By SCORE
- Concentrate on what you and the employee can achieve together in the future. Don’t use performance reviews just as a means of telling workers everything they’re doing wrong.
- Strive for consistency and fairness. Apply performance criteria to all employees, not just a few.
- Encourage employees to evaluate themselves and to discuss their own strengths. Your view of an employee and the employee’s view of himself should match fairly well. Otherwise, it’s a warning signal.
- Be honest about poor performance, but not brutal. Document your observations in writing.
- If you’re small enough that constant communication and feedback are taking place, you may be able to avoid performance reviews. But don’t send the message that performance isn’t critical.
By SCORE
- Be there. Entrepreneurs warn that a successful business can slip when an owner is not there at least part of every day, keeping in touch with how things are going.
- Set an example for working hard. One wholesale bakery owner sometimes sleeps on the couch in his office so he can be there when the early shift comes in at 4 a.m.
- Don’t confuse “hands-on” managing with micro-management. Set objectives and offer guidance, but don’t make employees do every little thing your way. Gauge what they do by the results.
- Understand your business down to the last detail. The founder of a toy-store chain visits the stores and spends time doing each job (selling, clerking, etc.) and observing customers’ reactions.
- Stay in touch with “stakeholders”—including customers, employees and suppliers.
