If you are a leader, you probably conduct performance reviews with your direct reports at least annually. Whether the performance reviews you conduct drive employees to new heights of success or into deep depression depends almost entirely on whether you lead like Jesus.
As I mentioned last week, I have a love/hate relationship with performance reviews. That’s because I’ve experienced both the motivational version and the kind that sucks all the joy out of life!
The performance reviews that motivated me were conducted by leaders who led like Jesus. But, unfortunately, the ones that sucked all the joy out of my life were led by people who, I think, were the spawn of Satan!
4 Performance Review Leadership Lessons
Since you and I want to lead like Jesus, I thought I would share some interesting insights from Jesus’ leadership and how they can be applied to our performance review process.
In the book “Biblical Leadership Theology for the Everyday Leader,” Dr. Edward Hindson outlined four lessons from Jesus’ leadership gleaned from His letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2-3). These four lessons are equally crucial for us as leaders and are especially relevant as we conduct performance reviews today.
1. Jesus Led by Example
Throughout His time of ministry, Jesus led by example. He never asked the disciples to do anything He had not already demonstrated. Jesus lived by the Spirit, displaying all the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and did not succumb to the sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21).
2. Jesus Knew the Facts
In each of the seven letters to the churches, Jesus said, “I know your deeds.” Every word of praise or criticism in these letters was based on facts. His reviews of the churches’ performance contained no hearsay, guesswork, innuendo, and certainly no false accusations.
3. Jesus Encouraged Success
Jesus began with words of encouragement for five of the seven churches. Jesus’ encouragement was detailed and specific. At the same time, Jesus did not offer false praise for the two churches whose performance was disappointing.
4. Jesus Provided the Opportunity to Improve
Following His words of encouragement, Jesus offered detailed, specific improvement areas for six of the seven churches. In each case, Jesus implored the churches to repent with a promise of reward for those that returned to Him wholeheartedly.
How Should We Lead Performance Reviews?
I sincerely hope that you see in Jesus’ letters to the seven churches a performance review model that applies to us today.
- We must lead by example. We need to walk the talk. Like Jesus, we must demonstrate the behaviors we expect of our employees.
- We must focus on the facts. Unfortunately, far too many performance reviews include rumors, innuendo, and outright falsehoods. Of course, we do not have divine knowledge like Jesus, but that just means we need to be extra careful to keep to the facts.
- We must celebrate success. The greatest motivator is recognition for work well done. To be most effective, encouragement needs to be detailed and specific.
- We must focus on improvement. No employee is perfect in every aspect of their work, so performance reviews must include honest, detailed, and specific acknowledgment of improvement areas.
These four leadership lessons gleaned from Jesus’ letters to the seven churches will help you deliver performance reviews that will motivate employees rather than drain the life out of them!
And come to think of it, these four lessons on leadership are handy tools to keep in your leadership toolbox all the time, not just during your performance review season!
More Articles
I have written several articles on this topic. You can find them by typing “power and influence” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are five of my favorites.
- #476: Your Light in The Workplace Has Never Been More Important Than Right Now!
- #445: Is Our Prosperity an Indication of God’s Blessing on Our Country?
- #404: Are Power and Influence Important to You?
- #402: Is Good Leadership More Than the Exercise of Power?
- #390: Are Certain Positional Leaders Destroying Our Society?
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Which of these four leadership lessons is most/least important in a performance review to you?
I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because people like you share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?
Category: Relationships | Power/Influence
