Tips for your end of year review meeting
Read our excellent guide on end of year reviews here. If you are short on time, here is the summary:
- This is not a performance review meeting.
- Focus on zooming out and big picture stuff.
- This is about the team member, not about you.
- Don’t get bogged down by the past. Spend time talking about the future!
- You are not here to judge or evaluate. Not today.
The ideal year end review template
This is an important meeting, so try to set aside at least 1 hour for it. And remember to send this agenda to the team member well in advance! Coming prepared for the meeting is half the work done.
Catchup (10 mins)
Use this time to break the ice, set context and catch up on any pending discussions! Some good questions to ask now can be:
- What are your plans for the new year holidays?
- How’s everyone back home? Hope the Covid-19 situation is better now..
- Have you ever thought about taking a gap year? :) Where would you go?
- What expectations do you have from this meeting? Anything specific that you would like to cover that isn’t in the agenda?
Reflect on past year (20 mins)
Carry forward this momentum by doing some retrospective thinking! Let’s zoom out and think about the last year. How was it for the team member? How was it for the team?
Some insightful questions to aid the end of year review agenda:
- What was the biggest challenge you faced this year? Which project?
- If you had to choose the one most important metric that you moved positively this year, which one would it be?
- Which was your favourite project to work on? Why do you think you had fun there?
- Was there any mistake that we kept repeating as a team?
- What is one skill you have now that you never thought you would be able to acquire before? :)
- What makes you feel proud about being part of our team this year?
- How was our pace of work this year? Did you feel burnt out at any time?
Let’s talk about the coming year (20 mins)
The reflection agenda items should have set a good tone for the next bit. Looking forward to the coming year! An important point to now remember is that you should not make this discussion all about the company & team. Focus on asking about their personal goals, and see if they align with your larger goals. Some questions that you can add to the agenda:
- What is your north star in life? Where do you see yourself in maybe 5 years from now?
- How far are you from that point? Do you feel that this team is the right path to get there?
- Are you clear about the team goals & vision for this year?
- Would you like to take any additional responsibilities this year?
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