You’ve just stepped into management - and your first real test has arrived: writing performance reviews for a team you hardly know. The task feels loaded with risk and expectation. Yet done well, it’s your chance to build trust, define your standards, and signal what kind of leader you’ll be.
This guide draws on research from Gallup, Google, and CIPD - plus case studies from real engineering teams to show how new managers can deliver fair, credible, and motivating reviews without the benefit of long history.
What a Performance Review Actually Is (and Isn’t)
A review isn’t a form. It’s a structured alignment conversation where expectations, outcomes, and growth meet.
- Expectations: What “good” looks like for the role and level - behaviors and results, not personality.
- Outcomes: What shipped, what changed, and the impact on customers, collaborators, and systems.
- Growth: What to keep doing, what to adjust, and what help is needed next quarter.
Studies from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) emphasize that the quality of feedback matters more than its frequency. CIPD found that “employees reporting systematic performance management were more likely to rate their performance positively - 89% versus 76% among those without it.”
Poorly designed reviews reduce motivation because they feel arbitrary or generic. Designed well, they increase clarity, perceived fairness, and engagement. The difference is intent: are you scoring the past, or equipping the future?
Working definition for your team: “This review summarizes observable work and sets up the next stage of growth. It’s not a verdict - it’s a plan.”
The New-Manager Dilemma: Constraints You Should Name
Stepping into management means balancing credibility with humility. The Gallup research behind First, Break All the Rules - drawn from interviews with over 80,000 managers and a million employees - revealed that only 13% of employees worldwide are actively engaged at work.
Engagement rises when managers focus on strengths and recognition rather than control. For a new manager, that’s a crucial insight: you don’t need years of observation to recognize strengths; you need curiosity and fairness.
You inherited goals you didn’t set. You’ve observed only the last sprint or two. Dynamics predate you. And you’re still earning credibility.
Name this explicitly with your team. It lowers defensiveness and invites collaboration:
“I joined midway through this cycle, so I’m leaning on multiple inputs to build a fair picture - your own self-reflection, peer feedback, docs, and outcomes. If you think I missed context, I want to hear it.”
That one sentence reframes you from “judge” to “curator of evidence.”
Common traps to avoid right now:
- Recency bias: overweighting the last month because it’s all you saw.
- Halo/horn effects: letting one strength or one issue color the whole narrative.
- Inheritance bias: carrying forward someone else’s opinions without validating them.
Building a Fair Picture with Limited History
Fairness starts with evidence, not impression. As Kluger and DeNisi’s meta-analysis on feedback interventions showed, “over one-third of feedback interventions reduced performance.” Poorly framed or biased feedback can do real harm. This is why frameworks like the Situation–Behavior–Impact (SBI) model from the Center for Creative Leadership are so valuable. They help you focus on observable actions, not assumptions.
When you haven’t worked with your team long, rely on multiple sources: Peer feedback, Project documentation, Previous manager notes, and Measurable outcomes. Google’s re:Work guidelines advise integrating “manager feedback for development rather than compensation,” underscoring that context and fairness matter more than rigid scoring.
CIPD’s evidence review adds another insight: positive feedback is typically more effective for improving performance than negative criticism. New managers can use this to anchor their tone - start by recognizing achievements, then explore opportunities for development.
Establishing Trust and Transparency Before the Review
A tough review delivered into a relationship without trust will bounce. Build that trust early through small, consistent interactions. Microsoft’s Connects framework shows why - ongoing, authentic conversations throughout the year create the context that makes formal reviews productive.
Start with a short listening tour. In your first weeks, hold quick 1:1s to learn what energizes each person, where they want to grow, and what “great” looks like in their role. When you later reference those details in their review, it proves you were listening.
Invite co-ownership of the process. Ask for a self-assessment and their draft goals for the next cycle, and let them speak first during the review. Two-way dialogue teaches more than one-way judgment.
Be open about the process itself. If ratings are required, clarify how you’ll use them and where your coaching begins. You might say:
“We’ll submit a formal rating for HR, but that’s just the starting point. My goal is to turn this into a plan you believe in.”
As Kim Scott writes in Radical Candor, great leadership means “caring personally while challenging directly.” When your team sees feedback as mutual growth rather than judgment, it starts to build real trust.
Structuring and Writing the Review (Evidence + Empathy)
Now to the big question every new manager faces: how do you actually write a fair, useful performance review when you’ve only just joined the team?
In technical teams, where work leaves an artifact trail (code reviews, PRs, tickets), fairness is about interpreting data, not personalities.
Writing an effective review means turning limited data and brief observation into credible insight. The solution lies in structure - balancing evidence and empathy so your review feels both factual and human. As Ken Blanchard notes in The One Minute Manager, “99% of problems in organizations are preventable, as long as communication is honest, open, and early.” A performance review is your chance to practice exactly that kind of communication.
Start by grounding the review in clear role expectations - what success looks like for that position and level. Then walk through concrete examples of work you’ve observed or verified: the sprint completed ahead of schedule, the design doc that unblocked another team, the postmortem they led that improved on-call readiness. Keep every statement behavioral and specific: say “delivered reports two days early and incorporated peer feedback” instead of “very responsible.” Summarize key achievements, describe their impact, and link each to next steps or development goals.
Tone matters as much as content. Quantum Workplace’s 2024 Employee Engagement Report found that 52% of employees say performance reviews fail to motivate them, primarily because the feedback feels one-sided or generic. That’s a reminder that objectivity alone isn’t enough - your team wants to feel seen. A well-structured review avoids that pitfall by being personal, specific, and forward-looking. Even with limited history, you can show credibility through detail, fairness through evidence, and empathy through your willingness to invest in their growth.
Conducting the Review Conversation Effectively
So, you’ve written a thoughtful, evidence-based review - now comes the harder part: how do you deliver it so it lands well?
Even the best-written feedback can backfire if it’s delivered without care. Delivery determines whether your words motivate or demoralize. A performance review isn’t a verdict; it’s a dialogue. The goal is to help the employee leave the room clearer, not smaller.
Begin the conversation by setting intent: “My goal today is to share what I’ve seen, hear your perspective, and leave with a plan we both believe in.” Then, invite them to speak first. Asking for their self-assessment shifts the tone from evaluation to collaboration and can reveal how they perceive their own progress.
As you discuss each point, use the Situation–Behavior–Impact (SBI) framework to stay objective: describe what happened, what you observed, and the impact it had. For example:
“During the product launch (Situation), you coordinated multiple stakeholders smoothly (Behavior), which helped us meet the deadline with fewer revisions (Impact).”
Keep the focus on facts and shared understanding rather than judgment. Employees are more likely to act on feedback when they feel their perspective was heard first.
Remember: your tone carries as much weight as your words. Stay curious, ask open questions, and don’t rush to fill silences. The most effective review meetings feel less like a performance exam and more like a design discussion - two professionals troubleshooting how to make next quarter better.
Beyond the Meeting: Keeping the Momentum Going
The best performance review isn’t an annual event; it’s the first step in a cycle of regular alignment, reflection, and recognition. Continuous feedback turns evaluation into evolution.
Operationalize the loop:
- Quarterly mini-reviews: 20 minutes to check goals, recalibrate scope, and celebrate wins.
- Micro-feedback in 1:1s: 90 seconds of SBI beats saving it for “review season.”
- Lightweight notes: A shared doc with running highlights, edges, and next steps. It becomes your memory when cycles turn.
Why this matters for a new manager: You’re still building your dataset. A steady drumbeat of small observations compounds into trust - and into a rock-solid foundation for the next formal review.
Keep this Close - Seven Lines to Guide Every Performance Review You Lead
- State the purpose of reviews to your team: alignment and growth.
- Gather four inputs: self-review, 2–4 peer notes, artifacts/outcomes, prior goals.
- Write using SBI, replacing labels with behaviors and impact.
- Balance strengths and edges; tie both to role expectations.
- In the meeting, let them go first; then co-create next actions and support.
- Schedule two follow-ups (mid-quarter and end-quarter) before you leave the room.
- Take light notes after each 1:1 to defeat recency bias later.
Closing
Being new doesn’t mean being unprepared. Your first review cycle can either feel like bureaucracy or become the moment your leadership takes shape.
Lead with evidence, not guesses. Write with specificity, not labels. Deliver with candor and care. Then turn the whole thing into a loop that makes surprises impossible.
You may not have a long history with your team yet - but this is how you start building one worth remembering.