It’s time for your annual performance review. Yes, it’s time for a manager you don’t know very well to apply mysterious criteria to a whole year’s worth of output. There seems to be some sort of recency bias, too. You’d never guess you were outperforming the whole team just nine months ago, judging by this conversation.
Conversation? Hardly. That would be an exchange. Here you are, shrinking in a chair without an opportunity to provide context. And honestly, if you had known of that particular expectation six months ago, the rating would be so much higher.
Maybe a lot of annual performance reviews don’t go exactly this poorly, but the fact that it still occurs is a shame. Neither party may be in the wrong here. The issue is that there’s a massive gap where continuous feedback should have been.
What is continuous feedback?
Continuous feedback is ongoing, real-time responses to our work. Delivered by both leaders and coworkers, it affirms or addresses what we’re contributing.
When we work closely with someone, we’re providing feedback without being consciously aware of it. The feedback is tucked inside our rapport, sending signals as we react to words and actions. Doing more to make feedback conscious and continuous builds on the positive outcomes of rapport.
Supporting performance
A continuous feedback loop at work is subtler, more casual, and more frequent than collecting feedback from employees.
Soliciting employee feedback and implementing change where possible makes people feel like they belong and matter. Continuous feedback instills confidence in their abilities and helps everyone receive and adapt to new information. This refines our performance while simultaneously driving it.
Making criticism credible
These open lines of communication aren’t all about making friends and being nicey-nicey. They can soften the blow of necessary criticism.
Employees don’t trust (or particularly like) those who seem to only focus on the negatives. We’re all more likely to accept and adjust accordingly if we feel the person delivering the criticism has a more holistic view of our contributions. We are apt to believe they’re criticizing us fairly.
Increasing engagement
Leaders and managers will have to create more opportunities to feed the continuous feedback loop. You can consider higher employee engagement a cool fringe benefit of doing so.
Building engagement through more frequent check-ins and 1:1s strengthens an employee’s emotional commitment to their team. This motivates them to continue performing to a better standard, sure, but they’ll also have a more favorable view of their employer overall. Hence, they won’t be so quick to quit.
What is a positive feedback loop?
Positive feedback loops are a large part of the perception of fairness because they focus on what we’re doing right. Here, the feedback serves as a type of positive reinforcement, provoking more of the action or behavior (performance).
Many positive feedback examples see employees discovering a strength and essentially capitalizing on it. “The way you delivered that client solution completely neutralized their attitude. Amazing job!” This employee is likely to replicate that exchange to smooth relations with more clients. It’s as good for business outcomes as it is for their performance and morale.
We don’t focus on positive feedback loops to pretend everything’s perfect in our artificially sweetened environment. Rather, it’s all about recognizing and consciously transmuting negative feedback loops into positive ones.
Push and pull: Positive vs. negative feedback
The key difference between positive and negative feedback is the direction toward which they propel us. Positive feedback pushes us forward, while negative feedback pulls us in for one of two things: some maintenance or to perpetuate a toxic environment.
Positive feedback loop cycle |
Negative feedback loop cycle |
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1. A behavior is identified and praised (helping coworkers, going above and beyond for customers). |
1. Issue identified and communicated (underperformance, not behaving according to company values). |
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2. The employee continues exhibiting the behavior, further optimizing for even better results if possible. |
2. The employee either becomes defensive and shuts down or works to correct the issue. |
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3. Managers recognize and reinforce these effects of positive feedback with a shout-out or other form of acknowledgment. |
3. Managers persist with negative feedback or offer new, positive feedback on how issues were corrected. |
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Outcome: The organization enjoys the benefits of the employee’s performance. The employee feels confident in their skills and satisfied with their role. |
Outcome: Performance and retention continue suffering, or it becomes a positive feedback loop. Employee proceeds to Step 2 of the positivity cycle. |
So, a negative feedback loop is a Choose Your Own Adventure title that can take us on a tour of workplace terrors. Is there even a point in issuing criticism and risking continuing the negativity loop?
Yes, if we have a plan in place to ensure a coexisting positive feedback loop.
To review or not to review, and the power of peers.
Very few employees (fewer than 15%) are inspired to improve based on their annual performance review. Only 29% feel that their annual review is fair. Big corporations know this, which is why:
- Microsoft ditched the annual performance review and ranking system. It made employees competitive, killing community and teamwork.
- Tesla chooses to use timely recognition (public shout-outs) or private correction as their primary feedback source. They find it’s better for growth.
- Patagonia switched to a culture where peers ask for and receive helpful feedback from one another. This is supplemented by quarterly managerial check-ins.
- Netflix finds that informal, year-round conversations about performance are also more fruitful than a review.
Employees feel caught off guard by much of what they hear during performance reviews. They feel anxious about what that review means for their place on the team. Continuous feedback eliminates that. Employees always know what to improve while always feeling their strengths are appreciated.
Many of these companies have a peer element in place to prevent gaps from forming in feedback loops. Peer recognition ensures positive feedback is always flowing, especially the little wins that many managers miss.
HeyTaco supports continuous, peer-powered positivity.
You don’t have to ditch your annual review, but ask what it really adds. Continuous growth and improvement only happen with continuous feedback. A foundation of positivity in feedback helps criticisms land on their feet.
Tools like HeyTaco emphasize team belonging and promote positivity in ways performance reviews never could. Daily peer feedback that’s fun and built into workflows serves a culture where people are always improving.
