Why You Should Look Forward To Your Performance Review

Welcome to the new year! For most of my clients, this is a season of annual performance and business review meetings.

In an ideal world, a review would be a generative time to reflect on the challenges of the past year, both highs and lows. A time to take stock of our successes and take an honest audit of shortfalls and the key obstacles that kept us from achieving our goals.

How do we leverage all of that information into a powerful vision of where we want to grow and learn in the new year?

If you’re in an organization that is large enough to own the function (and honestly, every company should regardless of size and budget), you may be preparing for a conversation with your boss or team to evaluate the past year. Let’s lay the groundwork so this can be a powerful experience that yields insights for you, allowing you to move into the new year refreshed from the holidays and ready to take action.

If you are a leader, this is an opportunity to contemplate and connect with employees.

Express appreciation and respect for contributions — regardless of whether they were ultimately successful, so long as they showed the level of dedication and good faith effort you expected of them. Remember that performance reviews are one of the most dreaded HR processes at companies — people often feel under the microscope and on the defensive for being evaluated for where they fell short, rather than appreciated and supported.

A lot of things were out of our control this year, but as a leader, you “bring the weather.”

You have the power to create a warm and open environment that enables a candid and kind two-way conversation. And while experimentation, "meh" results, and outright good-faith failure are a necessary part of growth and success, leaders need to hold people accountable for their behavior, and it is possible to do — with kindness. As my former executive coach shared with me, a leader is kind, clear, fair, and firm.

No matter what your role in your organization, everyone has a boss. In preparing for your own performance conversation, here are some suggestions to make the most of your time:

• Come prepared. If you’ve been provided with an agenda or self-evaluation, draft your responses to the questions ahead of time, and then sleep on it. Review with fresh eyes and edit down to your key points to share, or questions to ask.
• Be concise. The time can go quickly! Keep the conversation tight and focused on what is really important to you and your work.
• Keep it conversational. Be aware of both how much you are talking and also how much you are listening and receiving information. Seek a balance.
• Ask for clarification. Sometimes you may need more information on an insight, and it’s perfectly normal to say, “Can you tell me more about that?” and ask for more context.
• Use “I” statements. “I” statements are accountable and leaderly. This may be obvious, but in general, “you” statements can come across as blame-ridden or accusatory. For example, instead of “You did not give me the support I needed,” try “I worked independently..."
• Enjoy the wins. If you receive praise on your work, accept it happily. Some people have a hard time accepting a compliment. This takes joy away from both you and the giver. Let yourself take pride in your accomplishments.
• Listen to understand. If you receive criticism, accept it graciously and learn from it. Many people have a hard time hearing improvement feedback, and they get defensive rather than listening to understand the information that’s being shared with them. It’s important to train yourself to frame feedback as a data point that is useful to you, that helps you avoid potential blind spots. Knowing what others think of your performance is critical to your success, and it’s the only way to improve. One helpful mantra is, “I need to know this information. It can only help me.”
• Close with a question. End your conversation by asking your boss, “What one thing could I do to be more effective in my role?” Save time for this — this was always the question that got me the most insightful information for crafting my next development goal.

Regardless of where you find yourself this year, position your conversations to gain the insights you need to keep learning and growing.

I’m optimistic about the opportunities that 2023 will bring for all of us.

To your health and continued growth,

Amii

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