A year ago, we introduced the Udemy Conversation to replace the standard review cycle. Rather than a one-way, once-a-year ordeal that's full of stress and expectation, managers and their direct reports have a continuous dialogue about job performance and career development, so they can make on-the-fly adjustments together as the business landscape changes and priorities shift.

Having an ongoing conversation doesn't just eliminate the stress of a typical performance review. It changes the dynamic in a way that connects coworkers more deeply, builds trust and accountability, and brings out people's best work. Considering how vocal our workforce is about wanting regular feedback, this approach just makes good sense.

Accentuate the positive

Another effective shift is to change your company's mindset from "fixing" an employee's shortcomings to helping identify what people naturally excel at and allowing them to soar with their strengths. We look for the intersection between where our people want to direct their careers and where we have business needs. We're happy to move individuals among different teams and roles to fill in gaps as well as to offer a variety of career paths.

We also are strong proponents of having a growth mindset. Everyone makes mistakes, but that's absolutely fine if they're using the opportunity to learn from it and do better next time. Traditional performance reviews put the employee in the hot seat to be judged on what they did "wrong." We'd rather focus our energy on applying lessons learned and making sure people are appropriately resourced.

Nothing undermines future success more than labeling someone an underperformer or telling them they've "failed" at a certain task. The Udemy Conversation is designed to instill confidence and motivation by baking regular feedback sessions into everyone's routine, so managers and employees can talk about what's working and what's not and agree on a productive path forward.

Motivate, don't intimidate

Another way we live our value of transparency is by being extremely forthcoming about company performance. Everyone has access to dashboards that show how we're tracking against KPIs like revenue and course enrollments.

Now, we're encouraging transparency at the individual level by taking anonymity out of the goals process. Looking to boost the conversion rate of your email newsletters by 10 percent? Well, everyone else knows about it too.

Scary? Maybe a little, but not so much in a culture built around having a safe environment to innovate, take risks, fail, learn, and try again. We're going through the goal-setting process now, and we want people to set both stretch goals and more attainable goals.

Making them publicly viewable isn't some Big Brother tactic to get people monitoring each other and calling out those who haven't checked off the "completed" box. Instead, the idea is that everyone can see what's on my plate and what I'm striving toward and gain a better appreciation for what my role entails and how they can support me or learn from my efforts.

Another thing that makes public goal-setting not so scary is having the Udemy Conversation as a safety net. When employees are placed in environment where they have clear and challenging goals, regular feedback in performance- and development-focused conversations, and opportunities to learn both professionally and personally, they will grow and thrive. And if our employees grow and thrive, so will our business.

Our high-achieving employees think big and pursue ambitious goals, but they also know they're supported if they don't hit the center of the target. After all, those are the situations where our greatest learning happens.