While I am preparing my upcoming performance review, I came cross this excellent article written by Samuel Hui, the Career Correspondent Every other Monday. I want to share it with everyone. Here is the original link: http://www.askmen.com/money/professional_100/139_professional_life.html
Your forehead feels damp as you stare down at the form in front of you. Worried, you turn to your colleague and ask what he wrote down. After all, there is safety in numbers… or so you think.
When it comes to performance appraisals and self-evaluations, people often suffer a bout of the chills. Your entire year of work could be riding on what you include in those precious few paragraphs; naturally, it makes sense to be at least a little concerned. But rather than spend your time worrying, put your anxiety aside and try to focus on the task at hand.
I have been both the appraiser and the appraised and I recommend, before writing your self-evaluation, that you decide what you want to accomplish during your review. Build a strong case for yourself by keeping your objectives and the following tips in mind.
review the original goals
Mission accomplished? You certainly hope so.
The best place to start with your self-evaluation is with a look at the goals and expectations that were set out for you at the last review. If this is your first review, look back at the job description.
Ask yourself: "Did I meet the goals and expectations that were set out for me? Did the meeting of these goals and expectations come with a reward
If you can say yes to these questions, the task should be much easier. Focus the first part of your self-evaluation on demonstrating how you met the goals. Make sure to reference the rewards that were anticipated as this might be your one chance to do it.
For instance, if you were expected to show that you could lead a large project team, flush out examples of how your helped the team finish ahead of schedule or how your guidance helped the team overcome difficulties.
make your expectations clear
Indicate how your expectations were formed; cite such things as the promises that were made in your last review or the criteria for others who were promoted.
I once made the mistake of not communicating what I thought was a fair reward for my work. When my expectations were not met, I was embittered about my slight for many months and even considered leaving. However, when I voiced my displeasure I received a promotion -- right away.
It works to voice your expectations. From my current perspective as a manager and a boss, I can now understand how, by not communicating your expectations, you are inadvertently signaling that you would be fine without a reward.
If you failed to live up to the goals set out for you, the emphasis of your self-evaluation should be on what you did accomplish. Try to avoid focusing on your shortcomings, but center your self-evaluation on your strengths and achievements.
Remember your accomplishments when you prepare for your performance review...
focus on accomplishments, not tasks
I have seen so many self-evaluations that resemble a list of duties. Duties place you in a job category and do not distinguish you as a performer or a laggard.
For example, take a second to compare and contrast these to possible answers on a self-evaluation: Supervised the activities of a dozen highly successful sales people.
Under my supervision, the sales of the team grew from X to XY for a gain of XYZ%.
Which answer do you think makes you look like the better performer? I hope you all said the second.
As a boss, I maintain a fair idea of what each member of my staff is doing. I have a good grasp of how busy most of them are and whether they could do with more work or with less. At the same time, I may not know about the little accomplishments that go unheralded because no one has brought them to my attention.
I am always happy to learn when someone is doing a better job than expected. Listing tasks does not accomplish this and listing every small task that you do is even counterproductive. Do not give your supervisor the impression that you are stretching the truth by giving equal weight to the minute and the important.
don't misrepresent yourself
A quick way to lose credibility with your boss is to talk up the demands of your job: When you go on vacation, the truth will be revealed. From personal experience, I feel most irritated if, in the absence of one of my staff, I misallocate resources as a result of his or her deception.
Where possible, focus on tasks that have dominated your work schedule and change it into an accomplishment by finding an example where your success has positively impacted the firm. Feel free to supplement this with any substantial accomplishments that may have been unrelated to your core duties, but were still a huge benefit to the company.
be critical of yourself
What are some reasons you should not get promoted or rewarded? Be someone who is open to criticism and who can learn from it. Invite someone to play the devil's advocate and make a case for why you just do not make the grade.
If you are open to being critiqued, you might be surprised at what you learn about yourself and about how others perceive your performance.
Structure a defense around your weaknesses. Find an example of how you overcame each weakness and use it as evidence that you can and have improved in this area. Your anticipation will take the sting out of the bite when your boss tries to use this "weakness" in his argument for keeping you back.
Think of job interviews when you prepare for your performance review...
The goal of this part should be to give your reviewer as little wiggle space as possible when it comes to not granting you what you want. Do not let your boss off easily. If he or she is reluctant to reward you, make it a very difficult decision to make.
treat it like a job application
The self-evaluation and performance appraisal is much like the application process for a new job. Treat it as an application for a better position and focus on what makes you better than your colleagues.
Take a long-term perspective. Prepare a list of what you want to cover in the review discussion and provide this to your boss well in advance. This will work to ensure that both parties are ready for the meeting.
Grasp the opportunity to set out conditions for your next promotion and pay raise. The importance of these actions are to attain a commitment on what you need to achieve to reach certain goals and rewards. Do not let things fall on the wayside: Arrange a follow-up meeting for any takeaways.
prepare for the future
Getting the most out of your performance appraisal takes effort, but with the right frame of mind and the proper practices, it is a great opportunity to give your career a boost.
