nowhere, if it feels retroactive or unjust, there's an 85% chance that person is now updating their resume. Okay. Third, don't overcorrect out of guilt. Mm-hmm. This is the other trap. You feel bad that you haven't been present, so you inflate their performance ratings to compensate. Yeah, don't do that either. If someone's performance has been a three, don't give them a four because you feel guilty about not having more check-ins. That doesn't help them, and it definitely doesn't help you when you're trying to hold standards next year. Be honest, be fair, but don't let guilt make you dishonest in the other direction. Does that make sense? Okay, fourth, I want you to make it specific anyway. Even if your conversations have been sparse this year, your feedback still needs to be concrete. Not, you know, you need to communicate better. That's useless. What does better even mean? More emails? Fewer emails. Shorter emails? Longer emails. Skywriting? Instead, try this. In the Q3 project kickoff meeting, the team really didn't have clear deadlines, and we lost two weeks because of confusion about who was doing what. In 2026, I need you to send a follow-up email after every kickoff with clear deadlines and ownership. Now, that's something they can actually do. Vague feedback slides right off of people. Okay? Specific feedback sticks because they know exactly what to change. So you've owned your lack of presence, you've been honest but fair, and you've made your feedback specific. But here's the thing if all you do is deliver this one performance review and then go back to radio silence for another 12 months, nothing's going to change. Okay. So let's talk about how to make 2026 different. This is what I call the pivot. Okay. How are we going to make 2026 different? Here's what I want you to say to that employee during this performance review. And yes, this is going to feel vulnerable, but that's kind of the point. Say, here's what's changing. Starting in January, you and I are doing regular one-on-ones. Every week or every two weeks, we're sitting down and talking. Now, I can tell you what your employee is probably thinking at this point. Oh, great, more meetings. This is going to be so awkward. And you know what? They're right. It might be. If you haven't been doing this all along, that first one-on-one is probably going to feel a little weird. They're sitting there thinking, what am I supposed to say? You're sitting there thinking, did I structure this right? You're both doing that thing where you're trying too hard to make it feel natural, which makes it feel even less natural. It's like a baby giraffe trying to walk. All legs, no coordination. Everyone's a little concerned about how this is going to turn out. But here's what you need to communicate to them. And yes, share the why behind this change. Look, this awkwardness is temporary. The alternative, having these conversations once or twice a year, and then when something's on fire, that's permanent dysfunction. And the data is really clear on this. Employees who get regular input from their manager are 3.6 times more likely to feel motivated to excel compared to those who wait for an annual review. I'm doing this because I want to be the leader you actually need, not just the one who shows up when it's performance review season. These 101s are for you, so I can help you build the skills you want to develop, so I can clear the obstacles before they turn into crisis. So I can give you feedback in real time instead of just stockpiling it for December. And so I can actually understand what you need from me instead of just guessing. Will the first few be a little awkward? Probably will. Will we both survive? Definitely. Will it be worth it? Absolutely. Now, here's some additional context for you as the manager. Organizations that emphasize continuous feedback achieve 31% lower turnover rates than those using traditional approaches. That that means people stay. They're more engaged. They actually grow. They don't spend half their performance review wondering where all this feedback has been hiding for the last 11 months. And then I want you to wrap it up with your employee like this. Next year, when we're sitting down for your performance review, it's going to be a completely different conversation. No surprises, no, you know, wait, where is this coming from? Just two people who've been working together all year talking about what's next. So yeah, let's let's lean into that awkwardness together. It beats the alternative. Now, whether you've been having one-on-ones all year or you're just starting them in January, you still need to know how to deliver feedback in a way that actually sticks. So let me give you three anchors. Anchor number one, anchor to specifics. We touched on this earlier, but it's worth repeating. Vague feedback is useless feedback. You know what I'm talking about. Things like, you know, you need to be more productive. Your communication could be better. I need to see more leadership from you. Cool. What does any of that actually mean? If you can't picture the specific behavior you want to see change, your employee definitely can't either. So instead of being more proactive, try this. When a client emails sits unanswered for more than 24 hours, I need you to either respond or loop me in. That's what proactive looks like in this rule. Now they know exactly what to do differently. Specific feedback sticks because it's actionable. Vague feedback slips off because it's just words. All right, anchor two. Anchor to the future. Here's where most performance reviews go wrong. They spend 80% of the time rehashing the past and 20% talking about what's next. I want you to flip that ratio. Yes, you need to acknowledge what happened this year, but the real value of this conversation is setting the direction for 2026. Not, you know, you you missed three deadlines in Q2, two in Q3, and one in Q4. That's just making someone feel bad about things they can't change anymore. Cool data point, but you know, where's it going? Instead, try something like this. Deadline management has been inconsistent this year. In 2026, here's what I need. If you realize you're going to miss a deadline, I need to know 48 hours in advance, minimum, so we can adjust. Let's talk about what tools or support you need to make that happen. See the difference? You acknowledge the past, but you anchor the conversation to the future, to what they can actually control. Past focused feedback breeds defensiveness. Future focused feedback drives action. All right, anchor three. Anchor with accountability. And here's the anchor most managers completely skip. The follow through. You deliver this beautiful, specific, future focus feedback. You have a great conversation, you both leave feeling aligned, and then nothing. No follow-up, no check-in, just radio silence until the next performance review. Yeah, that feedback isn't going to stick. You need an accountability mechanism. And guess what that mechanism is? The one-on-ones we just talked about. In your regular one-on-ones, you revisit the goals you set in this review. You check progress, you course correct if needed, you celebrate wins. That's how feedback becomes behavior change. Okay? That's how feedback becomes behavior change instead of just a nice conversation you both forgot about by February. So before you end this performance review, make sure you have these things. Specific actions they're committing to, a timeline for those actions, and a plan for how you'll check in. Hint. It's called the one-on-ones. Without that third anchor, your feedback is just drifting out to sea. So here's your assignment before your first performance review. Ask yourself honestly, have I been present with my people this year? If yes, great. This should be straightforward. Just document what you've already been discussing. If no, own it. Tell them you're going to do better in 2026. Then actually do better by committing to regular one-on-ones. And when you're delivering feedback, any feedback, make sure it's anchored, anchored to specifics, anchored to the future, and anchored with accountability. Because your people don't need another performance review that sounds good in the moment and disappears by Valentine's Day. They need that specific feedback that actually helps them grow. And that starts with you being present, being specific, and being committed to follow through. If your organization needs help building a culture where feedback is ongoing and development is intentional, not just something that happens once a year in December, I'd love to help. I work with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that actually drive real results. I'd love for you to connect with me on LinkedIn or visit my website. And hey, if this episode resonated with you, would you do me a favor? It'd be a huge favor. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and actually leave a review. That's what helps us grow. And share this episode with another leader who's starting down a, you know, that track or starting down a track of performance reviews and wondering how to make them actually matter. We want to grow this community. And that's how we get the word out to make a bigger impact on the workplace. The more leaders who get this stuff right, the better workplaces become for everyone. And remember, keep showing up for your people, keep making your feedback specific and future focus, and follow through on what you commit to. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.