Got A Performance Review Coming Up?
Anticipating a performance review can feel daunting.
Feel more in control with a little prep.
A quick guide to preparing for performance reviews.
It’s normal to feel a little daunted by a performance review.
It’s completely natural to feel a little daunted ahead of an upcoming performance review. What can you do about it?
There are two things that can help you feel confident and prepared leading up into your review.
Step 1: Get clarity from your boss.
You’re not asking too much to get an insight as to what will actually be discussed. You’re asking so you can get prepared.
Ask your leader or the person running the review, what will actually happen in the conversation.
Consider clarifying:
Will this be a review of the last 3, 6, 9, 12 months?
Can I expect feedback?
Is the goal for us to clarify my goals?
Will you expect feedback from me?
Frame it that you want to be prepared and you’d like to know what to expect.
Step 2: Quantify your impacts.
So you can compare notes with your boss, you’ll benefit from having a handy list of your recent achievements, the impacts those achievements made and as a bonus: what you learned as a result.
A tool we share in our workshops on this topic is the AIL Framework:
Achievement: List 5 notable achievements. Why were they important?
Impact: What impact did that make? Quantify it with numbers to paint a picture.
Learning: What did you learn/notice/see as a result?
Share these in your review so your boss can paint a picture of what you’ve been working on. Remember: you can’t assume your boss sees everything across your desk. It’s your job to educate them on what’s going on for you, so you can align on your expectations.
Be guided through this exercise in our FREE Achievement Audit template.
It’s also useful to help them see other requests you may be fielding from other parts of the organisation, so you can chat to them about where best to spend your time.
What you can expect your boss to say.
Organisations all do it pretty similarly, in that the goal is to get on the same page with your manager about your performance (how they see it, how you see it, what’s expected of you).
Similarly, most organisations direct their managers to give specific feedback in these reviews, so it’s useful to mentally prepare to get feedback about:
How you’re going against agreed goals/targets if any.
A discussion on your behaviour around the organisational values
How others (e.g. important stakeholders) have found the experience of working with you.
You’ll benefit from mentally preparing to get feedback you don’t expect.
We all want our manager to give us timely feedback yet not all managers feel comfortable nor know how to do that. Meaning, you might get feedback in the review you aren’t anticipating.
A few guiding thoughts:
You don’t need to agree with the feedback. It’s data. You’re welcome to say you’ll think about it and come back to them (and make sure you go back to discuss it).
You’re allowed to ask for examples. It can help you buy time if you’re not sure what the feedback is or it feels a little vague.
The reality is many managers feel uncomfortable giving feedback on the go, so often wait until the review to give it. In a perfect world, that feedback wouldn't be a surprise. In a realistic world, there might be feedback you haven't heard before, so be prepared to have some space to hear that feedback and process it with them, so you can better understand.
What does a ‘performance review’ actually look like?
It’s a structured conversation.
In bigger organisations, you’ll give team members a formal rating (e.g. met expectations, did not). There may be a bonus attached.
In smaller ones, there mightn’t be a formal process, but sitting down with your manager achieves the same thing: making sure you’re both on the same page.
What actually needs to happen in the conversation?
Your boss will typically do four things in a performance review (in any order):
Acknowledge / validate your contributions. (And if not, you’ve got your AIL - Achievement, Impacts and Learnings list remember).
Give feedback to help you grow.
Encourage you to think about your long term career goals.
Get feedback to help them become a better leader.
What if you want a promotion or more money?
Sensibly, you’ll consider the performance review as a good time to discuss.
A few guiding thoughts:
Be prepared for feedback on what your leader needs to see to consider advocating for a promotion/different package.
Your leader might be your line manager but mightn’t be the one to approve packages, so consider who else you might need a relationship with and their input.
It’s pretty normal for new managers to be less familiar with the structure for a promotion, so give them a little grace if they need to go and ask HR.
In smaller organisations, there’s not always the existing structure to set up a ‘formal’ promotion process: sometimes the set up is you grow on the job.
Based on that, remember it’s a two way conversation, not a demand, so be sure to frame it as such. Your business partner, HR rep, or more senior manager can help clarify if you aren’t sure of your organisation's processes.
Bring this workshop to your workplace.
We run workshops on how to have effective performance and feedback conversations for both leaders AND employees.
“As a result of this workshop, I’m now more confident reflecting on my achievements and areas for improvement.”