Check-ins and Reviews: Conversations for Feedback & Growth
All humans desire to grow and develop. For this to happen in the workplace, leaders need to provide a structured and regular process. Performance reviews and one-on-one check-ins can seem like an outdated and laborious process to some, but they can fuel your top performers to excel if done right. Traci and Rob discuss the why behind reviews and check-ins, how to structure them, what to communicate in them, and how often to do them.
Transcript
Rob:
Hey, Traci. I was just thinking about this podcast that we've been doing. How am I doing? Do you have any suggestions or feedback for me?
Traci:
Well, I think you're doing great. Why are you asking? What's making you think about this?
Rob:
I was just thinking like at Sparkbox, we're getting ready to start our biannual reviews again. It's about that time of year, we're about halfway and we're kicking all that up. We're figuring out how the peer reviews are going to go, who's going to review who and all that other fun stuff. And it just got me thinking a lot about reviews and feedback, and how we have to be intentional when we do that.
Traci:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's interesting that you started off by asking me that question, and it made me immediately think like, "That is actually something we should be doing with each other." And the best way to do it, so you don't get a pat answer like I just gave you, which was, "You're doing great," is to have some structure and thought around how you check-in with your teammates and how you review them. It probably starts with thinking about what's the purpose? Like, why do we do check-ins and reviews?
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Traci:
I know some of my clients do them, some of them don't, some of them we've helped work on how to structure those things and help explain the importance. But when you think about Sparkbox as a founder and an owner, and you started to think about your teammates and check-ins and reviews, what made you decide to actually institute a process?
Rob:
Yeah. For us, it was all about feedback. I mean, when we started, there was four of us who all sat in the same room, and we're all co-founders. We had a lot of feedback, a lot of really raw feedback oftentimes. And as we started to grow, we were still all sitting in the same room. We were about 12 people and feedback happened.
And it was, for us, it was almost not having a review process, almost felt like we wanted to be the non-typical company, right? Like we were not trying to be a grownup company that had a bunch of process, and overhead, and all of that. I think we tricked ourselves into thinking that formal review processes were just overhead that big companies had to do because of HR reasons, and all of that. But as time went on, we all stopped sitting in the same room. We actually started getting a lot of feedback that people didn't know where they stood and they wanted that formal review. They wanted to hear how they were doing.
And it started with several employees saying, "Hey. It's like I'm not growing, and I'm not getting the feedback that I need to continue making progress. And I'd like to be able to do that." So that really was a check point for me to say...And for us to say like, "Wow, we are falling short. We're not helping people become the best versions of themselves. Then we need to change something."
Traci:
Absolutely. And you hit on a couple of great things. One is, I do find with a lot of entrepreneurial companies and even in the space that we're operating in and the digital tech world, the pendulum swung way the other way. We want to get away from bureaucracy, being too much like a big company, getting bogged down, being typical. We want to be atypical, creative. We want to keep that environment. So we just shied away from doing annual reviews, or check-ins.
And exactly what happened with your journey is what has happened for so many companies where they realized, "Well, wait a second. What actually is the purpose?" And it's exactly the two things that you've hit on. One is communication, so that there's a two-way communication where your teammate feels heard and you're also being able to give them feedback. And the second reason is growth and development. We as human beings, most of us, 98% of us want to grow and develop, and become better versions of ourselves. And we're spending 40 plus hours a week at work, and if we don't feel like we're becoming better humans in the process, then we can atrophy or start to feel like we're not of value. We become much less engaged.
And what research has shown is that overachievers, those people you love having on your team, those high performers, they actually crave this type of feedback. They need to know where they stand, and they want to excel. So if they don't know where the mark is, it's really disorienting for them. So sometimes people think, "Well, reviews are really for the people I want to get rid of, or the people that just really need a lot of work." And that's not actually...I mean, that's true in one way, but it's really for those top performers that you want to push to really elevate. And you'll see their productivity and their creativity and all of that rise after this process, if it's done well and it's done in the right way.
Rob:
Yeah. I think my view on that has changed a lot, like going from 10-ish–12 people when we started doing reviews on a regular basis up to where we are now with 50. I don't know how we would have scaled that way. And moving from a very flat structure where everyone reported essentially to me, to a structure where there's directors, and leaders, and lots of managers who have teams that they're leading and doing one-on-ones and reviews for and how that filters up.
I think that having a well defined process that people know what to expect and is predictable is so, so important. Because it is for those people that are doing the great job, those high performers. But it also allows you to have conversations on a leadership-level about people who maybe aren't, and how they can be helped, and how that perspective happens, and how that information is disseminated across all the different leaders in your company.
Traci:
Yeah. Tell me what your process is like. Like how often do you do them? Do you have check-ins versus reviews? What does the Sparkbox process look like?
Rob:
Yeah. We do a formal review twice a year. Once it happens in January, once it happens in July. So every six months we do a formal review, but that's coupled with our monthly one-on-ones that happen between an individual and their leader.
In those one-on-one some of them, some teams do them biweekly, some doing monthly, depending on what that works for that team. And one of the things that happens during all of that and one of the things we like to say is, by the time you get to your biannual review, there should be no surprises. That should be a summary of what's happened in the last six months during all of your one-on-ones. And if you're surprised, there's been some kind of communication failure. In addition to that, so your director reviews you.
We also…Coupled with that is a peer review. Because we have such collaborated teams that collaborate so much on projects, that peer review part is a huge part for us. It's how do your peers who are working with you, how are they providing that feedback to you and that you can do good things with that too?
So it's coupled peer reviews, plus your director feedback, those two things come together. And then we couple with that with every six months having that goal setting. So did you accomplish the goals that you set off for the last six months? Have they changed? Where are you going for the next six months? So all that happens twice a year for us.
Traci:
That's excellent. We coach in the same way to say, like, "Those check-ins should at least be monthly." And a wide variety of topics in your check-ins. You want to make sure that you're covering how they're doing on their projects, you want to talk to them about how they're doing culturally with their teammates. You want to ask for feedback yourself as a leader, "What can I do to support you better?" Just making sure you're on that same page.
And then that review process, whether you're going to do it every six months or annually should have a bit more of a format to it like you were saying, goal setting. I like to include self-appraisal. I think it's really great if I'm leading somebody and they come in and we are both looking at the same sort of format and that person is rating themselves or filling out, answering these questions about themselves, and then I've already answered the questions about them. And we can see where the blind spots are.
I really liked doing that with my employees because right away, well, one, it causes the employee to have to have some self reflection, like "How am I doing on these things?" And I actually have to say it out loud, so I need to be honest. And then I can see, well, do I have the same view, or am I missing something? And it's great to hear the employees talk about themselves, and it also gives them a format to like, I want you to brag a little bit about the good things you're doing. And I want to see if you have recognition on where your blind spots are. It also, like if I see they're way off track on how they're viewing themselves, then and I know that we're going to have a big coaching conversation in this review. And then that goal setting is key. So you're giving them something to strive for in a measurement of their success, which I think everybody wants.
Rob:
Yeah. That's interesting. The one spot that I've read continued to resist is the self-assessment part, and that's probably because I have baggage with that too having come out of big enterprise places and always required to do that.
I got really burned out on doing that personally because I got to the point where I ran for several years in a row, just cut and paste. Pasted what I said the last year into the current year and change the project names and was never, ever caught. My manager never noticed, the HR never said anything. And I was like, "If I'm really going to do this work and put this work into it and one's going to read it, then why? What's the point? What I really care about is how you view me, because that's what's going to...I want your feedback, but if you're not going to care what I say about myself, then I'm not going to do it." I'm not saying that's what we do necessarily at Sparkbox, but I definitely have baggage there.
Traci:
Yeah. And I totally hear you because I had some employees that worked for me for over 10 years, so it would get really hard at annual review. Because, one, we'd gotten to a place where we just knew each other so well. And two, are you talking about the same thing? So that leads us to talk about what's in the review, how do you tweak the review? For me, it was simplifying it. If you have too many questions, it becomes this laborious, "Yes." You're tempted to cut and paste, and nobody's really reading it. But reviews should be conversations, right?
Traci:
We're not just going through the document, and you're saying what you're saying, and I'm saying what I'm saying, it's a conversation. So the more you can simplify it. Like for us, we always tell people, "You want to be talking about their job and how they're showing up, and their job description, and have some criteria against that. But you also want to be measuring against every single one of your core values." I think that leads to a really good conversation because we're not just trying to make better workers, we're trying to make better humans who are feeding into the culture.
So we tell our clients like, "List every core value and do red, yellow, green, or however you want to say, like, 'You're doing great on this core value. But this core value, it's a little yellow for me. So let's talk about that. Does it feel yellow for you? What's holding you back?'" I think is just another way to just make them think about themselves outside of just, are they reaching their job description? Are they meeting expectations within their job description?
Rob:
Yeah. I think that's...And I think that for the self-assessment part, I think we've replaced that with the peer part of it. I think that's a really important piece for me is having other people that you've worked with recently provide you feedback of what it's like to be your teammate. In a world where we do a lot of collaboration and teams are everything, I never wanted it to be just about what your director or direct leader thought of you.
It's like what's your team say about you because that's a place where I always thought could help blind spots and get that on as feedback. It's an interesting process we go through because it's doing that map and trying to make sure you've got good perspective of people you've worked with recently, but also a diverse perspective of peers you're reviewing and that changes every six months. So you may work for the same person for several years, but because of the nature of our projects, you're going to work with a whole bunch of different people and get a bunch of different perspectives every six months from those different people.
Traci:
And then does the person who's leading or managing that employee, do they take all the peer review and synthesize it? Or how does that process work?
Rob:
So they have access to it, and they provide their own review. And they can pull highlights to support the official Sparkbox review and all of that. But pretty much all the raw review stuff and who said it gets shared with the individual. And all of that stuff is looked at by somebody—usually our Director of Humans—to make sure that there is no bad players in there or like, "Hey, maybe you want to consider rewording this before this person sees it." And those kinds of things. But I can't really...That's really a safeguard. I can't think of an instance where we've had to go through and say, "Hey, you said this the wrong..." Like, "You can't say that.
Traci:
Right. And that's good.
Rob:
So it's just always been something that I've been afraid, something might happen.
Traci:
Oh, I was going to say just in that teaching the communication of how to give, I like that you brought that up because it is a reminder that reviews can...I can remember some instances where my heart was beating really fast while give a review. Sometimes it can feel uncomfortable, not just to receive a review. Even if you think you're doing a good job, it can still feel nerve wracking. But giving a review also is.
So I think there's an element of training that has to go along with it and teaching people. I love just pointing people towards the radical candor model where we're teaching people to challenge, directly be honest, but at the same time be super empathetic. And not to go to one way or the other. If you're too challenging directly or too brutally honest, it can feel very aggressive. If you're too just all empathy and not really getting to the heart of the matter or speaking the truth, it can just be ruinous empathy where the person's not getting anything out of the review process, or not being challenged to grow in any way.
So teaching ourselves and our fellow directors or managers how to actually give a review can be so helpful and help that anxiety, but then also talking to people about how to receive it. There's another book called Thanks for the Feedback, which is great in learning how to or changing your perspective in how you receive feedback. So I'd recommend both those books for your team, just in like, "How do I receive a review? How do I give a review?" I think that they're just both very helpful.
Rob:
Yeah, that's great. I know for us, it took about two or three years of modeling to get people actually giving critical feedback. For the first several times through this process, all of the feedback was like, "You're doing great. I love working with you." And it was like, "Okay, how do we model? And how do we get them to a place where they're saying nice things, but they're also giving that critical feedback to get people to be better and give them the opportunity to be better?" And that really started with us trying to figure out how that should look so that when they got feedback from leaders, they're like, "Oh, this is how it should look, I guess." And then giving them permission to do that in their peer reviews, and really giving everybody a chance to reviewing other people, I hope, demystifies that process and gives everybody a stake in those reviews and how important they are.
Traci:
Yeah. That's good. What about you and Ben? How do you...Do you do 360s? How do you get reviewed?
Rob:
Yeah. That's a great question. There's two different ways we do it. One, every six months we take the same review as the team, but everybody is able to provide us anonymous feedback. So we get anonymous review twice a year from the team, which is often a very humbling experience. That's been a lot of fun. And what we actually do is when we do those, is we take turns and read each other's reviews to them. So I'll read Ben's reviews to him, and he'll read mine to me. We've in the past combined those with a long car ride. If we're driving somewhere for five or six, maybe even eight hours, we'll do that there.
Traci:
Wow.
Rob:
So that's part of it. The other part of it is usually quarterly, we do this…We give each other feedback. When there was more partners—there was four of us—we used to do this game every quarter. And I say a game, it's really just the feedback circles, what we called it. Is where we would all get a adult beverage and we'd sit in a circle and somebody would go first. So if it was my turn, my three other partners would review me one at a time. And I was not allowed to respond to anything that was not a direct question until they all reviewed me. And then I got to say my piece about their review of me, and then we moved on to the next person.
Traci:
That's a great thing to do. We do that with our teams. It's a big Patrick Lencioni EOS thing, is where you say, "What's the one thing you're doing that's adding to the success of our team?" We do this with leadership teams. And then, "What's the one thing that's distracting?" And you got to brace yourself for the whole team going around and saying like, "You're so good at this. I want you to keep doing this. This is where you shine." And then having to say, "This is what I just wish you would stop doing." Or, "This is the thing I think that can become distracting or take away from the success of the team." And making every single person say that. It could be a small thing, it could be a big thing.
For a lot of leaders, it's just their blind spot that keeps getting repeated. And they're like, "I know. I'm working on it." But we need to hear that if we truly want to be better humans in the workplace.
And I applaud you guys for doing 360s, a lot of leaders get super nervous about the process. But it sends an amazing message to your team that you're not above feedback and that you want to grow, and you're setting the example. And then the team enters into their review process in a much better state of mind because they know you're leading by example and there's nothing that's above you or beyond you. I just think it sends a great message. And also for you personally, it helps you to grow and to just be better. So you feel like work has more purpose and meaning because you're growing and developing as well.
Rob:
Yeah. I mean, we're all just humans. I'm sitting here thinking there is some of those reviews that I still stick with me about things that were said, and I can hear those conversations in some of my everyday actions and how I respond to things or how I'm interpreting things, and it's an interesting experience. And I think you're right, we all need to get better and continue to get better. I've become more of a evangelist for people taking reviews seriously in their companies and figuring those things out. I promise your people that work for you, desire feedback. They want it. And healthy environments have that kind of feedback and have a predictable cycle, a cadence for it.
Traci:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly.
Rob:
And if it's not there, then people will wonder when the next time they're going to get that communication, and that creates a lot of anxiety.
Traci:
It does. So I think things to remember are, keep it simple, don't overcomplicate it, it's a conversation and it needs to go both ways. I love what you just said about cadence. Have a cadence, have a process, have a format. People know what to expect and when to expect it. And train your people how to do it, train yourself and your people. How do we communicate well so that both sides walk out of a review or a check-in feeling good, even if the conversation was hard.
Rob:
Yeah. And don't be afraid to iterate. I know that some of our biggest improvements with our review process is admitting when we got it wrong and what we had to do differently. I don't think there's a one size fits all solution with reviews, because so much of that maps back to culture, and who you are as a company, and what your values are, and all of that. So like everything else, you stick with it, continue to do it, but don't be afraid to iterate and make it work for you.
Traci:
Absolutely. Yes. All good stuff. So we'll set up a review for you and I later, how about that?
Rob:
Awesome.
Traci:
Sounds like a plan.
Rob:
All right.
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This podcast would not be possible without the amazing communications team at Sparkbox. If you like what you've heard, please subscribe and tell your friends to listen to as well. The Overly Human podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. Thanks for listening.
