New York Lawyer
October 9, 2003

Q:
I had my performance review recently, and while I don�t want to complain, it didn�t help me much.

The partner I work with the most did the review; he's a great lawyer and I have a lot of respect for him. We work well together. But he�s very busy all the time, and the review consisted of, between phone calls, �What can I say? You�re great. Keep doing what you�re doing!�

This is terrific, of course. It seems he loves my work. Except that it doesn�t really help me with organizing my career. Any thoughts on what I can do without seeming like an ingrate?

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A:

Well, at least you got something resembling a review. Often even firms with detailed review procedures somehow just don�t get around to them, or they are done on a very haphazard basis, with some practice areas doing them diligently and others blowing them off.

What is the purpose of a performance review? It can fulfill many objectives. Most obviously it�s an opportunity to focus on you and how you�re doing, to take time out to fit your performance into the perspective of the past year and the future. It�s also a time to think more broadly about where you are in your career, where you�d like to go, and whether you�re on the right track to fulfill your own ambitions. It�s a golden opportunity for motivation � those who are expert at performance reviews know that if they conduct them properly they can energize people for months to come. People are more likely to stick around if they think that people care about them and see a clearly defined future for them. There are other benefits as well but these are some of the high points.

Of course a review also includes �development needs� (the ways in which you�re not doing so well). And if you don�t have any glaring defects, naturally some partners or those reviewing you think, �Why get bogged down in a big discussion of how great someone is? The good news is, there�s no bad news, so let�s not worry about it.� What could possibly be wrong with that? But a �drive-by� review presents its own problems.

Here�s what�s wrong:

No nurturing. One of the things people like about reviews is that, for once, higher ups pay some extended attention to them. It�s an opportunity to connect, to let people know they are truly valued. A hurried assessment, punctuated by phone calls and other interruptions, suggests that the partner is thrilled to have someone working with him or her who�s great, but only for the partner�s own benefit, not for the associate�s gain or benefit.

No details. The partner thinks it�s obvious what you�re doing right, but you may not be so sure. And it�s just as important to get the details of positive reviews as the fine points of bad ones, so that you concentrate on what�s good and do more of it.

No planning. As I said before, one of the main purposes of a review is to think into the future, and to discuss how your career is going. Whatever merits it may have, the drive-by doesn�t accomplish this at all.

So now what do you do?

Ask for career advice. There�s no need to tell the partner how useless the review was, just flatter him by saying that you respect him a lot and think he could give you some perspective on how you might accomplish what you�d like. Say that you realized from your review that he likes your work, and you�re very pleased by that, and hope that he can give you some guidance as you reflect on your future. If he agrees, you can work into the conversation some questions about what you�re doing now, how you might improve, etc. He might even find he enjoys being the wise eminence and realize that a talk like this now and then is beneficial.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work