MASTERING YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Let’s talk about that time of year when we all must approach our performance evaluation.

For many companies, these start between now and the new year. Many are in the new year, and if that's you, now is the time to start putting in place the pieces to make sure this one is the one that takes you to the next level.?

Here's the problem — most performance evaluations are biased.?

Although every organization relies on a different evaluation process, most follow a predictable pattern: First, they invite employees to write about their accomplishments and what they need to improve. Then managers write assessments of their work, offer feedback, and rate their performance on a scale of how well they met expectations.

What's the problem with that? It suggests that codifying a person’s responses offers objectivity, reward fairly and give useful feedback.??

The problem is that 'open box' piece has an awful lot of power. I've worked with so many clients who at some point in their careers they've been pushed into agreeing to an open box statement from a manager that describes whether expectations have been met or not, which they aren't fully aligned with.?

Does that sound familiar??

Well, three sociologists at the VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University agree. They've found the open box questions for both managers and the person under evaluation brings in systemic bias that over time gives a gendered variance in feedback that can lead to different expertise being developed by the men and women on a team, and ultimately lead to different career trajectories.

I've certainly experienced this. And we've also discussed on the podcast before the subtle gender segregation that we experience in our careers where we get gently but consistently nudged into certain career paths.?

So, if you are looking towards performance evaluation season with a touch of trepidation you need to keep reading.?

For many of us, even if you are a high achiever, the performance evaluation process looms a little bit like the report cards in school. Are we going to get what we deserve? What doors will be opened? And what will be slammed shut?

After all, this single evaluation may have profound effects on your career.

Raises, bonuses, promotions... all often depend either primarily or entirely on employee evaluations or performance appraisals. It's also no secret the managers also dislike performance reviews. Indeed you may be a manager who hates to do them.?

I've certainly worked places where it is casually accepted all around that this is a procedure that everyone just must get through. And typically, it goes hand in hand with an organization that doesn't know how to otherwise provide continuous regular feedback.?

Gosh, that all sounds highly depressing. But that's not really my goal for this article.?

I want you to learn how to go from feeling helpless because the person who writes your evaluation is wielding all the power and turn this into a situation where you get to use it to up-level.?

While you don't have a lot of control over this situation, you do have some. Having a strategy for dealing with the review will alleviate some of your stress and could even improve the outcome.

But let's start with the ramp-up. For many organisations there are still a few months before the next round. So now is the time to look through your last review and identify what was highlighted last year.?What were the agreed actions? Where was there a need to professionally develop? What actions were agreed upon?

Refresh yourself — believe me, your boss will be doing this too. Although most likely only just before your next review. You hopefully have several weeks or months. So, it's time to get ahead.?

If your boss agreed that you needed support in a particular area, make sure you've received it. If not, it's time to seek out that support. And quickly.?

Bring this up in your next 1:1, or ask for you. Ideally, go in with an action plan and highlight not only that this was in your last performance evaluation, but also how developing in this area is going to help you deliver on business goals. By doing this you are clearly demonstrating your business awareness. After all, if you are looking for support in professional development, then you need to demonstrate HOW this helps the business.?

Don't expect your boss to connect the dots - do it for them. YES, state the obvious. Firstly, because they have a hundred things other than you to be concerned about (so, of course, they also forget the outcome and agreed to actions from your last review!), and secondly because joining the dots demonstrates your business acumen and builds your credibility.?

Even if you don't get the support you are after, you are demonstrating that business acumen, awareness of what the business, your boss, and the team needs, and also showing that you care about your professional development.?

The next step is to start sharing your progress. Don't expect your boss to notice, make sure they do.?

In fact, bring up where you think you've made progress and why. Share what you've been doing, learning, and thinking differently to achieve the goals set out in the last review. THEN ask for feedback. THIS final piece is so incredibly important. If you ask for feedback, you are more likely to then get your boss thinking about your progress.?

Now ideally, you'd be doing this throughout the year, asking for information and feedback on your progress... this gets your boss to buy-in to your development and notice change. After all, how many times have you quietly gone and worked on a particular skill for your boss to not notice? Getting your boss to mentor you and give feedback in a specific area is a quick way to get them to notice your progress even if you aren't actually learning anything from them.?

So, start that now. Share with your boss what you've been doing, any courses you've taken, any practice you've been doing out of hours. Been told to work on your public speaking - discuss how you've been volunteering for interviews more. Told to work on your strategy development, mention a course you have taken (whether you paid for it yourself, or your boss paid for it - don't assume they remember!). Even better - been getting coaching Ask your coach to write a report on the progress you've made a share that with your boss, or better yet, get your coach and boss to have a conversation about your development, ideally more than once so they can discuss progress.?

OK, so now you get the idea on how to make the most of the time between now and your next evaluation. Now what??

Well, let's talk about preparing for the next one.

First become familiar with the process

Fear of the unknown is often the worst part of the process. If this is the first time, you'll be having a review in your current company, ask coworkers what to expect?

Now if it's your first one, there is no better time than now to ask for feedback.?

Ideally, feedback would be communicated regularly throughout the year, but that rarely happens. So, ask your boss for some feedback. Write up what they told you and put in place your own plan for between now and your evaluation date. If you feel able to, SHARE this plan with your boss as well as regular updates on what you are doing to address the areas mentioned.?

NEXT, prepare a self-review.?

List all your achievements and accomplishments over the last year. I recommend tracking this all year round - keep a success log that you add to every week as it is very easy to forget all the things you achieve.?

Note how your employer benefitted, for example, higher profits, reduced errors, reduced team turnover. Metrics are a great thing to be gathering.?

Highlight everything you want to discuss during the review and gather any documentation that will back up your claims.?

Make sure you bring this to your evaluation meeting and be ready to back up what you've achieved.?

Next, prepare for different outcomes. Now we hope the review goes well... and you've increased the chances of this by prepping a self-review and also ensuring you've been working on the agreed-upon actions from last year. BUT sometimes things go awry. There are a lot of reasons for this, the most upsetting, of course being bias.?

So, it makes sense to prepare, so you aren't blindsided. Let's deal with the positive outcome first. YES, prepare for that. Make sure you take the initiative after a positive review and make an ask. You'll hopefully still have areas for growth and development, so be ready to ask. Maybe you know that next year is the year you want a coach? Capitalise on a positive review by making the ask for financial support with coaching. Talk about your growth and areas where you know the company needs you to step up and ask for coaching to support that.?

Ultimately prepare for what you know you need and how you will make that ask off the back of a great review.?

You can use the same mechanism in a mediocre review. You'll be positioning yourself slightly differently, and you need to prepare your mindset so you aren't second-guessing yourself, but ultimately you want to demonstrate that you want to grow and that you would like support in doing so.?

But what about a bad review. Now you might think that by preparing for it you are encouraging a bad outcome. But a plan will help you respond appropriately and calmly if things don't go to plan. Develop a plan in advance of needing one to avoid making some serious mistakes.

The most important thing to do is resist the temptation to react immediately.?

Allow yourself to cool down and ask your boss a few days later for a 1:1. I like to have a list of 'here's what I'll do in this situation' for when I know I'm going to be emotionally triggered, and something like 'after 2 days I will send this email', can really help.?

Having a couple of days to cool off you will hopefully be more objective. You should get clarity on how fair or unfair the feedback really is and allow you to step away from defensive mode.?

Keep your appointment even if you decide the review was accurate. Use the meeting to go over ways to improve.?

It is also worth discussing an unfair review with your boss. Give clear examples that counter the criticisms. You may have felt too overwhelmed to discuss your accomplishments during the original evaluation, but this would be a perfect time to do it.

AND then what happens next.?

Well next year, it's time to use your evaluation as a tool all year round. Make sure you bring up the action plan, your progress and what you need next at least quarterly, ideally monthly. It can literally take 5 minutes, but your boss won't because they have too much to do. Own your progress. Ask for feedback on your progress. That simple step alone can be the one thing that accelerates you above all else.?

And on this note... doors will be opening this coming weekend to the Lit Up Leaderships Academy. This is my monthly leadership development membership program, where I train and coach women in leadership for the technology industry.?

You get on-demand training, monthly coaching and so much more. And because it is designed as a monthly membership, you get complete flexibility.?

Here's the great bit - this is a great program to ask for support from your employer. Yes really!

Of the women who have worked with me who have asked for financial support, 80% of them receive full or partial funding to work with me. And I want that for you too. And this program is super accessible! I've deliberately built it to be exactly what women need as early and mid-career managers, when I know that professional budgets are often limited, but equally this development is so incredibly important. This is why I've kept the price super low at just $297 per month.?

So, if this sounds like what you need, I want you to do two things. Firstly, go to tonicollis.com/framework, watch the videos so you can get an idea of the way I teach and educate. And if you like what you hear, click the button at the top of the page to get a FREE sneak peek at the Academy. I'm giving you completely free access to several of the trainings inside the Academy so you can get a taste of what's involved Though of course, there is a lot more including coaching, live Q&As, and monthly live trainings.?

If you sign up for the sneak peek you'll be the first to know when doors open to the Academy, and you'll also get a special email from me giving you details on how to ask your boss for support to participate in the program.?

Sound good? Head to tonicollis.com/framework to get access to the sneak peek.?

But let’s finish up with a Leadership Mindset moment on your performance evaluation. In case you are new around here a leadership mindset moment is an actionable tip to help adjust how you act or think to make it easier to up-level so you can take more positive action on the topic of today's podcast.

https://tonicollis.com/episode68