Performance Review – 10 Ways to Stand Out & Be Prepared
This post is about how to stand out on your performance review.
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A performance review is a very intimidating event in the corporate environment, however, it is also the ultimate opportunity to give honest feedback and truly evaluate yourself, the leadership, and the company.
To prepare and have a productive 1:1 performance review, it is best to prepare in advance and not day of. Do not prepare 24 hours in advance or even a week in advance. Evaluations are often given at the end of the year, halfway through the year, or on the anniversary start date. It depends on the company (take the time to ask when starting a new job to make on the calendar).
Normally a company or leader as a set process in evaluations, however, if you prepare for the discussions or questions, you will have a much more productive conversation.
Confirm if your evaluation is pre-written or if there is a certain structure you should follow. Use those as a guide and a starting point so there is synchronization between you and your leader.
Even if there are questions/goals that cannot be answered that day in the evaluation, it truly shows how motivated you are to grow in your role and expand your knowledge at the company.
Take lots of time to reflect and use these 10 topics to guide yourself into success.
Included in Blog Post for your Performance Review – FREE PROFESSIONAL PROJECT TRACKER TEMPLATE!
How to Structure your Performance Review:
1:1 meetings are casual and conversational. If you have a good leader, this is for sure the case.
- Recap of the Year – How did this year go? What did you accomplish or struggle with at work? Talk about the good, the bad, the ugly.
- Goals for the Year – What do you want to accomplish? Personal or professional. What new projects do you want to be included on?
- Down to Business – $$, let’s talk about promotions, raise, new roles.
Products to Use to Prepare for your Performance Review:
Notebook
Keep track of accomplishments throughout the year and write down all the questions/comments for the meeting with your leader.
Pens
BEST pens. Walk into any meeting with pen a notebook or planner. There are lots of notes to take during the performance review, so be prepared!
Undated Weekly Planner
Have a weekly planner ready to start adding goals and follow ups! (Also, use the planner for remembering the performance review date.)
10 Ways to Stand Out and Be Prepare for your Performance Review
Recap the Year:
1. Discuss Accomplishments
Don’t be shy. Anything led, worked on, or completed in the past year should be written down.
TIP – Track these throughout the year on a spreadsheet so you are not trying to go back in time and remember everything you have done.
Professional Project Tracker Template for Performance Review:
No project, assignment, or sale is too small. Obviously there was hard work put into the job, but it is not all tracked daily or shared with the leaders of the company.
During the conversation, feel free to bring up a couple of larger projects to show the talent that is being brought to table.
2. List what you Enjoy about your Job
No one is a mind reader, especially not in the work place. A leader or coworker does not know (unless you verbalize) that a project you are working on is something you love or something you absolutely despise.
This is the opportunity to speak about projects or tasks that were enjoyed over the past year. Obviously fun is not the word, but we all know the tasks that we hate and the ones we don’t mind doing at work.
This is the exact time to vocalize what you don’t mind working on at work. If your leader knows you enjoy and are good at this type of task, the task is most likely to land on your desk more frequently.
Let’s be real…..we would rather be doing tasks or projects that we kinda enjoy for work instead of things that we can’t stand.
3. Share Tasks you would rather NOT Do
After you highlight all the projects/tasks that you enjoyed, there is now the opportunity to bring up work that you might not appreciate doing at work.
Even if you don’t enjoy your job at all, there has to be a few things that really are the worst.
TIP – Instead of using this in a negative light, use it in a positive light. Use words like “challenging”, “value”, or “effectiveness” when talking about tasks you might not enjoy.
There is someone on the team who would enjoy this a lot more or get it done quicker than you.
Leaders appreciate honesty. Even if the task can’t come off your plate right away, it will be in the back of your leader’s mind to eventually find a new home for it.
4. Ask for Leadership Feedback
Typically the leader will bring this up or have it prepared for you in the meeting.
However, if is not brought up, it is SO important to ask for feedback. You want the good, the bad, and the ugly on your performance over the year.
Feedback on performance, projects that were accomplished, and obviously how you can improve in the role are important topics to discuss in a work evaluation.
If you and your leader are not on the same page, there is no way that anyone will be successful. Understanding their viewpoint of you can make or break your career (not literally), but, it so significantly improve your chances of improving to continue growing.
5. Discuss Improvement Opportunities
After discussing leadership feedback, there will a quick opportunity for you to be a rockstar employee and really stand out from your coworkers.
Constructive feedback is suppose to help fuel growth, improvement, and internal motivation.
During the prep time for the evaluation, it is SO important to truly self reflect and understand yourself. It is easy to pick and chose the projects/tasks that you like and dislike, but it is more difficult to pick and chose the feelings of yourself.
Think about your attitude, quick think skills, team effort, and work ethic to understand and figure out ways you can improve in your role.
There is ALWAYS something to improve on in your work life.
Goals for the Year
6. Build Short Term and Long Term Goals
It is easy to say you want to get promoted, however, what does that actually mean?
Tangible goals are always important to help actually achieve goals rather than just talking about them.
Goals for 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? 3 years?
Tip on get Promoted/Building Goals: Where do you actually want to be in your next role? Different team? Different type of work? Getting promoted is not a goal, that is a want to leave from current your current role.
7. Strategize New Challenges
Within your goals, there are mini goals within to help achieve them.
Growing your resume is one of the most important corporate America tasks. Even if you are not planning on leaving the role, you always need to be expanding your knowledge to be the best candidate for a promotion or new role.
Questions to Ask Yourself:
- What is going to challenge me this coming year?
- How can I expand my knowledge on different parts of the business?
- How can I stand out in an interview or discussion on a promotion?
Down to Business
8. Get Compensated for the Work
For the introverts of the world, this is the worst part of the conversation because you feel like you have no leverage.
Let’s be real, the main reason for the work evaluation is to (hopefully) get a raise. We don’t come to work everyday for free.
Everything up to this point has set you up for the money questions. You have spoken about accomplishments, goals, and leadership feedback. You are far ready for the $$ talk!
How to Start the Raise Conversation:
- Based off my accomplishments and goals for this year, will there be a compensation increase?
- With another year of loyalty to this company and my motivation for this year, is there an opportunity for a pay increase?
- With my performance over the year and the goals we have set for the coming year, I would like to discuss the opportunity for a raise.
- Based off the company’s success (do your research)
9. Find a Mentor for the Year
Who can you catch up with once a month or once a quarter to review your goals and ask for honest advice in the company?
Your leader knows you well enough to know who would be a great mentor fit for the year.
Now that your goals are built and you know what you need to work on for the year, you need someone to help keep you motivated to accomplish and grow!
10. Takeaway a Task from your Performance Review.
What can be taken-away from today’s meeting?
Maybe a promotion is coming, are there specific internal roles to apply for? Is there a hiring manager to get coffee and chat with on more details?
Are there people to network with to grow or expand in the company? Cross-functional partners that you can learn more about their roles?
There is no reason to wait and YES, there is something you can do TODAY to start your growth for the year.
& that blog post was exactly how to stand out and be prepared for your Performance Review.
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