How to breeze through your next performance review
If like most of us you are a cog in the wheel at a BB, this is the time of year for performance reviews / objective setting. For some this can be a bit of a stressful time, especially if you feel like you haven’t done much to show for the past year and you have little to no motivation for the year ahead. If you stick to a script you can be in and out of your performance review in 15 minutes and back at your cage cube before your know it. Read on for some tips
It’s an awkward conversation to have so you’re going to have some awkward banter to start, but then again all office banter is pretty awkward - so after you spend 5 minutes talking about how excited you are about the 50 game NHL season or how you always new Jodi Foster played for the other team you’ll get hit with ”So how do you think you did this year”. Don’t panic this is where you launch into your script which has 3 basic elements:
- Generic positive statement about how the year went
- Something that you acknowledge you could’ve done better
- Generic statement about how you’re excited for the year ahead
The key is to highlight your strengths first and then identify an area of improvement before your manager has the chance to. No one’s perfect so don’t act like you were. Coming out with guns blazing and showing that you know where you messed up means you’re not delusional and you know where you need to improve.
If your performance management system includes more than just the conversation, i.e. self eval that you review with your manager, there are some ways to game the system there too. In a lot of cases, you can fill out the self eval with just about anything that sounds coherent and generously rate yourself. Most managers are too busy to read through and change anything so they will just give the sign off and you’re done.
If you’re not so lucky and your manager actually cares about these numbers then you can play an odds game. Usually you’ll be evaluated on a few dimensions (What, How, etc) giving yourself a score for each. As a rule, always give yourself higher marks than you deserve in at least one category (of course you’ll need to be able to back it up). You will usually get away with this. Think of it this way, if you give yourself an average ranking you then put it on your manager to justify ranking you higher. If you give yourself higher marks and you sound reasonably credible, your manager would have a harder time justifying giving you a lower rating. Don’t go marking yourself as a perfect employee either, this is not something to be abused, use this carefully.
Whatever the case may be, treat your review like an interview: prepare your talking points before hand. Be prepared to pull out examples of why you did well and at least one thing you can improve on and how you plan to do so. Remeber, don't stress, these things are just a formality any way...
Comments
Great post. Hate these
Great post. Hate these things...
My 1 year is coming up..
My 1 year is coming up.. Colleagues have said I'll get the 3-5% raise. I'm already HEAVILY underpaid.
Would asking for 15-20% be risky? My boss knows I'm underpaid and has even joked about it
SRRubio123: My 1 year is
My 1 year is coming up.. Colleagues have said I'll get the 3-5% raise. I'm already HEAVILY underpaid.
Would asking for 15-20% be risky? My boss knows I'm underpaid and has even joked about it
It is your bosses job to set comp expectations. It is also yours. Everyone thinks they are underpaid, so bring a cogent argument as to why you believe you are underpaid. Be prepared to get your resume ready and pound the pavement for something new if they don't deliver. If you set realistic expectations and they give you a shit bonus anyway, they know they can get away with it next year. Your only viable alternative is to leave at that point.
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haha. that picture is
haha. that picture is awesome.
•Generic positive statement
•Generic positive statement about how the year went
•Something that you acknowledge you could’ve done better
•Generic statement about how you’re excited for the year ahead
Gotta love the "Compliment Sandwich"! Good post, OP!
"My caddie's chauffeur informs me that a bank is a place where people put money that isn't properly invested."
SirTradesaLot: SRRubio123:
My 1 year is coming up.. Colleagues have said I'll get the 3-5% raise. I'm already HEAVILY underpaid.
Would asking for 15-20% be risky? My boss knows I'm underpaid and has even joked about it
It is your bosses job to set comp expectations. It is also yours. Everyone thinks they are underpaid, so bring a cogent argument as to why you believe you are underpaid. Be prepared to get your resume ready and pound the pavement for something new if they don't deliver. If you set realistic expectations and they give you a shit bonus anyway, they know they can get away with it next year. Your only viable alternative is to leave at that point.
x 2
Depending on how long you plan on staying.. Use it as an opportunity to set measurable goals and quantify as much as possible, so the following year you can go in and say I did A, B, C, and D like I was supposed to and on top of that I did E.... It's hard for them to deny hard facts or brush it off.