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This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

To give an analogy, you wouldn't expect someone who's had a couple of driving lessons to immediately be able to drive like a pro, because that's insane. Like anything, driving is something you practice and get better at by learning and making mistakes with a supervisor who can assist you. This is so that, eventually, when it matters, you don't make those mistakes anymore.

Don't turn it into a personal attack.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

Be honest, firm and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically if you get caught up in looking only at the bad things in a situation, you'll miss out on the good things. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad.

This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

To give an analogy, you wouldn't expect someone who's had a couple of driving lessons to immediately be able to drive like a pro, because that's insane. Like anything, driving is something you practice and get better at by learning and making mistakes with a supervisor who can assist you. This is so that, eventually, when it matters, you don't make those mistakes anymore.

Don't turn it into a personal attack.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

Be honest, firm and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically, try to avoid tunnel vision on negative things, because that can't be all there is to the situation. You don't want to miss the good things that could and should have been nurtured. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad. It reminds your employees that you're not just looking for flaws to criticise them with, but that you're paying attention to all aspects of their performance, good and bad, because you care about their development and you want to see them succeed, even if it means giving negative feedback sometimes.

This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

To give an analogy, you wouldn't expect someone who's had a couple of driving lessons to immediately be able to drive like a pro, because that's insane. Like anything, driving is something you practice and get better at by learning and making mistakes with a supervisor who can assist you. This is so that, eventually, when it matters, you don't make those mistakes anymore.

Don't make it personal.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

Be honest, firm and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically if you get caught up in looking only at the bad things in a situation, you'll miss out on the good things. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad.

This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

To give an analogy, you wouldn't expect someone who's had a couple of driving lessons to immediately be able to drive like a pro, because that's insane. Like anything, driving is something you practice and get better at by learning and making mistakes with a supervisor who can assist you. This is so that, eventually, when it matters, you don't make those mistakes anymore.

Don't turn it into a personal attack.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

Be honest, firm and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically if you get caught up in looking only at the bad things in a situation, you'll miss out on the good things. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad.

This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

1. Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

2. Don't make it personal.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

3. Be honest and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

4. Be firm.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

5. Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically if you get caught up in looking only at the bad things in a situation, you'll miss out on the good things. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad.

This is my personal opinion having been on both sides of performance reviews. I don't know your workplace's culture or your employees but this is generally what I find leads to better results. I appreciate it might be difficult in a start-up; there is always the temptation to be ruthless and cull people, but IMO if you do this you'll end up burning through numerous different employees, having no cohesion as a company, and generally losing time due to constantly re-training new hires. Just remember, you want these guys to succeed, not fail. If you make that clear to them they should be motivated and cooperative.

With that in mind:

Emphasise that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly experienced people. It's nothing to be ashamed of; it's how we learn. You can never expect anyone to do everything perfectly all the time - and that's not just a wishy-washy feel-good statement, it's true. Even machines make mistakes. Of course a junior is going to screw up, that doesn't mean they're a bad employee, just that they need to learn.

To give an analogy, you wouldn't expect someone who's had a couple of driving lessons to immediately be able to drive like a pro, because that's insane. Like anything, driving is something you practice and get better at by learning and making mistakes with a supervisor who can assist you. This is so that, eventually, when it matters, you don't make those mistakes anymore.

Don't make it personal.

Making mistakes or performing poorly in our jobs doesn't make us idiots. If you humiliate and belittle people, shred them to pieces in front of their team etc., they're quickly going to resent you and want to leave the company, and will be churning out the bare minimum in the meantime. But if you give them support and encouragement, they'll want to stick around and improve themselves.

Be honest, firm and give constructive feedback.

Just be upfront; tell them their performance isn't where you expect it to be - but don't leave it at that and shoo them away leaving them confused and with little confidence. See if you can work through it with them; maybe they'd be better suited to working on different tasks, or maybe there's some other reason they're struggling - it could even be something personal they're bottling up.

"Give constructive feedback" is a bit vague I know, but using examples and suggesting how you might tackle these problems may be a good start.

You do need to make it clear that improvement is needed. But just remember that you're all on the same side - you want them to succeed, so you're doing this for their own benefit.

Highlight any positive areas as well as negative ones.

Ajahn Brahm tells a story of the two bad bricks - basically if you get caught up in looking only at the bad things in a situation, you'll miss out on the good things. Surely there must be something your team has done well and could be encouraged for. I'm not saying hand out participation prizes or anything, just to remember to look for good things as well as bad.