At the start of the new year, performance reviews are happening at many companies. Often there are two components to the review: Your self-evaluation and the evaluation from your manager.
Over the years, I’ve seen this process done well and watched it executed poorly. The difference between good and poor is on the shoulders of both the employee and the manager.
While we can’t control the process our manager uses, we can control our approach to our self-review. Here are 10 tips that can make your self-review stronger.
Phase 1 – Gather
The first phase of the self-review process is to collect all the information you need to write a great review. Depending on how you kept track of things throughout the year, these first four steps can be quick or take an hour or more.
- Key Projects – Looking back across the year, what were the key project milestones? Noting your responsibilities in the project is important. What was your personal impact?
- KPIs – Projects likely had performance metrics. How did you perform against them. Did you have non-project goals and objectives? What were these? Did you meet them?
- Feedback “Out in the Wild” – Your leaders may not see your performance in the places where your work is done. Since you don’t know if they will collect that input, this time of year is a good one to ask those you work with regularly for feedback. Go into the conversation open to learning, request 2-3 strengths and 1-2 opportunities for growth. Say thank you for the feedback and don’t debate the “validity”. Their feedback is their perspective. If you don’t agree with it, a great goal for the new year is to change their perspective!
- Last Year’s Review – Pull your review from the prior year and note your strengths and opportunities for growth. Do you think those things showed up again this year? Have you deepened your strengths? Made progress on your opportunities?
Phase 2 – Creating
The next four tips are how to create a clear and concise review. You could have a document with ALL the information. However, the shorter and more direct the key points, the more impact.
- Summarize – You gathered a lot of information in the first four steps. In this step, create a summary for accomplishments, strengths, and opportunities for growth.
- Refine your Points – Next take the summary above and narrow it to a “3/2/1” structure. What if you could only include 3 accomplishments, 2 strengths, and 1 opportunity for growth? What would those points be?
- Write a DRAFT – Take the 3/2/1 points above and create a rough draft. Aim to make it no longer than one page. You can consider using headers to break the sections up and make things clearer. Bullet points and bold can be your friend in this process.
- Edit and be Succinct – The draft in Step 7 shouldn’t be your final self-review. Put your draft away for a couple days and then come back to edit. Is there content that can be cut to make your story shine through even stronger? Once you are happy, you can formally submit.
Phase 3 – Delivery
Writing the self-review is just part of the process. The key to a successful self-review is having a productive conversation with your manager about your personal development. Planning and openness are the most important components of the final steps in the process.
- Plan for the meeting – You have your review with your 3/2/1 framework. Have those in your mind as you enter the conversation. However, think beyond those to consider what you would like to get out of the meeting. Do you have questions about your next career move? Is there something new you want to learn in the year ahead? Are you struggling with something that you need support with? All of these can be good to discuss toward the end of the formal performance review. They shift conversation from the performance of the year past to the intentions of the year ahead.
- Be open – A performance review can sometimes contain feedback that you weren’t expecting. Go into the conversation with an open mind and a resolution to absorb information and not react in the moment. Feedback is always providing input on the PERCEPTION of your performance. People are expressing how your actions are received by them. That may not be in line with your intention. However, it’s their reality. Absorb the input and don’t react in the moment. You can come back after having time to think to have a deeper discussion if needed.
Your Turn
Do you have a performance review coming up soon?
Could this structure help you go into that process with more purpose?
How might your review shift if you focus more on what you will give to the process vs. what you expect to get from your manager?
Good luck and happy reviewing!