Even if you love your current job, chances are you still get nervous every time your annual performance review rolls around. Sure, you know you are doing a great job, but is that the way your boss sees it? Oddly enough, the people who work the hardest in their everyday job are the ones who go into a performance review totally unprepared for what is to follow. It’s important that you employ the same level of diligence to your performance review as you do your daily tasks, as this will more than likely ensure that you don’t sit across from your boss looking like a slack-jawed fool. Here are 5 things you can do to ensure a better performance review:
Invest time before the review – In many cases, you will be asked to write a self-assessment before you get to the review proper. Yes, it can be tough to write about yourself objectively, but that doesn’t mean you should scribble out a short report that is akin to a to-do list written on a bar napkin. Take some real time to make sure that you hit all the points you want to cover on your self-assessment. We understand that you may not be Shakespeare and that writing may not come naturally, but there are plenty of online resources that can help you put together a well-crafted, intelligent self-assessment.
Be honest in your self-assessment – It’s natural to want to puff yourself up and give yourself the highest rating in every part of your self-assessment, but you are looking at a major fall back to earth by doing so. That smug look you wear as you strut into the boss’s office like a proud peacock is sure to disappear as soon as your 5’s start to turn to 3’s. We are not suggesting that you should put yourself down, but it does mean that you should know your strengths and weaknesses, which should reflect in your ratings.
Jog your boss’s memory – Unless you manager has abilities akin to the Mighty Kreskin, chances are he is not going to remember all of your achievements over the year. After all, the boss has more people to think about than just you, so you might need to nudge him or her in the right direction when it comes to what you have delivered over the course of the previous year.
Create notes – There is very likely to be some time between the submission of your self-assessment and the review proper. You may forget many of the items you touched upon during that time, so create some notes that pertain to the key points. Take time to learn those points, unless you want to continually refer to them as the world’s worst keynote speaker during the review.
Know what you want – You should have a very definite idea of where you want to be within the organization within the next few years. If you don’t know, you better get on it before the performance review comes around. You can bet that your boss is going to ask about such things, so you had better be ready with a clear answer unless of course, your goal is to look like you lack any vision or ambition.