Take greater command of your next performance appraisal meeting with these tips to help you. There is one thing I share in this episode you absolutely do not want to do as it will leave you stuck and destined on a path to never going anywhere in your organization.
I'll walk through the essential steps of preparation, from understanding the intricacies of your company's review protocols to effectively highlighting your accomplishments. It's time to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight, advocating for your promotion with confidence and concrete evidence of your worth. My personal anecdotes and the expert advice I've gathered over the years will serve as your compass, helping you navigate the nuances of these discussions with finesse.
This episode isn't just about making it through your appraisal; it's about mastering it. Whether you're leading a team or looking to climb the ladder yourself, you'll learn how to foster an environment where continuous improvement is the norm.
Remember, this isn't just a routine meeting—it's your moment to shine and articulate your vision for your career. And to ensure you're fully equipped, don't miss out on the free guide available on my website to help prepare you for stepping into your appraisal with the utmost confidence. Let's make your next performance review the defining moment of your professional journey.
Take greater command of your next performance appraisal meeting with these tips to help you. There is one thing I share in this episode you absolutely do not want to do as it will leave you stuck and destined on a path to never going anywhere in your organization.
I'll walk through the essential steps of preparation, from understanding the intricacies of your company's review protocols to effectively highlighting your accomplishments. It's time to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight, advocating for your promotion with confidence and concrete evidence of your worth. My personal anecdotes and the expert advice I've gathered over the years will serve as your compass, helping you navigate the nuances of these discussions with finesse.
This episode isn't just about making it through your appraisal; it's about mastering it. Whether you're leading a team or looking to climb the ladder yourself, you'll learn how to foster an environment where continuous improvement is the norm.
Remember, this isn't just a routine meeting—it's your moment to shine and articulate your vision for your career. And to ensure you're fully equipped, don't miss out on the free guide available on my website to help prepare you for stepping into your appraisal with the utmost confidence. Let's make your next performance review the defining moment of your professional journey.
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Speaker 1:
The start of the new year means a new set of goals and expectations for you and your work, and what better way to set those expectations while reviewing your accomplishments than the dreaded annual employee performance review appraisal meeting? In my previous roles, I delivered plenty of performance reviews and I attended one. Every year I reported to someone. So that's why, in this episode, I want to help you strategically prepare for your upcoming performance review meeting and answer those pressing questions for you that include what to do when you have a company or supervisor who simply doesn't care about the process or your development. And stay tuned, because I've got something free to help you with your upcoming meeting. Let's get started.
Speaker 1:
Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS podcast. I'm your host, john Nerrell. I help mid-career professionals find a job they love, or love the job they have, by using my proven four step formula. Now, as I shared in the introduction, performance review meetings they can kind of feel like that check the box tight meeting. Let's not underestimate the importance that these meetings are about compliance. It is an opportunity to document and record your performance formally within the organization and to have that check-in meeting with your supervisor about the quality of your work. But what I want to offer you is that these meetings can be so much more, and if you are currently reporting to someone who perhaps is a little bit overwhelmed or they don't entirely see the value in this process because of their own thoughts and experiences, this is an opportunity for you right now to take greater command of the conversation. Let's not forget this is a conversation about your performance, so why wouldn't you take greater command of the conversation Now to do that? This is about preparing and leading into that conversation and, first and foremost, hopefully, your company has provided guidance on how you should prepare and what information you need to submit leading up to this conversation. Once you have done that and you actually get ready to have that sit-down conversation with your supervisor, you need to remember that this conversation is all about your growth and development. So, yes, you've done certain things. Those are going to be talked about, and usually what happens after an annual performance review is that there is some type of salary increase, perhaps a bonus, even better if there's a promotion. But in this entire process, what I want to have for you is you walk away with greater clarity about where you are valued, the importance of your work, why you do it in this organization and why you do this work overall. Because if you decide to leave at some point and go elsewhere, you're going to take all of this organizational and institutional knowledge with you and leverage that for whatever's going to be next. But you must remember you are a hundred percent responsible for your career.
Speaker 1:
I remember having to go into performance appraisal meetings knowing that my boss, my supervisor, was like John, you're doing a great job, keep doing what you're doing. We don't really need to have this meeting. And I wanted more. And what I learned is that, if I could formulate some questions that talked more specifically about my performance and what was important to me, that there was an opportunity for me to engage my supervisor in a conversation to see how well they would be willing to partner with me on the things that were important for me in my career. So one of the things, for example, was that when I was a classroom teacher and I was an educational administrator, I had approval for an outside working agreement with a Fortune 500 company where I directly supported their educational technology. I was a consultant for Casio America for over 10 years. That was important for me in my development. I delivered keynotes at national conferences. I wrote seven in-house books to support their calculator products and their technology, and that was important for me that that would not have happened had I not brought that up in a performance review meeting with my supervisor.
Speaker 1:
I also want to remind you of this. Performance review meetings should not be something that simply happens once a year. My wish for you and my hope is that you are continually checking in with your supervisor on a regularly scheduled basis to talk about your work, talk about your performance and your goals and progress monitoring on how well you are achieving those. Performance review meetings should never be a gotcha. I never want someone to walk into a performance review meeting and for the very first time, they are hearing a complaint or feedback that should have been delivered to them months ago, but their supervisor didn't do it. Now, as you're listening to me, you may be in a situation where you are delivering performance review meetings to people on your team while also having to attend a performance review meeting for your own work. How you model the importance of your performance appraisal is what your team is going to see as well. So if you think it's a waste of time, your team is going to feel like it's a waste of time If you're giving it greater importance this year than you have in years past. Communicate with them as to why. Why is this year going to be different?
Speaker 1:
In one organization where I worked, performance review meetings were sometimes looked at as a pain in the butt. It was something that they needed to do, but we were working really hard. We had a lot of projects and things in the air and, admittedly, it was a time consuming process in some ways. And I remember one person on my team came to me and they said John, I get it, you're kind of new here and you're all excited and enthusiastic and everything. We don't care about these meetings here. So someone on my team said this to me and I looked at them and I said, hey, thank you so much for telling me that. I get it that the organization might have this particular thought about it, but we're working together as your supervisor. I want you to know that whatever the company is doing, we're gonna do that, we're gonna be compliant, but that I wanna get to know you better, I wanna be able to support and develop you and we're gonna have that conversation at this upcoming performance review meeting and then every time we check in. After that we're gonna come back to those topics so I can continually support you through the year, because as long as you are on my team and you're working for me, I want this to be the best experience for you possible. I'm sure you can imagine how that conversation changed after that. How you set the tone, for this is all important.
Speaker 1:
So to help you with this, I've got a brand new free guide for you. It is called 12 Questions to Help you Prepare for your annual performance review. You can go to my website, johnnarrellcom it's right there on the homepage. You can also click on the resources tab and see it there. But you can download these questions and use them to start gathering information in preparation for your performance review and use it as a companion to whatever your company is giving you as well. Now, if you are the one facilitating the performance review meetings, this guide's going to help you as well. These are questions you can be asking your team members, your direct reports, to help them start thinking about what their performance has been and why they need to be taking greater ownership of it. So you can get that free guide. Download it for free right on my website at johnnarrellcom. You can also check the show notes. I'll have it there for you as well. But these are questions that, admittedly, I would ask myself, I would ask people on my team, and it just made the whole process better.
Speaker 1:
Now you go ahead and get the free guide. Let's talk about how you can use it and, more importantly, how will you prepare for your upcoming performance appraisal? First and foremost, make sure to check your company's guidance. Depending on the size of your organization, you may have pretty structured guidance and protocols for how to get ready for your performance appraisal or you may not have a whole lot. Whatever that is, look at your company's guidance first. Look at the questions that are in the free lead magnet I'm giving you, but, most importantly, be clear about what you want the outcome or goal to be from your performance appraisal meeting.
Speaker 1:
If you believe you have done exemplary work, you have demonstrated the competencies at the level above you and you believe you are ready for a promotion, what I want to offer you and for you to consider is that going into your performance appraisal meeting and never discussing it is a huge mistake on your part and on your supervisor's part If you're going into that meeting and thinking, oh, I've done all this amazing work. I've stayed late, I've gone above and beyond, I've put in extra hours. They're gonna recognize and reward me. All I need to do is sit back and they're gonna talk about it and they don't. You're gonna leave that performance review meeting angry and resentful. You wanna talk about resentful or resentment? And your performance appraisal meeting. Check out episode 139. You have an equal control and command in this conversation. Yes, your supervisor's gonna make a recommendation about your bonus, your salary increase, promotion potential and such.
Speaker 1:
But if getting promoted is important for you and you're not going into the meeting and talking about it, my friend, that is on you. That is on you. You have to know what it is that you want. Do you want increased responsibilities? Do you need to have some things taken off of your plate? Do you need more support? Do you need more support around a particular project? Or maybe you're gonna ask for a full-time employee to come and help you with support on a particular project or initiative that you're working on? These are the things in your performance appraisal meeting.
Speaker 1:
When it comes to your work and what impacts your work, you have to be able to talk about it, and talk about it with evidence. So here is the biggest pet peeve that I have around performance appraisal meetings I wanna share with you. Let's say somebody comes in and they wanna promotion and they look at you and they say I wanna be promoted. And you say to them okay, tell me why you believe you should be promoted. I've done the work. I've been here long enough. I spent a lot of years in this company. I deserve the promotion. That is the biggest pet peeve I have. I have had people say that to me when I've been their supervisor and I'm like, no, no, I need evidence. You tell me why.
Speaker 1:
If you want to be promoted, you've got to make your case and you have to make your case with evidence. What did you do? How well did you do it? What's the data? What are the results? You must make your case for being promoted in your performance review, meeting with evidence and not simply saying, well, I deserve it. Going to a conversation with evidence about what you've done and specifically aligning that evidence to the core competencies or knowledge, skills and abilities at the level above, you will make your case that much stronger. Remember, if your supervisor is going to go and advocate for you getting a promotion because of your performance and because of this performance review, you got to give them enough ammunition to go into battle with, because you're probably not going to be the only one that's going to be suggested for promotion. So give them the evidence, make the case as clear as possible as to why, and even if you have to say to your supervisor getting this promotion is important to me and if you're going to go and advocate and recommend me for getting promoted, I want to make sure that I give you all of the information you need to have the strongest case possible to go to executive leadership or management and recommend me. What else do you need from me? That's where you can partner. That's how you can show up a little bit differently and, admittedly, more strategically, so they can go to bat for you and champion your cause about whatever it is you want as a result of your performance appraisal or review meeting.
Speaker 1:
Well, I hope this was helpful. Don't forget to go to my website, johnnarrowcom. Download that free guide Again. It is called 12 Questions to Help you Prepare for your annual performance review. I wish you all the best in this performance review process.
Speaker 1:
I know it can be stressful and a little bit scary. Trust me, my friend, you've got this and I'm here to help you with that. So until next time, my friends, remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple podcasts. Visit johnnarrowcom for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at John Narrow Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters.
