Why Year-End Reviews Fail Us All

When Year End Review time come around, have you ever had the dreaded "Feedback Form" land in your inbox, asking you to comment on the good, the bad, and the ugly about a colleague?

I certainly have. And if done properly it can certainly take up a lot of your time. But is it really of help to the colleague in question?

While 360-degree feedback systems aim to stop us relying solely on the boss's opinion, they often end up compiling several subjective opinions rather than revealing an objective truth.

In their book "Nine Lies About Work," Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall make a compelling case that we're actually unable to assess someone else's performance or potential objectively because our responses are invariably tainted by our own biases.

But can we ever truly escape our biases?... I would argue not.

So, what should we do?

Buckingham and Goodall suggest that the only data we can genuinely trust is that which relates to our own experiences.

So, instead of asking, "Do you think this person has the potential to be promoted?" we might ask, "Would you promote this person today, if you could?"

Instead of, "Do you think this person is a good team player?" consider, "Do you choose to work with this person as much as possible?"

In each case, the answer, while still subjective, is grounded in our personal experiences rather than abstract opinions.

So perhaps it's time we redesign these year-end review questions to ensure they're written from a 'personal experience' perspective.

At least this way, the feedback provided would offer us a genuine snapshot of how we are seen by our bosses within the company. And in so doing provide us with something we can actually work with.