Level up your employee performance reviews with these winning phrases

What are employee performance reviews?

A performance review is an evaluation of an employee's job performance over a given time period. It is a formal assessment that aims to identify an employee's strengths and weaknesses (at F4S, we call them blindspots).

Regular performance reviews are an essential part of every employee's professional development. Depending on the appraisal, managers work with employees to set career goals, discuss how to overcome blindspots, or help employees understand their strengths.

These reviews play a vital function in the workplace, though sometimes, discussing an employee’s shortcomings can be delicate. For this reason, getting your phrasing right is essential.

Why the right phrasing matters

When it comes to delivering an effective performance review, phrasing matters. Nobody likes to have their weaknesses exposed. Employees may feel vulnerable, on edge, or defensive when their shortcomings are discussed and this can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes.

This may cause some managers to tip-toe around issues that need to be addressed. In many cases, a fear of conflict can get in the way of productive and robust conversations that need to be had.

Managers conducting performance reviews can also run into problems when they don’t take their employees’ motivational traits into account before delivering feedback, and inadvertently de-motivate the employees they’re trying to help. It can be a difficult needle to thread, but in these cases, effective phrasing can be your best friend.

How not to frame employee feedback (and what you should do instead)

Before discussing how to approach your performance review, it’s time to put an end to a popular, but outdated approach to employee feedback: The ‘Feedback Sandwich’. This method involves ‘sandwiching’ negative feedback between two layers of positive feedback.

For instance, let’s say you’re providing feedback on an employee's presentation skills.

You begin with a layer of positive feedback:

You give detailed presentations with attractive, well-designed slides.

Next, you slip in the negative feedback filling:

You often lack rigorous research and speak too quickly.

Then, you complete the sandwich with another layer of positive feedback:

You have a confident delivery and an impressive handling of audience questions.

While a bit of positive feedback could ‘cushion the blow’, there are good reasons to avoid this technique. According to Harvard Business Review columnist Roger Schwarz, the sandwich approach can undermine your feedback.²

He writes:

“Imagine telling the people your strategy. You would say something like, “Stacey, I have some negative feedback to give you. I’ll start with some positive feedback to relax you, and then give you the negative feedback. I’ll end with more positive feedback so you won’t be so disappointed or angry at me when you leave my office. How does that work for you?”

In short, it can feel contrived and inauthentic.

What’s more, this traditional approach has been used for almost 50 years.³ Employees have no doubt come across it in the past. If they recognize you’re using it this can undermine their trust in you, as well as the validity of the positive feedback being offered.

Instead of this, it’s better to be direct, and give positive feedback, when it’s due, naturally and authentically. 

It’s often best to simply offer constructive feedback that’s geared towards the employees’ growth and development. You don’t need to sugarcoat negative feedback, but you do need to consider how you phrase it to avoid unnecessary discomfort.

Get performance management right with F4S

When it comes to performance management and building a positive team environment, knowing what motivates your team makes all the difference. That’s where F4S comes in. We’re a performance and collaboration platform that helps leaders develop stronger, more effective teams.

Unlock your team’s motivations by encouraging them to participate in the complimentary F4S motivations assessment. Upon completing the assessment, you can establish a team profile to understand what drives your team. By doing so, you'll gain valuable insights into how to approach feedback with each team member, allowing for easier, more effective performance management.

Use these phrases to nail your next performance appraisal

Before getting into the phrasing, it’s important to understand the evidence-based approach on what aspects of your employees' performance you’re reviewing. At F4S, we use the 48 unique workstyle motivations. Based on 20 years of solid scientific research, these motivations allow managers to measure an employee’s alignment with their job role in an objective sense.

Here is some more information about the motivational traits, complete with phrases.

Action Level: Initiation vs. Patience and Reflection

Action Level refers to an employee’s motivation for starting new tasks or reflecting and ideating before acting. Like each of the 48 motivational traits, both have their merits and there is no right or wrong. Whether or not these traits are strengths or blindspots depends on the employee's responsibilities.

Here are some examples of performance review phrases you might use when addressing feedback for these motivations.

Action Direction: Goal Orientation vs. Away From Problems

Action Direction refers to how you position yourself toward goals and obstacles. People who score high on Goal Orientation are target-driven and strive toward achievement. Those who score high on Away From Problems are more cautious and risk-averse. 

While our culture typically rewards people with a strong Goal Orientation, depending on circumstance, Goal Orientation can also be a liability.

For example, if you’re managing a team of analysts at a Venture Capital firm, employees who score high in Goal Orientation may overlook details that point toward risk, leading to bias reporting on prospective investments. On the other hand, employees who score high on Away From Problems may be more risk averse and, therefore more likely to detect red flags.

Here are some examples of performance review phrases for these motivational traits to use in your next performance evaluation.

If your employee has this motivational trait, here are some tips to help you provide valuable feedback and communicate with them better:

If your employee has this motivational trait, here are some tips to help you provide valuable feedback and communicate with them better:

Authority: External Reference vs. Internal Reference

In the context of F4S motivational traits, Authority refers to whether you tend to consult external sources (data, reports, feedback, or advice from others), or you make decisions based on your intuition or ‘gut feel’.

Of course, this tendency may vary on a case-by-case basis, but your course on this metric refers to your overall tendency in one direction, or the other. As with all other F4S traits, whether each of these amounts to a strength or a blindspot is situation-dependent.

Here are some performance review comments to use during the appraisal process for both External Reference and Internal Reference.

Task Direction: Procedures vs. Alternatives

When it comes to approaching business functions and workflows, it can be difficult to know when to keep things the same, or to find alternative ways of doing things. The good news is, F4S has identified two key motivational traits that make some people more biased toward following Procedures or finding Alternatives.

It’s often helpful to have a mixture of people who score high on both traits on your team to get the best of both worlds, but there can be instances where either trait can become problematic.

Here is a list of performance review tips for both Procedures and Alternatives.

Scope: Depth vs. Breadth

We all have different levels of resolution in which we look at work-related problems. Some love to dive into the specifics and explore things in Depth. Others are generalists who prefer to go for Breadth. Instead of digging into the nuts and bolts of the issues, they prefer to zoom out and look at things from a birds-eye view.

Both of these approaches have their pros and cons, and both of these traits are more suitable for some roles than others. For instance, Engineers often need to be highly detail-oriented, whereas an Office Manager needs to be across many different details at once.

Whether or not Depth, Breadth, or any other motivational trait is a strength or weakness is often context-dependent.

Here is a list of performance feedback phrases for both Depth and Breadth.

Communication: Neutral Communication vs. Affective Communication

At F4S, our research indicates that not only do people communicate differently from one another, but communication styles fall into two distinct categories. Employees who display an Affective Communication style are bright, warm, and bubbly. They place more value on bringing their whole self to work and showing their personalities more readily. Neutral communicators prefer to carefully consider their words before speaking.

Those who have a Neutral Communication style are more prone to speaking plainly and directly. They demonstrate a distinctly professional presentation, and they typically focus on concrete things and tend not to get caught up in their emotions. Needless to say, there are pros and cons to each communication style, but it’s often the case that employees need to develop their skills for both types of communication.

Here is a list of performance review phrases for Neutral and Affective Communication.

Responsibility: Shared Responsibility vs. Sole Responsibility

Some employees are natural team players. They prefer to Share Responsibility for team and organizational goals and they thrive on working towards those goals as a team. On the other hand, some employees prefer to take Sole Responsibility for their work.

A lot of ink has been spilled about “taking complete ownership” of all work responsibilities and in life, in general. While it’s true that taking sole ownership is valuable in many contexts, when working toward collective goals in diverse teams, it can often get in the way of progress. There are some job descriptions that lend themselves better to Sole Responsibility (this is often associated with those in leadership positions), while those who are more motivated by Shared Responsibility often do well in roles that involve collaborative teamwork.

Here is a list of performance review phrases for Shared Responsibility and Sole Responsibility.

Change: Evolution vs. Sameness vs. Difference

Brands, business functions, and workflows all need a healthy balance between incremental Evolution, repetition, and Sameness, and sometimes, it’s necessary to shake things up and do things differently (Difference).

Knowing when each of these is appropriate can be difficult for one individual to decide, so it’s often necessary for teams to have a balance of each trait to make the right decision.

Let’s take a look at Twitter’s rebranding to “X” to illustrate the difference. While it’s common for most brands to steadily evolve over time, the decision to entirely rebrand to “X” likely would have been driven by those who are high on Difference, while the proposal likely received pushback from those who showed a preference for Evolution or Sameness.

The same could be said for Facebook’s rebranding to “Meta”. Marketing teams often need a healthy mixture of these traits for brands to retain their recognizability, evolve and adapt to the times, and, when necessary, radically change to meet rising market demands. With this in mind, there is no right or wrong, but there are cases where employees need to adjust to perform their roles better.

Here is a list of performance review phrases to give meaningful feedback on Evolution, Sameness, and Difference.

Influence: Achievement vs. Affiliation vs. Power

While some employees are driven by Achievement and recognition for their hard work, others are more motivated by being a part of a team and developing a sense of Affiliation in their workplace. Influence also involves an employee’s motivation for Power which refers to their willingness to take on leadership positions.

A successful company needs people who have each of these traits, but issues can arise when people who score too high on some of these traits are in the wrong roles. For instance, scoring low on Power if you’re in a leadership position may not be ideal, and employees who score high in Affiliation may not be satisfied in roles that require them to work autonomously.

Here is a list of phrases to give helpful performance feedback to your employees.

Work Approach: Use vs. Concept vs. Structure

In the context of F4S motivational traits, your Work Approach is split between Use, Concept, and Structure. If you score high on Use, you’re a self-starter with a strong action bias. You’re self-motivated and decisive and you execute quickly. If you score high on Concept, you’re more of a conceptual thinker who likes to understand the “Why” and “How” before committing to action.

Lastly, Structure refers to your motivation for organization, planning skills, and rigor in your approach to your work. As with all F4S motivational traits, each of these has its place in a dynamic team environment.

Here are some phrases to use during the performance review process for each of these traits.

Rules: Compliance vs. Assertiveness vs. Tolerance

When it comes to adherence to rules, whether they are company cultural norms or business practices, we all have different motivational styles.

Employees who are high on Compliance are team players, who consistently uphold standards and espouse team values. They are committed to doing things “the right way” and following well-trodden paths. Employees who score high on Assertiveness are more likely to set the rules that those who are high in Compliance adhere to. They’re natural leaders who make confident, bold decisions.

Lastly, those who score high on Tolerance are flexible and accommodating towards the rules, and others’ interpretation of them. They tend to be people-people who thrive on working with a diverse range of approaches and ideas.

Here are some impactful performance review phrases for these traits.

Need help planning your performance review?

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Take the guesswork out of employee performance reviews

One of the major issues with managing a diverse team is understanding what makes each individual ‘tick’. Without a scientifically validated system for identifying key drivers of performance in the workplace, leaders often feel like managing their teams requires guesswork. Get to know your team's unique motivational traits. Invite your team to complete the free F4S assessment to find out what motivates them at work.