It feels a bit too early to be talking about the end of year, doesn’t it? November is here, whether it feels like it or not, and if you want your next year to be better than your this year, setting aside time for those year-end reviews should be on your to-do list!
Annual reviews not only show that you are engaged with your agents, it shows that you care about their development and are committed to their success. 

📆 Make Them Easily Accessible

• For ease of scheduling, use Calendly, Sign Up Genius, or any similar tool to show times that you are available to meet for the review. Back-and-forth regarding “What about this time?” begins the entire transaction with some frustration. 
• Block off ample time within your calendar to accomplish this so that those you meet with will have no challenge finding a spot to work for them and, if possible, provide a variety of morning and afternoon times across several days. You can always fill those times with other things once everyone reserves their spot.
• It’s ideal to meet in person, but the increased demands of the holidays may make it more difficult if going into the office isn’t part of their normal routine. Meeting via video chat can be just as effective, and they will appreciate your flexibility! 

📝 Have a Plan

• Annual reviews aren’t a time to wing it. Develop a general strategy on how you want to approach the reviews as a whole this year and plan your questions and action items to discuss around it. Do you want to focus on personal development? Increasing production? Building a business plan for the next year? 
• Know your numbers. Gather their annual goal vs what was actually accomplished, and any other metrics necessary to analyze their performance over the current year and predict their output to set their goal for the upcoming year. 
• Ensure when you meet that the goal is theirs and not your office or company goal. If they are intrinsically motivated to achieve something, it will be much easier to do. Of course, give them your perspective as to whether their goal is not high enough or unrealistic based on your experience with them, but ultimately it needs to be their own.

 🫀 Get Human

• This is a great opportunity to discuss how they felt about the past year and the things that they are excited about or apprehensive of in the upcoming year.
• If they are open to it, discuss any personal life challenges that may have stood in the way of them achieving their professional goals and if there are any known big events scheduled or anticipated in the upcoming year so that you can help them plan accordingly.

 📐 Be Specific with Your Coaching

• If their goal is to accomplish more in the upcoming year, they need your guidance on how to get there. Advising them to work harder not only isn’t motivating, but it’s not going to help them get where they want to go.
• Offer them specific items to do and strategies they can use to achieve their new goals and help them make a concrete plan to get there. Remember, if they knew what to do they would have done it already. Keep it simple and specific so it is easier to execute.

 🪴 Celebrate Their Growth

• Celebrate not only their transactional accomplishments but also their growth over the previous year. Are they approaching their work in a more proactive and less reactive way? Have they developed systems to complete their work in less time?

 ✅ Make a Plan for Accountability

• Discussing goals and the specific way to achieve them isn’t going to take one conversation. Make a commitment during this meeting on how frequently you will meet during the upcoming year and what means they will use to hold themselves accountable for the actions it takes to reach their goals.
• Follow through with your commitment by scheduling pre-planned meetings and accountability check-ins so you can uphold your part of the deal.