Performance management is a daily exercise

Let's continue our discussion of performance management during the review period.  It's important to know that the most effective way of keeping everyone on track is by communicating and coaching daily, or as often as you can.  Have both formal and informal communications about performance frequently to keep the message fresh and ensure you as a manger know what's going on.  This includes everything from "atta boys/atta girls (or atta ladies, possibly)" when something goes well to more formal, documented conversations when things don't. 

It's best practice to have at least a mid-year formal review with each of your direct reports, and many advocate doing it at least quarterly.  But informal thanks and coaching/feedback should ideally be done on a daily basis if it's practical.  This helps ensure at the end of the year there are no surprises to the employee about their overall performance rating.