Several conversations as of late have circled around the idea of annual reviews, and, as such, I wanted to share a particular annual review system that I have used for many years and that I have found to be invaluable. In some places where I have worked, there was an expectation that every member of the department would receive an annual review. Some of those places provided some structure, and others did not. Additionally, there are certainly places that did not provide an expectation for an annual review. Regardless of the school context and expectations, I have found this particular system to work exceptionally well.
This system of review, whether formal or informal, has been helpful in several capacities within schools. For example, there seems to be resonance within areas that do not have easily identified metrics of “success” and in areas where those metrics are not readily agreed upon. For this example, I will use college counseling, which often falls into one of these two categories, but I have seen variations of this model successfully used within other areas, including advancement, administration, admissions, as well as with classroom teachers.
The quick summary is for the process to solicit annual goals from each team member at the outset of the year, to provide routine nudges and reminders to keep the goals at the forefront of the work, and then to provide the opportunity for reflection on the growth as a result of pursuing these goals. The process can be modified in many ways to suit the local context and culture, but the overall outcomes provide many advantages.
The annual process can be broken down into three stages: the identification of goals, the pursuit of goals, and reflection. Within each section, though there are a host of opportunities for refinement and modification based upon office or school culture and context.
Within the college counseling domain, I found that beginning the school year by having team members come to opening meetings with some well-developed ideas for annual goals worked well; we would try to concretize them early in the school year. Then we would routinely revisit the goals throughout the year to track progress and seek refinement or modification. Finally, at the end of the year, the final annual review was based on the process and success of pursuing these annual goals as well as providing some direction for goals for the following year. The cyclical nature of the process works well with educational enterprises that are dependent upon a similar annual cycle.
Here are some thoughts and suggestions for considering how to construct a review process that works for you!
Identification of Goals
Timing. It makes good sense to get goals out on the table and identified as early in the year as possible.
SMART. There are many articles and resources out there on SMART goals, but, for this process, ensuring that all goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound makes for the process to take on greater effectiveness.
Collaborate & Guide. I found that it was helpful to solicit each team member’s input on his or her goals as it provides for greater buy-in and perspective. Most beneficial was to facilitate the reflective process for the team by asking them to come to the opening of the school year with their own 3-5 goals. Then, during a one-on-one meeting early in the year, we would discuss their goals, providing some critical, constructive feedback before establishing their final goals. In this way, if there were a particular area or two of direction that I, as supervisor, might want to interject, these conversations were ideal for seeking to guide them toward effective SMART goals to address my aspirations for them.
Sharing. One additional measure that was often helpful was for team members to share out some or all of their goals with the rest of the team. In this way, the messaging was clear that we are all responsible for helping each other with our goals. It creates dialogue and ways to assist and collaborate. I fondly recall one particular year when learning about financial aid for international students was a goal of mine; in sharing this outwardly, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of emails from my team sharing articles, resources, webinars, conferences, etc as they encountered them. It expanded my reach dramatically and significantly improved my commitment to and pursuit of this goal. That said, some goals are not necessarily helpful to share! As such, I have found it helpful to require that everyone share at least one goal, which helps to guide the construction of them.
Pursuit of Goals
Schedule Review Meetings. Given how busy everyone can get, it might make sense to sit down at the beginning of the year and schedule meetings to review goals with each team member throughout the whole year. This way they are on the calendar!
Regular Standing Meetings. One element that seemed to heighten the effectiveness of the goals amongst the entire team was the idea of regularly discussing pursuit of goals at regular meetings. In one context, during a weekly check-in meeting, we would go around and only share our progress in pursuit of our annual goals. This heightened others’ awareness of and therefore support of each of our goals.
Mid-Cycle Review & Reflection. In one school context, we were required to provide a mid-year review update, and this proved to be a helpful additional step in the process. What we did was to have each team member reflect on their progress toward each of their goals with a short narrative reflection, highlighting how they might adjust their efforts moving forward. We also asked individuals to assess whether their goals were still relevant; for example, due to some internal shifts, one colleague’s goal one year was rendered irrelevant. Additionally, we would also ask each team member to evaluate each goal as completed, in progress, or needs attention. Finally, in one particular context, team members were given a questionnaire to guide their reflection, something that might work elsewhere.
Reflection
Process Reflection. One helpful component of the reflection asked of team members is to ask them to look back on their process and to articulate what worked well and what did not, ultimately for their own benefit.
Outcome Reflection. Similarly, differentiating process from outcome has proven helpful. Asking team members here to look at where they are now in relation to what they had hoped for can help move things along.
Looking Forward. Asking team members to look at what they will do with the result of these goals is a helpful part of the process.
Supervisor Letter. I found that writing a letter of summary at the end of the year -- even when not required by the institution -- frames the review process well. In this letter, I found that responding to the team member’s reflections on their process, outcome, and forward thrust provided a wonderful structure. I also would take the time to suggest some areas for summer reflection in pursuit of new goals for the following year.
Summer Reading. In the traditional school model, I enjoyed making a summer reading suggestion building on one of their goals. This also helped typically to shape the team member’s goals for the following year.
In the end, this is merely a model. And, as it has been said, “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” In this way, in having had many conversations with different school leaders about review processes, often unofficial review processes independent of the formal or required HR-directed review processes, I have found that this model can be modified to meet many needs. I hope you can find some utility in it!