Do you have an annual performance review at work? Most employees do, and while these meetings can sometimes feel daunting, they are also golden opportunities for career growth. With the right preparation, your performance review is a meeting not to be dreaded, but rather a chance to increase job satisfaction, work towards a future promotion, or gain constructive feedback.
The key to acing your next performance review starts now. Preparation is key. With some strategic planning, you can take control of the process and ensure it benefits you.
As a career coach in Dublin, I've helped professionals navigate performance reviews with confidence. Follow these expert career coaching tips to set yourself up for career success.
Set a Clear Goal for your Performance Review
What does success look like for you? If your company uses a structured performance review framework, know the different ratings, and target one you want to achieve. Are you looking to simply meet expectations as you're brand new to a role, or exceed expectations because you know you are capable of excelling in your role? If your company doesn't have that sort of formalised process, think about how you want your manager to describe your work. What keywords would they be using to describe what it's like to work with or for you? What do you want to have achieved? What would make you proud of yourself? While ultimately the performance review rating your manager gives you is out of your control, it is most certainly, within your influence. You have massive control in how you show up to achieve your goals, and that positively influences the chances of you receiving a stellar review. A great strategy is to communicate openly with your manager. You can make your intentions known, asking your manager what they would be expecting to see from you for you to get the narrative or rating you desire. The clearer the expectations, the clearer the roadmap to success is. If you struggle with setting career goals, career coaching can help. A career coach can provide tailored advice to help you map out your ideal performance review outcomes.
2, Keep a Success Bank
Don't rely on others to remember all that you've accomplished. Keep a 'Success Bank' folder of your own achievements (and your teams if you are a manager or leader), either online or physical. Document wins, save screenshots of positive feedback, and keep track of results and outcomes. Your Success Bank acts as a reminder of your accomplishments and you can use these tangible results and specific examples while filling out your performance evaluation. This helps you reinforce your value, as you can speak with confidence about tangible results and specific examples. A well-documented record of how you’ve contributed to the company’s success—whether by saving time, increasing revenue, or improving processes—strengthens your case during evaluations. This folder of achievements will serve you well throughout your career, whether its for future promotional aspirations, or new job searches.
Ask for Regular Feedback
Don't wait for your performance review to ask for feedback. Timely, relevant feedback, backed up with specific examples is always the most useful and constructive feedback to receive. As a people manager in my corporate career, I came to understand that the best performance reviews I ran for my team members followed the philosophy "No Surprises". That is, as much as possible, I tried to make sure that my team members continuously understood what I saw as their strengths, and areas of development. This took the sting out of the performance review being a once-a-year feedback occurrence, increasing the chance of causing shock, misunderstanding and resentment. If your manager doesn’t actively provide feedback, proactively take charge. Start asking for feedback more often. Ask for insights during one-on-one meetings, and request feedback from colleagues on key projects. While it might feel uncomfortable at first, it's one of those situations where you need to choose your hard. What's harder - hearing that feedback from your manager ahead of time so you can do something about it, or hearing it for the first time at your performance review meeting?
How Career Coaching in Ireland can Help
Ok so you've done all you can now before the performance review, what can you do to prepare the data?
Use the STAR Method to Showcase Achievements
The STAR method is an interview answering best practice that also works wonders for performance reviews. STAR stands for situation, task, action and result. The reason it is used in an interview setting is because it gives insight as to the problem/opportunity at hand, why this matters, what actions you took to contribute to the solution, and what all of that meant in the end i.e. the results and outcomes of your actions. Using this STAR methodology as a guidelines to how you present your career story at performance review time brings you from generic claims, to specific evidence based assertions of your skillset.
Instead of blithely saying "I'm a team player" (really, prove it to me"), you say "I'm a team player. For instance I became a new hire mentor, as I wanted to help newer team members settle into their role. I've mentored 3 people to date, resulting in all three taking on clients two weeks ahead of schedule, and rating their onboarding experience as 10/10 in their onboarding survey".
Using specific evidence strengthens your case, especially when your review is linked to salary increases or promotions.
Ground Yourself Before the Review
Mindset Matters! It's really important to get yourself into the right frame of mind before a performance review. Too high, and you could be delusional! Too low, and hearing feedback might be more than you can take. Can you block off some time in your calendar before and after the review? You don't want to be coming into your performance review rushing, feeling distracted, and with your mind on your to do list, or your emails. Give yourself the gift of some space to ground yourself before this really important conversation. In an ideal world, this would mean getting out for some fresh air, but if time is tight, it could be something as simple as some alone time in the office toilet cubicle!
Equally, allow yourself some time afterwards to decompress. It might have been a lot to take in. It could have been more positive, or more negative, than you expected, so create some space to process and integrate that information if at all possible.
Use what works for you to ground yourself. This could be exercise, breathing, meditation, listening to music, whatever works for you.
In psychotherapy, they talk about the importance of watching out for HALT in a bid to manage your emotions. HALT stands for hungry, angry, lonely and tired. These are the times we are more likely to make bad decisions and be reactive. Apply this to your review by ensuring you’re well-rested, fed, and emotionally prepared.
Understand your Attitude to Feedback
How do you typically handle feedback? Some people love feedback - the more, the merrier. Some people struggle to accept it - even when it's constructive. Just as managers need to develop skills in delivering feedback, employees need to cultivate the ability to receive it.
If you find yourself getting defensive, try:
Asking for specific examples.
Requesting suggestions for improvement.
Taking time to process feedback before responding.
You want to focus on receiving the feedback for now, not immediately deciding whether you agree with it or not. You are under no obligation to answer immediately if you don't want to. People process information differently, meaning it is ok if you need time to process what you've hard before responding. If you feel caught off guard and unsure of how to respond, ask to schedule a follow up meeting once you've had a chance to reflect.
Not sure how to ask for feedback? Career coaching sessions can help you develop strategies to seek and apply constructive feedback.
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The Fortune is in the Follow-Up
Performance reviews are not a one and done exercise, if done properly by both parties. They are designed as a roadmap for your professional growth. Once you've had a chance to reflect, and digest your performance review, start to put together a career plan outlining what you intend to act on, and how.
Your next steps are to:
Reflect on the feedback and identify key takeaways
Develop a plan outlining the skills or goals to work on
Schedule check-ins with your manager to track progress
Rather than dreading your next performance review, start preparing now. With the right mindset and strategy, you might even enjoy the process!
Career Coaching in Ireland
Hi, I'm Heather, a certified career coach. I have a track record of helping people globally of making positive changes in their work.
If you want to feel confident walking into your next performance review, career coaching can be a game-changer. As a career coach in Dublin and across the world, I help people prepare for and follow up on performance-related conversations.
If you’re ready to take control of your career, get in touch to learn how career coaching can support you.
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