Business Management-5. Performance review session: Nick was relieved after his performance review from Warren because Nick did not seem to be penalized to any great degree for the servers going down while he was on duty. However, the performance review was extremely vague and undefined. It is unclear what a 'three' means in terms of a rating. Nick was told he was doing a 'fine' (i.e., acceptable) job but was not given any specific information about how to improve his performance. Warren was also extremely casual and informal (making comments about Nick's appearance and jokes) which destroyed the necessary subordinate-manager distance required for an effective review process. It made the review seem more personal and subjective. If the review had been negative, Nick may have been offended and complained about Warren's objectivity.

Q1b. When a performance review is given to a subordinate with whom you have a good personal relationship it is essential to bracket the review as a 'business' versus a 'personal' interaction so the person does not become offended by the advice and input given in the review.

Q1c. I think the statement is an excellent summary of how to approach the performance review of someone with whom you are close friends. On one hand, merely giving vague and uncritical commentary will be frustrating and if the person gets a negative rating in the next session, he will be angry he was offered no input about how to change his behavior. Constructive criticism...

However, it is also important to point out what the employee is doing right as well as what he or she is doing wrong. Friendship should not make the review more or less negative: it should be professional and objective.
Q1d. Nick got very little from the performance review: he does not really know what he is doing right or wrong. Although it can be very difficult, emotionally speaking, for some managers to bring up negative issues, from the employee's perspective it is better to receive some criticism in the present than to be fired in the future. Also, Nick did not receive any specific praise for what he was doing right. Warren gave the impression of being unprepared and therefore very uninterested in Nick's career rather than complementary.

Q2a. Status reports: Having a variety of weekly leaders turn in status reports can be frustrating, given that it is not unusual for leaders to give wildly different evaluations, depending upon their subjective impressions. If an employee receives a status report which reads he or she needs to work on, say, his or her ability to work well on a team and the other report says that he or she needs to be more independent and a self-starter, it can be difficult to reconcile these various notions. It is better if leaders can come to a consensus on a single status report.

Of course, there will always be discrepancies in the viewpoints of different leaders. However, disagreements can always be…