Ever curious about how to elevate your year-end review? This episode a 3-part mini-series where we will discuss how to get ready for the year-end review. The first part of this series, which is today’s episode really focuses on the self-assessment and getting feedback from your circle of influence to prepare for the review.
Prepping for a year-end review should really start with you assessing yourself. If you’re really prepared to own your review, the conversation you have with your manager should not come as a surprise.
The self-assessment contains 3 key components:
You provide an honest review of your performance
Compare your work product relative to your peers to determine where in the talent pool you may fall
Getting feedback from the stakeholders and influencers of your roleGiving an honest review of yourself:
For each of your main deliverable or projects I want you to answer these questions:
Is the project complete?
Did I complete this project with little to no assistant or guidance from others?
Did I lead the project or contribute to the project
Did I leave a lasting impression in some way? (Raise the bar), uncover insights to move the business forward. (It should be some tangible that you can measure. Meaning it should have some form of math associated with it. A percent, dollars, or # of business units impacted, etc)
What could I have done better to enhance this project next time?You should be able to objectively answer each of those questions. Write down the 1-2 examples that demonstrate how you’ve met that component of the questions. Repeat that for each project/main objective.
Comparing your work product to your peers:
Have you worked on similar projects of the same capacity? Meaning are you all working on the same projects by leading, contributing or influencing in the same way.
Are you presenting or sharing your work with the same level of leadership or Higher that they are?
Do you create a similar or greater level of impact as your peers?
What is something others do well that could be an opportunity for you to improve on?
What is something I do well that I can highlight?This assessment may be a tad more subjective, as it depends on your visibility to your peers. You should be able to objectively answer each of those questions. Write down the 1-2 examples that demonstrate how you’ve met that component of the questions. Repeat that for each project/main objective.
Find 2-3 people to talk to in regards to each project and ask the following questions:
What worked well?
What could be improved?
How can I ensure that we evolve this work/engagement to gain a greater impact on future projects?
Have you seen other examples in the company or in other roles that you think would help me strengthen my skills?Your self-assessment should be so thorough that when you actually sit down with your manager, there are little to no surprises. You want to demonstrate that you’ve thought through your work and it should enable you to have a very productive conversation with your boss.
So, as you prepare for part two, take the list of opportunities to improve, start to think through how to address those elements. That’ll be a great starting point for next week’s episode.
