Whether you’re looking to get back on track after a short break, or simply looking to reassess and realign yourself with your professional goals, start now with these four quick tips to help you ace your next performance review.
It’s never too late to start!
“Getting ready, getting ready, getting ready!” That’s how Psychology Today sums up the effect on the human psyche of the month of September. For much of the world it’s the month schools reopen after long holidays; from an early
age it’s drummed into you that this is the time for new beginnings, for learning to commence, for past goals to be evaluated and new ones to be set.
Add into that the fact that across the continents, shifts in weather patterns might be interfering with sleep, appetite and general mood, and the turn of the seasons creates a potent cocktail of emotions. In many organisations, your
annual appraisal – up until now a shadow in the distance – may be brought sharply into focus. It wasn’t so long ago you were reading articles designed to help you set and
stick to your 2015 goals; now you’re mentally calculating how many you’ve hit.
Wind back any escalating panic and approach your performance review preparation with a cool head. Read back over your goals well ahead of your first meeting with your boss, and keep a notebook to hand for jotting down any ideas that
spark to life around ways you’ve demonstrated desirable behaviours for successful outcomes. Next, try the four exercises below, each taken from an everywoman Network workbook on the subject of an essential career skill and designed to
get you in the right frame of mind to approach your review with confidence and positivity.
Write down the names of five people with whom it’s critical you build and maintain excellent relationships. Consider which category each falls into:
Now consider where each relationship needs to get to. If it’s already in the right category, build into your action plan the ways in which you can maintain or strengthen the connection further – inviting them for a coffee to find out
more about their workload or offering to champion them in a way that enables a quicker realisation of their ambitions. If your relationships lack clarity or aren’t quite where you need them to be, formulate a plan for building on them
and communicate this to your boss to show that you have the self-awareness to manage and improve your own network. Don’t forget to
dial up your empathy and consider the relationship not just from your own perspective but from the point of view of the other.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook Promoting yourself.
Before you can really sell yourself, you have to figure out where your talents lie. This should be an easy task, but you may be flippant about your own unique abilities; they tend to lie in the tasks that come easily to you, therefore
you forget to think of them as ‘work’. Start your thinking by identifying three tasks that you perform fluidly and easily almost without thinking. Now consider what behaviours or actions lie behind your ability to perform the task
so well where others might struggle.
Repeat the exercise, this time thinking about which tasks have the biggest energising effect on you –the ones you look forward to carrying out, which pick you up and inspire you onwards.
Continually refine these as they incubate in your mind. Then begin to formulate concise ways to communicate these in your appraisal by means of bold headlines backed up with solid evidence.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook Knowing your strengths (
download PDF).
No matter how much emotional intelligence you might bring to your performance review, or how well you examine your own weaknesses, hearing them from the mouth of your line manager is never easy.
When you’re looking at where you acknowledge development is needed, try to look at things from your boss’s perspective – what might they say about your performance in that particular area? And think about what might come along that you
haven’t considered yourself – has your boss given you any clues through their behaviours, insights into what’s occupying them lately or causing them stress?
Now turn to your trusted network of mentors, sponsors and advisors. Get their input into what less than positive feedback you might expect. Hearing them might not be any less painful but in this non-critical environment you are less
likely to be on the defensive, and you can use this new knowledge to build resilience against unravelling when the same information comes at you in your review.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook
Boost your self-confidence.
If you know that certain goals will not be achieved in their entirety by the time your appraisal rolls around, formulating a concrete plan for how you’ll do so within a set period is preferable to making a half-baked stab at getting it
done by your review.
Take an honest assessment of why the goal hasn’t been met. If the goal simply isn’t relevant any more due to external factors, highlight this with your boss before your formal meeting. But consider whether there are internal factors at
play too – like your own limiting beliefs.
Let’s say for example that one of your personal objectives was to take over the running of an internal women’s network. There may well be organisational shifts like increased workload among members or a lack of available meeting space
which have impacted your ability to get things off the ground. But consider whether you might have negative thinking around your own competence around successful group leadership.
Armed with this knowledge it’s time to tackle these limiting beliefs. Firstly, count the cost: in what other ways is that same belief holding you back? Secondly, imagine what might be possible beyond achievement of this particular goal,
if you successfully smashed this belief. Thirdly, commit to putting the belief on hold for a period of one week, longer if you can manage it. What steps can you take during that time to move closer towards successful completion of your
goal? Finally, at the end of that period, examine whether you can eliminate that belief for eternity, writing a bold empowering belief statement about your ability to conquer your inner gremlins and achieve whatever you set your mind
to.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook: Smashing limiting beliefs.
1. How good are your workplace relationships?
Write down the names of five people with whom it’s critical you build and maintain excellent relationships. Consider which category each falls into:
|
Exploratory |
You don’t really have a relationship yet, your paths probably don’t cross but you work in the same business. Minor problems can easily undermine the relationship. |
|
Basic |
Transactions are taking place. Could be an email only based relationship. |
|
Co-operative |
You work fairly closely, there is some information sharing, but it is limited. |
|
Interdependent |
Transparency and high information sharing, this may be a boss, someone you manage or a key client with an established relationship. There will be high trust. You may make decisions together and embark on strategic planning. |
|
Integrated |
Your work depends on each other and highly transparent in all aspects including financials, personal feedback etc. This may be your business partner. |
2. Understand your own unique value
Before you can really sell yourself, you have to figure out where your talents lie. This should be an easy task, but you may be flippant about your own unique abilities; they tend to lie in the tasks that come easily to you, therefore
you forget to think of them as ‘work’. Start your thinking by identifying three tasks that you perform fluidly and easily almost without thinking. Now consider what behaviours or actions lie behind your ability to perform the task
so well where others might struggle.
Repeat the exercise, this time thinking about which tasks have the biggest energising effect on you –the ones you look forward to carrying out, which pick you up and inspire you onwards.
Continually refine these as they incubate in your mind. Then begin to formulate concise ways to communicate these in your appraisal by means of bold headlines backed up with solid evidence.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook Knowing your strengths (
download PDF).
3. Build resilience to constructive feedback
No matter how much emotional intelligence you might bring to your performance review, or how well you examine your own weaknesses, hearing them from the mouth of your line manager is never easy.
When you’re looking at where you acknowledge development is needed, try to look at things from your boss’s perspective – what might they say about your performance in that particular area? And think about what might come along that you
haven’t considered yourself – has your boss given you any clues through their behaviours, insights into what’s occupying them lately or causing them stress?
Now turn to your trusted network of mentors, sponsors and advisors. Get their input into what less than positive feedback you might expect. Hearing them might not be any less painful but in this non-critical environment you are less
likely to be on the defensive, and you can use this new knowledge to build resilience against unravelling when the same information comes at you in your review.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook
Boost your self-confidence.
4. Flush out your own negativity
If you know that certain goals will not be achieved in their entirety by the time your appraisal rolls around, formulating a concrete plan for how you’ll do so within a set period is preferable to making a half-baked stab at getting it
done by your review.
Take an honest assessment of why the goal hasn’t been met. If the goal simply isn’t relevant any more due to external factors, highlight this with your boss before your formal meeting. But consider whether there are internal factors at
play too – like your own limiting beliefs.
Let’s say for example that one of your personal objectives was to take over the running of an internal women’s network. There may well be organisational shifts like increased workload among members or a lack of available meeting space
which have impacted your ability to get things off the ground. But consider whether you might have negative thinking around your own competence around successful group leadership.
Armed with this knowledge it’s time to tackle these limiting beliefs. Firstly, count the cost: in what other ways is that same belief holding you back? Secondly, imagine what might be possible beyond achievement of this particular goal,
if you successfully smashed this belief. Thirdly, commit to putting the belief on hold for a period of one week, longer if you can manage it. What steps can you take during that time to move closer towards successful completion of your
goal? Finally, at the end of that period, examine whether you can eliminate that belief for eternity, writing a bold empowering belief statement about your ability to conquer your inner gremlins and achieve whatever you set your mind
to.
This exercise was taken from the everywoman Network workbook: Smashing limiting beliefs. 
