10 Tips to Maximizing Value from Your Dreaded Performance Review
Nearly everyone hates receiving performance reviews! Most people anticipate with discomfort what their boss will have to say. Fortunately, it’s that time of year when many organizations will be traversing these dreaded waters once again! However, performance feedback is critical to our ability to grow and become better leaders.
Reviews Can Be Gold Mines for Feedback as well as for Motivation
I recently got together with a former work colleague who had been a Supervisor in an organization I ran when he was relatively early in his career. When I knew him, he was an all-star on the rise. Sometime after I left the organization, there was an incident where he admits he was tone deaf due to inexperience. He handled a situation poorly and as a result, received a poor performance review and was told not to apply for an open Manager position that he had been coveting.
Most people would have wilted under such feedback. He didn’t. He reflected on the feedback and realized that indeed it was valid - and as a result, he actually was not ready for a managerial position. Instead of wilting, he grabbed the initiative and pursued his own development so as to be prepared when the next opportunity came along.
And it did come along! He was promoted to a manager’s position about a year later and performed very admirably. Today his career has blossomed, and I couldn’t get over how positive and genuinely excited he was when we met recently.
Now imagine if he had succumbed to the emotions of disgruntlement that are so tempting. He clearly would not be where he is today!
Below are practical and actionable tips for maximizing the benefit you can get from your review!
Tips to Getting Value from Your Performance Review
1. Be fair and objective when grading yourself
When you describe your accomplishments for each goal, be fair and objective. Don’t engage in inflation as it will paint you as having low integrity. If you kicked ass - great! - say so with data. If you didn’t get to the desired end-point - confess and use the data to describe how close you came, what the hurdles were, and what you intend to do differently to meet the goal in the future. This shows integrity, self-awareness, resilience, and maturity!
2. Know to what you will be compared
Know what the measurement scale means and to what you’ll be compared. You should be compared to the requirements of your goals and your position - not against some other goal or position.
I once had a Maintenance Manager on my team who wanted to grade all of his mechanics as ‘Exceeding Requirements’ because he felt they were much more talented and capable than most of the production operators. He failed to recognize that the mechanics were supposed to be higher skilled! They were paid much more than operators and their job description requirements held them to a much higher standard than the operators. He should have been grading them against the right bar - and against each other when normalizing his grading - not against a lower expectation or different group. Correcting this error was traumatic for the manager and the team.
3. Don’t Expect an ‘Exceeds’ rating just because a goal was tough!
If you take on a tough goal and just barely meet the goal, don’t expect an ‘Exceeds Requirements’ rating just because the goal was tough. You met a goal. Period. Your rating should be ‘Met Requirements.’ “But, but, but … it was a really difficult goal,” you blubber. Yes, it was tough and that will be noticed and will benefit you in other ways - like in being noticed by career influencing leaders, and having your name come up in succession planning. It is okay to include comments on the degree of difficulty, but the rating is agnostic of difficulty.
4. Failure is okay
If you are truly taking on difficult challenges, you will fail to reach the goal occasionally. Think about it - if you always hyper-achieve all of your goals, are you really taking on tough assignments and stretching yourself? It’s okay to get a poor rating occasionally on really tough goals. It’s also fair game to note that the goal was exceptionally tough, but don’t expect to be graded ‘Met Requirements’ if you didn’t get there. Your efforts are still going to be noteworthy and beneficial to your career. Leaders will be interested to see your integrity, maturity and resilience in how you respond to the missed goal. Do you crumble under criticism or rise above it with renewed vigor and changes in your methods?
5. Listen to Understand and Be Coachable
If your manager is doing their job, they will include comments about things you can do better. LISTEN to really understand their perspective. Do not be super sensitive and emotional about it. Be professional. It’s okay to say “I’ll need some time to reflect upon this point and would like to discuss it more later.” Note that ‘later’ doesn’t mean ‘never.’ Come back to them within 48 hours and ask some clarifying questions to demonstrate that you are taking their input seriously. Thank your boss for their perspective and tell them what specifically you are going to do differently in the future to address the gap or the perceived gap. This is what is called ‘being coachable’ and is an absolute must ability for anyone looking to advance in their career. Being defensive about valid criticism is a sure-fired way to end your leadership journey.
6. Make sure you get critical feedback
If your manager didn’t provide any constructive input, ask them for it. Bluntly. You need this input and it’s their job to give it to you. This will demonstrate a high maturity level and self confidence. Do not accept an answer that suggests there is nothing more you should, or need, to improve. If there is still no criticism for your performance in your current position, ask them for input as to what you should work on for your next desired position.
7. Be Professional - Always
If you think your boss is a worthless pile of dung, keep your opinion to yourself. Don’t engage in malicious gossip. Yes - not all bosses are kind people with your best interest at heart - but most are - or are at least relatively neutral. There are very few true alligators out there (Although they do exist!). If you can, privately give your boss some constructive and actionable feedback. Realize that there is no way for you to know everything that is happening in their professional or personal life that may be a factor. I realized as I climbed the corporate ladder that often when I couldn’t fathom certain decisions made by upper leaders, it was generally not because they were complete dunces, but rather because they possessed information to which I wasn’t privileged.
Be professional. Be kind. Always.
8. Follow the Established Process!
If after careful consideration, reflection and digestion, you truly believe your performance review is materially unfair, follow the process to object, AFTER first discussing again with your boss. This is professional courtesy and they may actually agree with your objection if you make a fact based case. Once you go over your boss’ head, you are setting up an adversarial process. It is far better to try to resolve the disagreement more collaboratively, or at least more low key. This challenge needs to be done in a manner that preserves your relationship and ability to work together if possible.
If in the end your appeal is unsuccessful at changing the review, be sure to get very clear instruction as to what needs to change to receive a better grade next time.
9. Take Action on What You Learned!
Incorporate any learnings into next year’s goal setting process! An ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of cure - and will help advance your career!
10. The Review Doesn’t Begin at the End! It starts with Goal Setting!
I’ve listed this goal last as it is too late for this review document, however, this paragraph is HIGHLY RELEVANT when starting the next cycle!
You will have an easier time with the annual script, if you’ve done a good job up front. First you need to ensure the goals are well written in a SMART format (specific, measure-able, achievable, relevant, time-bound). If goals are missing any of these elements, then grading of a goal will likely be arbitrary and highly problematic. Secondly, you need to keep track throughout the year of noteworthy events and data that provide evidence of your accomplishments and relative stardom.
Alas, most people fail miserably to do these proactive steps well, or even to take the review seriously, and therefore will be relatively defenseless when their potentially ill-informed boss barrages them with arbitrary grades and comments based on poorly defined goals and no real data.
Conclusion
A performance review is not an event to be dreaded. Instead, it is an opportunity to properly document your accomplishments, and to receive valuable constructive feedback. Try not to be overly concerned about the actual grade - focus instead on what you can do to improve, thereby helping both you and the organization.
Your performance review grade is not a reflection of your value as a human being, nor your future value to the organization. It merely is a marker to show how you did in a defined period of time, against established goals. That’s all.
Remember, the review process starts with writing really SMART goals! Remember this point as you launch into the next performance period!
I offer one-on-one leadership coaching if you need help with your goals or performance review or simply want to be a better leader.
