Read This Before Mid-Year Reviews
A 3-part framework for identifying growth possibilities
Last week, many of my coaching calls took a specific, predictable turn—my clients wanted to discuss preparations for mid-year reviews.
Whether you’re the person being reviewed, or the reviewer, these meetings serve as a great check point for progress toward established goals. Even better, mid-year reviews are a natural opportunity to focus on growth.
Quite often, I’ll ask a manager or executive how one of their team members wants to grow … and they have no idea. “How do I find out?”
This feels like the set up to a joke, with a very simple punchline:
Q: How do you know how someone wants to grow?
A: You ask them.
Of course, sometimes you ask, and the team member has no idea how they should grow. Or they offer a vague response, like “I want to grow my leadership skills.” The questions below give you a simple framework for identifying specific ways someone wants to grow.
Asking these questions of your team members is worth doing—it’s difficult to reach a destination you haven’t identified. Uncovering specific growth areas gives you a clear destination; and when that identification process happens between a supervisor and employee, it creates interest (“I really want this!”) and accountability (“My boss knows!”).
This is a great retention strategy, too. Team members who do not feel like they are growing in their role are 2.5x more likely to quit in the next 12 months, according to Deloitte.
A framework for identifying growth areas in mid-year reviews
This framework uses questions (big surprise) to probe in three areas: 1) future vision, 2) skills gaps or acquisition, and 3) building on strengths.
While there are nine questions here, you shouldn’t ask all of these. Instead, pick the ones that feel right for the moment. Or, give your team member the list in advance and ask them to come to the mid-year review prepared to speak to two or three questions that most resonated.
1. Envisioning the future
What do you want to feel more confident doing 6 months from now?
Tell me how you imagine your career 3-5 years from now.
What’s a project or challenge on the horizon that you’d like to take on?
2. Identifying growth areas for skills development
What skills or knowledge do you wish you had more of?
What’s one thing you’ve seen someone else do well that you’d like to learn?
Where do you feel out of your depth—but excited to learn?
3. Building on strengths and creating support
Where do you feel you’re already growing and want to keep growing?
Where do you see opportunities to contribute more to the team’s success?
What kind of support or resources would help you grow right now?
How to use these questions and what to do with the answers
After you’ve selected the questions that are most relevant for the team member, ask them one at a time and really listen. Focus on understanding rather than just the facts of their response. Listen for themes and help your team member align to the organization’s highest priorities, when possible.
Then work together to create a plan. (Find some free development ideas in this article.) Add the topic to your regular check-in document, so you can ask about progress or offer support.
How to use these questions to talk to your boss
You don’t have to wait for your boss to ask how you want to grow. Come to your mid-year review prepared to share your responses to a few questions above, and with a clear request for their support. Here are a few examples:
I’d like to work on more cross-functional projects, so I broaden my understanding of the business. In the next few months, would you help me find projects with other departments where I could meaningfully contribute?
I know I can be quiet in meetings, and I’d like to speak up with more confidence. I’m going to start by being more vocal in our departmental meeting. It might help me if you called on me to share my opinion—would you consider that?
I’m really interested in cyber-security and our team could benefit from more in-house expertise on the topic. There’s a conference I could attend next month—could I start there, and then shape a plan for what the next steps might be?
Be intentional about growth
Growth conversations don’t have to be complicated, but they do need to be intentional. When you invest time in understanding how someone wants to develop, you’re not just checking a box on your management to-do list—you’re building trust, demonstrating that you see them as more than their current role, and creating a foundation for meaningful progress.
The best part? These questions work just as well for your own growth conversations with your boss. After all, the most effective leaders are those who never stop growing themselves.
More to help you prepare
Four types of feedback to ask for and give
A three-step process for giving feedback that gets heard
BONUS QUESTION
Mid-year is a great time for reviewing your full life, and not just work.
Here are 3 questions for a personal mid-year life review:
What do you want to feel more confident doing in your personal life 6 months from now?
What’s one thing you’ve seen someone else do well in their life that you’d like to learn or incorporate into yours?
Where do you see opportunities to contribute more meaningfully to the people and communities that matter to you?
Thank you!
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To say thank you, I’m plotting a special offering for sometime in July. Subscribers will be the first to hear about it, so watch your inbox.
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Photo by Yan Krukau at Pexels.