Performance Review Preparation

Continuing on our performance review topics, this week, we will talk about how to approach your annual review.

It is all too easy to walk into the reviews unprepared. We forget that the meeting is slated in the daily routine and the tasks we have piled up on our desks. Hurriedly we walk into the room and wait for the evaluation of the manager to be presented to us, no matter what the results might be. Often, this thinking leads to animosity against the supervisor and anxiety about how others see us. In bad cases, we might even feel like we’re just headed into a meeting to be yelled at.

This is why it is important to mentally, emotionally, and rationally prepare for the review.

To start, remember what the meeting will be about. As we mentioned in previous weeks, the annual review isn’t created to undermine you, tell you your flaws, or cut you down in any form.

The review is a strategic meeting about your strengths, weaknesses, current standing, and future goals. It’s a planning session for what is to come while drawing on what you have done in the last year.

When heading into the annual review, keep that goal in mind. Your future and your position in the company are the targets.?It might be tempting to feel echoes of your childhood when your evaluation came from a teacher, and you had no say in how you were graded. The annual review isn’t to hand you a report card; it’s to discuss your growth. Unlike school, you can say if you have a weak subject or one you really like. Bring up where you need help and where you think you have room for growth.

When you did your self-evaluation, which we talked about two weeks ago, you talked about your weaknesses and strengths. It can help to take these points down for yourself to bring with you into your annual review. Show off that quality of life improvement you created for the team. Bring the numbers of how many bugs you crushed and call out the one bug that had everyone stumped for two months. Show off the growth of the team member you mentored. Not only will it show your supervisor that you focus your energies on the growth of the team and company, but you will also feel like you are more in control of the discussion.

Don’t forget your misses! If you failed a task for any reason, bring it to the meeting. The point isn’t to be scolded for what you have missed but to examine if you have overcome the problem that caused the failure. Show that even with a failure, you created a later positive outcome. This can be as impactful as having failed on a project but using the failure to improve it. Or as small as having missed small tasks and creating a workflow that will prevent losing sight of tiny moving pieces in the future.

Also, don’t hesitate to talk to your peers about your performance. Ask throughout the year if you can help in some way, if the team feels like you are pulling your weight, or if they would like you to step up in some form. Sometimes managers and team leads are busy with someone else or a big task and might lose track of their day-to-day work. Your team, however, will notice and be able to help you improve.

If you had regular one-on-one meetings to monitor your performance, you’d also have data on how you have been growing. You can review the previous years’ annual review to check if you have met the goals set a year ago. However, if this is your first annual review at this company, make sure you plan out your targets and growth in detail from the start.

With these pieces already at hand, objectively review your performance before the meeting. Set time aside to evaluate yourself and see what your manager might point out to you. We tend to feel our emotions very strongly if we don’t expect a surprise, so taking the impact away by looking at what is in front of us can help build an emotional buffer.

What can be the most challenging part of this meeting is not walking in with your walls built up and your defense in full swing. Remember that you’re not under attack and are not here to fight for your right to be employed with this company. While you might hear things in the meeting that can be unpleasant, like reminders of problems you have, or critique about a negatively impacting habit, keep in mind that this meeting is very much for your benefit. Avoid entering the conversation in a way that will take away from the goal of looking ahead and creating plans for the future.

We have now entered the meeting in the right mindset, well-prepared, and ready to work with our manager on what is to come.

Now what?

Make sure you lay out a clear path ahead. Ask how you can grow to help the team. Is there a skill you should learn? Could you pick up an area of the team that lies barren? How can previous misses be avoided and turned around? Write down with our manager everything that can be used to further your career, your personal growth, and your team’s success. If you do not have regular meetings with your manager, use your time in the annual review to ask for frequent meetings to check on your progress in these areas. Remember: Your manager isn’t just there to push you to work more; they are also here to meet their own goals, such as growing their team, improving their numbers, and leading the group to success. They, too, are interested in your advancement, as it reflects on their own performance as a manager.

Remember that your annual review is made to help you and your manager grow as a team as well. They can tell you where they need to count on you, just as you can tell them where you need their support.

If you manage to shift your mindset towards future goals during the meeting, you’ll find that annual reviews are not something to be anxious about but a thing to look forward to.