How a manager can make a performance review a positive experience

Recently, Fast Company published a good article about performance reviews that anyone who manages people and has to deliver a formal performance review on a regular basis should take a look at. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/3006089/performance-anxiety-why-reviews-hurt-everybody

The article's title is meant to stoke controversy.  Reviews don't "hurt everybody" when done well, as is apparent when one digs into the details. Read the article and you'll see how a review can be positive and powerful and positively impact performance in a fundamental manner.  I'll leave the ratings piece alone for now.  Most companies still have them, and have to work within that framework for now.  (There are some good reasons for ratings, especially for the dreaded "ratings on a curve" in order to normalize across groups and ensure hard grading managers and "easy" managers don't penalize or inappropriately reward their teams.) But the advice in the article about focussing on the future, and not the past, is very good -- and applies in our environment.

In particular:  If you didn't already discuss areas for improvement throughout the year, when the events occurred, that's bad management. Shame on you and you should do better going forward.  

My advice: Don't punish your employees for your own bad performance by bringing up those"areas for improvement" that should have discussed already.  Instead, concentrate on the year ahead.  The performance expectations you set, going forward, can cover the areas you wish you would have coached your employees about, during the past year.

You can change the tone from one of "gotcha" to one of "you can be successful".