How to Conduct Your Own Performance Review

Client Clara asks: I always get so nervous before my annual performance review. How can I calm my nerves and make sure it goes as well as possible?

Coach Joel answers: Performance reviews can be daunting, but being proactive about the process will make it a motivating ritual that you look forward to. By conducting a review of your own performance before you meet with your boss, you’ll have thoughtful answers to all your boss’s questions. Here’s your guide on how to do that.

Frequency

Your boss might conduct performance reviews once a year, every six months, or on a quarterly basis. Forty-eight percent of employees are reviewed annually, and 26% are reviewed less than once a year, says Gallup. More frequent reviews are optimal, allowing you to recollect more of what happened during the review period.

Aim to conduct your own performance review on a quarterly basis. Even if your boss only conducts reviews once a year, you’ll have detailed notes from each quarter to use in preparing for your annual review.

Purpose

According to Gallup’s research, good performance reviews are “achievement-oriented, fair and accurate, and developmental.” Gallup suggests calling them “progress reviews” to emphasize these areas of focus.

In other words, they should be less about a grade and instead focused on utilizing the performance review process to continue developing your skills.

Elements

1. Evaluating fulfillment of the role

   • Look at the description of your role. Then ask yourself how well you’re fulfilling each of your primary responsibilities.
   • Ask yourself if the expectations are fair, and if you have adequate time and resources to fulfill the role, advises Gallup. If not, determine what changes are necessary.

2. Reviewing your past goals

   • Look at the work performance goals you set for the period you’re reviewing. Where did you achieve them, and where did you fall short?
   • Analyze what went wrong when your efforts didn’t succeed.
     Make a list of the areas you want to strengthen.

3. Acknowledging successes

   • List and share your achievements, both concrete and less tangible.
   • Have you developed any new skills, even if you haven’t put them to extensive use yet? Be sure to add them to your list, so you can make them known to your boss.

4. Examining your leveraging of success

   • Ask yourself how you leveraged your successes, advises Sharon Armstrong in The Essential Performance Review Handbook. Have you effectively used them to boost your visibility and influence?
   • Consider where you could leverage successes better in the future.
   • Create a visibility plan outlining how you’ll do that.

5. Setting goals

   • Now it’s time to set new goals for the next period. Make sure your goals are SMART—“strategic and specific, measurable, attainable, results-based, and time-bound”—emphasize Anne Conzemius and Jan O’Neill in The Power of SMART Goals.
   • Consider what actions you’ll need to take to reach your goals. For example, if you want a promotion, look at options in your company and prepare a compelling argument for why you should get one.

6. Developing ideas

   • Write up specific proposals for ideas you wish to pursue, suggests Armstrong. Generate ideas that will challenge you and emphasize the skills you want to highlight.
   • If you have ideas for how the department or company could improve, write them down as well.

7. Evaluating salary

   • Research the typical salary in your geographical area for someone in your role. Factor in your level of experience as well. This will help with your salary negotiation.
   • Ask yourself if you’re earning what you should be, and if not, what type of pay raise you should ask for.

By conducting a review of your own performance, you’ll feel energized and inspired at performance review time. Plus, you’ll come across as far more articulate, insightful, and capable during your meeting with your boss. And in turn, you’ll make better use of that meeting, coming equipped with questions to ask and polished ideas to present.

Hire leadership coach Joel Garfinkle for more advice on preparing for career advancement, or purchase his book Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.