A great performance review

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

For many people it’s a dreaded time of the year, and for others it passes quietly with their manager not even bothering with the process. Which begs the question – is having a performance review essential for career success?

In all honestly, the answer is “no”. But if you’re serious about your career there are good reasons you should make them a part of your development:

If you take control and agree objectives it becomes easier to influence and measure the impact of your work – and proving that you create added value is very important in boosting your reputation and career;

Analysing your results and talking about the impact you’ve made will raise your reputation with your manager, and give your manager ammunition to justify a good performance grade in any moderation meetings;

You can also use the data you collect to drop into the conversation with others around the business;

You can ask for feedback that will help identify potential career hurdles.

So with many managers hesitant to even conduct performance reviews, how can you make the most of the opportunity?

Remember it’s YOUR performance review. The review is an opportunity to shape the way you are perceived and plan out the year ahead to make sure you are seen as successful. So if it isn’t in your manager’s diary, take responsibility for getting it there. Either ask them when they’re planning to conduct it, or ask them for a time slot and try to make sure it’s stuck to.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. Most really successful performance reviews happen where the employee has taken the time to make sure they’re ready for it. So before the review:
1. Look at your objectives and gather evidence that illustrates your performance level; ask yourself “Did I do a good job? How do I know that?” – facts (e.g. email from a Director or client thanking you), and figures that show you have delivered to a high standard.
2. Take time to consider your behaviour for the year against the company behaviours. And be honest. Your manager will have seen the best and worst of each behaviour anyway;
3. Get some 360 degree feedback – even if you just gather it informally;
4. Put together a list of all of the things you’re proud of achieving in the year. These might not have been in your objectives – they are the extra things you’ve done over and above what was asked of you.

Influence your manager before they rate you. Don’t wait for the meeting before sharing this information with your manager. By the time you meet, they will probably already have rated you – and will resist moving their rating up. Giving them advance information about your performance will help them assess your performance at the right level. Also think about any questions that you’d like to ask during the course of the review, or topics you want to discuss about what you’d like to do next year.

Think about next year’s performance. The best appraisals are those where you can influence what you want to be responsible for. Consider what’s expected of you next year. Are there opportunities to broaden your role, and how you would prioritise these? Are there ways in which you can work smarter, raise the bar and deliver more than you delivered this year? Do you want to discuss shifting tasks around the team so that you can use your strengths to make a bigger impact? Are there opportunities to do new or ground-breaking work that will also help the whole team perform better? Be open to your suggestions being added to – your manager will be aware of things they’ve been asked to do but you don’t know about yet.

Think about next year’s development. Spend time thinking creatively here. You want your performance reviews to result in a development plan that you can get excited about pursuing. Remember two things:
1. Don’t focus on weaknesses. Are there some things that you’re good at that you could do more of, and take to a higher level this year?
2. Think of interesting ways of developing your strengths – for example are there people you could learn from, is there anyone you could job shadow, or is there some research you could undertake?
3. If you need to discuss weaknesses – focus on systems that will help you control a weakness – or even whether swapping tasks with someone who has complimentary strengths and weaknesses would be a better solution.

Go into the review in a good frame of mind. Don’t assume that you’re going to get a hard time in your review – you’ll be defensive from the start when you need to be open and prepared to listen. A good opening line is to go in with a smile and tell your manager “I’m really looking forward to this – thank you for making the time.” This immediately sets you apart from the majority! However, note that it’s very likely that you will get some feedback that you disagree with during the course of the review. How you react to this will either encourage your manager or demote performance reviews even further down their list of priorities. The most important thing is to show that you’ve listened. Before saying anything else, make sure that you summarise what they’ve said and ‘caught the ball’. Then find a positive way forward – whether it is to ask permission to give them extra information that might show the situation in a different light, or seek feedback from others to learn more about a possible weakness.

TAKE AWAY
Make your performance review a positive experience. Take the opportunity to reflect on what you’ve achieved, and influence what you’ll be doing next year. These successes are part of your career brand; being able to articulate your achievements and having fact and figures to prove them will help you to build your reputation.