42. Avoid the Naughty List: It’s end-of-year review season!

There are a lot of things to look forward to at the end of the year: snow, holiday decorations, gift-giving, time off of work, and spending quality time with loved ones. What’s missing from this list? The dreaded end-of-year review!Let’s face it, not many of us look forward to our end-of-year reviews. There are probably a lot of things you’d rather be doing than having hard conversations with your supervisor or subordinates.But why are year-end reviews so difficult? Are we waiting until the end of the year to break the hard news that we didn’t hit our goals? Should we be setting concrete goals 12 months in advance in the first place? Are we measuring ourselves against the right KPIs? Is there a better way to do all of this? How do we set ourselves up for success?In this week’s episode, Derek and Jeremy discuss past experiences with end-of-year reviews and offer some advice on how to set yourself up to have a great review next year.Topics: • 01:37 – It’s End of Year Review Season!! • 03:30 – We’re often tied down to a priority we set 12 months ago. • 04:07 – If we’re caught off guard in reviews, it’s an indication we’re not communicating. • 04:52 – Going into reviews expecting anyone to complete all their goals is unrealistic. • 05:22 – Yearly reviews are a very waterfall approach to feedback. • 06:05 – We shouldn’t be waiting until December to talk about our priorities. • 06:18 – It’s often difficult for us to talk about a problem at the moment. • 06:47 – Are we keeping track of our work, checking in often, are we learning as we go? • 07:15 – What if our priorities change throughout the year as we learn new things? • 07:41 – We tend to fear not following through with what we said, even if things change. • 08:18 – This might be because of our company culture and incentives. • 09:31 – Do we have a culture of fear? • 09:55 – Toxic optimism is pervasive in most company cultures. • 10:59 – We should be judged on how we did our job and handled the challenges. • 13:41 – What if we’re judged by the principles by which our team works. • 14:59 – The larger the team the less control we have over our piece of the priorities. • 16:29 – If we’re not constantly checking in with our team and course correcting, how do we all end up aligned at the end of the year? • 17:07 – Write an insurance policy into next years priorities • 17:33 – What if all priorities are shared across the team? • 18:04 – Why do we feel like we need to have ownership over a large thing? • 20:53 – If we embrace new insights throughout the year, there shouldn’t be surprises at year-end. • 23:00 – Stop assuming things! • 25:04 – Set an expectation that when there is a problem your team communicates it with you ASAP. • 26:01 – Don’t simply promise deliverables, promise learnings so that you can deliver.—– Thanks for listening! We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! If you enjoyed today’s episode, please leave a comment and a five-star review. It helps us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • Check out our website • Follow us on twitter • Find us on Facebook