It’s annual review time around my organization again, so I’ve just sent out my review meeting notices and copies of my employee’s reviews. I prefer to send them out in advance so they’ve actually had a chance to read them before the meeting. Otherwise they spend the first few minutes scanning the review as fast as possible.
Sometimes though you have a review or two that isn’t likely to be that much fun to give and in that case I picked up this tip from Dick Grote:
“If the person you’re appraising is a marginal performer with a bad rating, wait until the beginning of the meeting to hand over the appraisal. This increases your control of the situation.”
— pg. 117 of Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book</p>