Many years and many bosses ago I was introduced to the idea of The Six Questions as a way to formalize feedback loops and it’s something I’ve continued to carry along with me. The idea is straight forward enough. You have a miniature performance review at least once a month in a consistent lightweight format. You ensure that nobody is surprised by a performance review, have a regular time for feedback sessions so it is easier to deliver critical feedback, and when it’s time for a formal performance reviews you and your report have a starting point that can be easily adapted into most performance review documents.
The actual format of the meeting and the questions isn’t as important as the data that is gathered and that you keep the schedule. There are lots of management books and LinkedIn posts that have similar questions but you need to find what works for you and your situation so edit the questions as it makes sense to you.
I like to use the language “challenge” because it it all encompassing of things that haven’t gone well and gives room to discuss process change or upcoming difficulties.
The format that I’ve found tends to be the easiest is to keep a long lived easily editable online document (Google Docs) and append to the document every month. The document is only meant for the 2 of you so grammar and formatting isn’t as important as capturing the ideas. I like having one person ask a question and record the response in the document as it keeps both people engaged in the process and people can think deeply about their response without worrying about spelling or typing. When somebody is attempting to transcribe what I’m saying I don’t like to look at the screen because it’ll distract me and I feel like it puts pressure on somebody to become a stenographer.
For people new to this sort of activity giving feedback to their manager is not easy. It can take months to build the trust necessary to get real answers but it’s important to stay the course and not skip any questions. This meeting should take about 30 minutes. You should spend time discussing each item and if you need to go deep into a topic it’s probably worth setting up more time for it.
The general flow of the meetings I’ve lead look like this:
Manager: “Tell me one strength you identified for yourself.”
Direct Report describes something that has gone well for them.
Manager documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.
Manager:“Tell me one challenge you identified for yourself.”
Direct Report describes something that was difficult for them or expect to be difficult.
Manager documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.
Direct Report: “Tell me one strength you identified for me.”
Manager describes something that has gone well for their direct.
Direct Report documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.
Direct Report: “Tell me one challenge you identified for me.”
Manager describes something that was difficult for their direct or expect to be difficult for them.
Direct Report documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.
Manager: “Tell me one strength you identified for me.”
Direct Report describes something that has gone well for their manager.
Manager documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.
Manager:“Tell me one challenge you identified for me.”
Direct Report describes something that was difficult for their manager or expect to be difficult for them.
Manager documents what is discussed as conversation is happening.