You have a performance review coming up,
and you need to know how to prepare for a performance review at work.
So that you can slay that performance appraisal. But how do you do that?
With these performance review tips for employees, of course.
Hello and welcome back to my channel,
where I help you slay your career and cultivate the successful life that you
want. If this is your first time here,
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so that you get the best career success advice on the weekly.
You're probably here today though because you want to ace your performance
review.
Which is perfect because I'm sharing performance review tips for employees.
Make sure that you watch all the way through the end,
because today I'm sharing with you advice that
no other career coach is going to tell you.
And number four is where the biggest mistakes are made.
If you're ready,
go ahead and click that like button and let's jump right into it!.
The first phase is to gather data. Or is it 'day-ta'? What do you say?
Let me know in the comments down below.
If you're in the Strive Squad or you follow me on LinkedIn,
you've heard of me talk about the Chronicle of Awesomeness.
And if you have that in place, this phase is going to be super simple.
For this phase, you're going to need at least a couple of things. First of all,
you're going to need your job description
as well as any success metrics such as KPIs, MBO,
quotas. Whatever it is you call them. You need to start here,
because if you have a formal review process at your company,
chances are they're going to make it as quantified as possible.
And ideally, at least if it's a well executed performance review,
your success metrics are going to provide the baseline of the conversation.
Because you don't want to have any surprises when you walk into that room.
What you want to do is,
you want to figure out where you are across those different benchmarks.
If you have a quota, did you meet your quota? Did you achieve it?
Did you have a KPI? How did you perform on that? Beyond that,
what you want to do whenever possible
is also measure the impact as a direct result of the work that you have done.
This is especially true if you've done a high impact project,
and if you haven't heard me mention a high impact project before,
I do have a video on it.
Which you can check out after you finish watching this one.
Those things are going to account for your quantitative elements.
But what we want to do as well,
is we want to bring in some qualitative elements.
Do you have any compliments from a coworker?
Or did you receive a glowing testimonial from a customer?
Did your counterpart on another team vouch that nothing
would have happened if it hadn't been for your contributions on a project?
If you have any notes or accolades along those lines,
you absolutely want to gather them in this phase. Sure, you can't count them,
other than of course the number of glowing reviews that you've received,
but they are an important part of the process.
Because the qualitative data is what is going to give context.
Once you have all of that data gathered or data gathered,
it's time to move into the next step, which is going to be communication.
One the things that almost every single hiring manager that I know is so
appreciative of, but basically I have never heard anyone talk about,
is actually sending this information along to your boss.
If you know that they are in the stage of the
performance review process where they need to be writing performance reviews,
they're going to have a lot on their plate and them.
Going through for each person on their team to know where they did well,
where their growth areas are,
and remembering all of the great things that happened
is actually a very overwhelming task.
And this is why it can be incredibly helpful for you to send
a note along to your manager that outlines all of the major accomplishments
and achievements that you've had over the course of the year.
The reason I think that everyone should do this is,
not only is it going to save time and frustration for your manager,
and really help them out,
it is actually going to be something that shows that you are proactive,
you're attentive to the needs of your manager,
your team as well as your company.
And that you are really focused and aligned with the things
that are actually being measured against in terms of performance.
Depending on your relationship with your manager,
you may want to have just a quick conversation, or shoot them a note,
to ask them if this would be something that is helpful and relevant.
This is particularly important I think,
if you don't really know the management side of the performance review
and what their timelines are.
Because if your manager has already done this step,
it's not going to have the same impact.
However, it is still beneficial because once again,
when you actually have the performance review meaning
it is going to be very helpful for them to know exactly what
you are going to walk in wanting to talk about.
One more thing that I do want to highlight at this point
is that you are just passing along the information.
You're not giving any judgements towards it.
You're not patting yourself on the head to your manager.
You are simply just conveying factual information that is
going to support them in their side of the process. In most companies though,
this is going to bring you into phase three,
which is typically a formal process.and that is self evaluation.
If your company does have a formal self evaluation process
along with the performance review process, you are going to hear word,
probably from your people operations or your human resources team,
about what you need to do and when you actually need to do it.
I can't tell you exactly what that's going to be,
because this really ranges widely depending on your company
and their particular processes.
But usually it is going to be an exercise as self-reflection,
where you share things like your goals,
and the things that you would like to work on.
Take your time and invest into the self evaluation form here.
You want to make sure that you are crystal clear on the goals
that you have for yourself for the next year so that
you can frame the conversation with your manager. Along with that,
if there are any skills that you are trying to build and expand on,
also make sure that that is integrated into your
self evaluation because that is again going.
to help you make the progress and make sure that your manager
has visibility and is able to give you the support and
direction that you need in order to make that progress.
One thing I do really want to highlight here though,
and this one is a very important one because this is a big mistake
that I see people make, and that is this is not the time to beat yourself up
about stuff that doesn't really matter.
We all make mistakes and we are all less than perfect beings. Even myself,
I know you don't believe me, but it's totally true.
We all have things that we can improve on, things that could have gone better.
And while we want to be accountable for those things,
what we don't want to be is disproportionally accountable at this phase.
It is not your job to take accountability for someone else's deficiency.
If someone else made an error, if something went totally sideways,
own anything that you did wrong there but do not own the situation.
The self evaluation, you should actually be doing the exact opposite.
You should be somewhat uncomfortably boastful in this process.
It feels really weird and it feels very foreign for you to be boasting
about the things that you did and taking accountability
for all of the awesome things, even when they were a team effort. But trust me,
at most organizations, this is actually part of the game.
This doesn't mean that you're taking credit for other people's actual work,
but what you do want to make sure you're doing is that
you're effectively taking ownership over the successes
that you have helped create and your precise role in them.
I know it feels super awkward for a lot of people, but trust me,
if you're man, Chad,
can boast about a whole bunch of stuff that he barely worked on.
You can absolutely take ownership for your own work.
And that brings us into phase four,
which is to set a goal for the performance review meeting.
This is the most crucial performance review tip that I am sharing in this video.
And it's one that I don't hear of frequently enough.
You probably are already aware that performance is a great time
to have conversations surrounding your promotions and pay increases
and if that is something that you do want to do in your performance review,
I highly recommend that you check out this video
where I tell you exactly how to do that. I'll also drop the link down below.
But there are so many goals that you actually might have,
above and beyond getting a better title or more money.
When you head into your performance review,
do you want your manager to provide more mentorship and guidance?
Are you looking for budget in order for you to attend a training,
or enroll in a course or go to a conference?
Are you hoping to get more stretch assignments,
and maybe start working more cross functionally this year?
To do this, you really need to know what your professional goals are.
And have mapped out the general things that you
actually want to do in order to help get you there.
The great thing is when you've done this,
and you're walking with your goals already set, and if it's appropriate,
sharing them with your manager ahead of time,
is that you and your manager are going to be able to have a conversation
surrounding where you are actually trying to get in your career.
And a formal conversation surrounding how they and the company can help get you
there. This should not be a onetime only conversation.
If this isn't already an ongoing conversation that you're having with your
manager. At the same time, ask them if you can have a regular check in
to discuss the progress that you're making towards your goals.
You can integrate this into one on one meetings,
or add a regular one-on-one meeting, to your calendar in order to do this.
Ultimately, it's really important to enter this meeting with goals
of your own so that you have a better chance of actually walking
out better stage for success. At the end of the conversation,
the final phase of preparing for your performance review
is getting into the right deadspace.
The most essential performance review tip for employees
that I can give you right now is to walk into the meeting
with as much confidence as possible.
I know that this is something that is easier said than done,
but hopefully going through the steps that you've already gone through,
it has given you a list of criteria that really highlights.
what an incredible job you're doing and how much potential you have,
and hopefully this has had a by-product of making you feel really good about
yourself. However, especially right before you walk into that meeting,
it's really important that you focus on getting yourself into a positive
mindset.
You want to be positive about the conversation that you're about to have,
because that can really shape that,
but it's also going to get you better positioned for the conversation
no matter what direction it goes in.
Whether you are having a good performance review, or a bad performance review,
or getting feedback that you weren't really expecting to get at all.
Having a confident and positive mind frame throughout the conversation
is going to help you actually get the most of your performance review.
No matter what direction it is actually going in.
The more confident you are in what you've actually contributed,
the better able you are going to be able to receive any of the constructive
criticism that may come up and hopefully you are being given areas
to grow because if your manager isn't giving you any areas to grow,
it either means that you were completely outgrown for your
role and you really need to be having the promotion
conversation or it means that your manager
just isn't really invested enough in their job or in you to give you
feedback that you can really take an action to be a better professional.
And to achieve your professional goals if you know that you might need it.
If you do want me to make a video on how to
deal with a good performance review or a bad performance review, l.
let me know in the comments. With those five phases out of the way,
You are absolutely ready to go and ave your performance review.
If you feel ready to take on your performance review,
and get the best performance review that you've had in your life,
I want you to drop a comment saying I'm ready down below.
If you want more support and resources to get to know your goals,
ace your performance review, and really glow up your career this year,
Check on the strive squad.
It's my free community that is designed to help you elevate and accelerate your
career. I. 'll leave the link the description down below.
And one thing I wanted to mention, if you haven't already subscribed,
I highly recommend because my next video is going
to be my most highly requested video.
And that is strategies to deal with difficult people at work.
If you work with anyone who isn't so pleasant,
I know this is one that you will not want to miss it.
And of course if this video has helped you, if you enjoyed it,
go ahead and click that like button.
It lets me know to make more videos like this,
and honestly it really helps my channel with this whole YouTube algorithm thing.
If you are planning to have a conversation in your performance review meeting
about getting a promotion and pay increase, do check out this video right here.
It is going to lay out the exact steps to stage you for success
in having that conversation. Thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you next time. Bye for now. [bloopers]