A performance review survival guide for all seasons
Self-reflecting on self-reflections
My intention this week was to share a mini “survival guide” for the start of performance review season. In most of my past roles, January kicked off both self-evaluations and multiple training sessions for employees and managers on “the process.” I realize, however, that not every company is on the same review cycle and, frankly, most of my thoughts on getting the most out of the review process have very little to do with timing anyway.
The thing is, “the process” is rarely one that allows for really meaningful performance feedback. And often the mandatory HR training sessions focus on clarifying that “meeting expectations means doing a GREAT job because our expectations are so high” — only for you to learn two months later that “meeting expectations” doesn’t qualify for a raise.
“Words of affirmation” is my love language so you’d think that I’d love the performance review process (and, frankly, you’d probably also think I’d avoid posting on the internet where an open comment section doesn’t lend itself to them). However, when I think back to various performance reviews, very few have really made me a better or more informed employee/manager.
Even among my favorite bosses, the most helpful guidance/feedback I received was outside of performance reviews. And having been a manager, I get that too: first, feedback should be a real-time process if you’re interested in seeing changes, and second, I don’t deliver my most insightful and personal work when cranking out nine reviews in three business days (on top of my actual work and meeting load).
In contrast, among my least favorite bosses, the most memorable feedback did come during performance reviews – including my personal favorite “82% of our customers are women and women are more emotional than men so you need to do a better job of getting them in line since you’re a woman too.” Outside of the brazen misogyny, it’s worth noting that we had no available data on what percentage of our customers were men or women so that one killed four birds with one stone when it was simultaneously offensive to our customers, offensive to me, offensive to my entire gender, and also, inaccurate.
I’ve actually found 360 feedback/peer or customer reviews to be highly valuable but often underutilized – especially at smaller companies with less established processes. I still think fondly of a co-worker in my very first job who told her VP that she wanted her direct manager’s feedback kept separately from everything else in her review because she had so little respect for her direct manager’s opinion. That boundary setting queen is now a psychologist.
Unfortunately, opting out of the system/process is not an option (or at least not an option if you’re interested in maintaining employment) so I guess this “survival guide” is more about how to get something out of the performance review process even if that something isn’t additional money, responsibility or respect.
First, you should be tracking your wins.
And if you didn’t last year, you should start now. My grandfather liked to say “you gotta look out for #1 kid, and you know who #1 is?” Correct answer: it’s you. (Side note: this site is turning into a lot of regurgitated advice from my parents/grandparents, but the positive of that is it means my Dad really loves everything I’m writing these days).
The point is that your boss is not actively maintaining a list of every accomplishment you have, and if they were, it would likely be missing the things you keep off their desk. The easiest promotion I ever secured for someone was when they proactively made the case with a PowerPoint showing all the business they’d brought in. Not only did that make it easy for me to advocate to my boss, it made me WANT to fight for them. My justice complex kicks into high gear and I’m like “wait, you’re still operating at X level when you’ve done this much?!?! You deserve more!”
Some of us are in roles where wins don’t feel like wins – once when my mother asked me to explain my job in Customer Success to her I told her “I just apologize to people all day” – so it’s important to be expansive in your definition of a win. I recommend tracking:
Quantifiable wins – actual data you have on successes whether tied to revenue earned, customers retained, feedback scores, engagement scores, other key metrics
Qualitative feedback – save quotes/emails from people just saying you’re great with their name/role/why
Risks Addressed/Critical Output – sometimes you work really hard and you don’t get the win but the result is a new process that can benefit others. Often, I staffed my most talented people on the hardest accounts and there were still great takeaways even if the customer churned because they had to address so many random points of friction in an attempt to save the customer that it helped the organization overall
Start a spreadsheet today. Create spaces to track the above. Put a recurring note on your calendar every 1-2 weeks to track everything. When next year’s self-evaluation comes around, it will write itself. Outside of performance reviews, you’re ready at any moment with data points and testimonials on your own impact which will help you get a new job, an internal promotion, or advance other career goals
Second, you have to play the game to some level.
Being asked to retrofit your accomplishments into some kind of ridiculous company value framework is often an exercise in absurdity. I may bring “Customer Obsession” to my job every day but that’s easy in a customer-facing role and a lot harder for others. Even more challenging are some of the vague corporate values like “Curiosity,” “Heart,” and “Innovation.” The great news though, is that your boss is also likely struggling with the same framework so I think it’s easier to write a cursory intro sentence and just find select accomplishments you wanted to highlight regardless.
Examples:
What you did: “I managed the website redesign project”
Corporate mythology edit: “Demonstrated curiosity by challenging initial assumptions about user needs, leading cross-functional discovery that reshaped our approach to the Q3 website redesign and increased conversion by 15%”
What you did: “I retained many customers previously thought to be at risk by addressing support response times.”
Corporate mythology edit: “Showed heart as an individual and a teammate by committing to reducing support response time and quality leading to 45% of at risk customers renewing”
The other part of playing the game is being comfortable bragging even if you’re not. Channel the guy who is constantly posting on LinkedIn about hustle culture and ask yourself how he’d frame/position your work.
I’m not saying lie or misrepresent, but I do think that sometimes in the day to day, especially if you’re already discouraged about your job/the state of the world/whatever, it’s easy to not want to see small glimmers of success. You may not have finished the puzzle but if you helped get more pieces together, that’s worthy of recognition.
Third, beware of the traps.
At some point, you’re asked to include your areas of opportunity, areas for growth, or — dare I say it — weaknesses. I’ve heard of toxic workplaces where these can be used against you and at the same time, not acknowledging you have room for growth is a red flag too (unless, of course, you’re overdue for a promotion and just noting that your biggest area of opportunity is to take on a new role!”).
My advice is to talk to your manager while you’re drafting and get a pulse check on how they see that question – is it for future development areas or a place to reflect on what hasn’t worked well?
Example: “So for areas of opportunity, I was going to highlight my desire to improve at public speaking, but wasn’t sure if there were other things you’d like me to include or reflect on in the process.”
Unless you had some egregious issue that was worked past, I wouldn’t call out legitimate mistakes unnecessarily and in all cases would frame as “I’m working on X” vs. “I failed at Y.”
Fourth, make this about you.
I think if you’re able to take a moment to really reflect on yourself, your work, your areas of growth, and your vision for the future, you will likely get more out of that exercise than the rest of the review process. This isn’t to say that if you put more into your self-reflection you will get a better review. However, if you really use this time to self-reflect on what you’ve achieved (and celebrate it) and think about what you want next (and plan for it), you’ll at least exit the process with something that’s a net positive to you.
This is also where AI becomes a trap. Sure, it’s tempting to feed your year into ChatGPT and let it spit out a polished self-evaluation. And I’m sure many, if not most, people are doing exactly that. But using AI entirely (versus just punching up some examples into corporate speak) removes your greatest opportunity: the luxury of actually thinking about yourself and your work.
Some questions worth asking, regardless of the corporate framework, are:
When did you feel most proud this year?
What projects/programs/people gave you the most energy?
What projects/programs/people took energy from you?
If nothing at all changed about your job next year, how would you feel?
Where are you stuck and why?
What would make you proud to write about in next year’s review?
Draft this review as a separate document that you cross-link to your win sheet (and if you update it each year and can see the changes, even better!) It can then serve as a master document for you to pull from and put whatever is relevant to the company’s framework into their system.
You are the creator of your own career narrative whether at your current organization or elsewhere so using this time as an excuse to think, reflect, dream, and take meaningful action forward is the only way to make this process truly work for you.
Like my grandfather said, “you’ve got to look out for #1, kid, and do you know who #1 is?”
It’s you.
