Your Annual Review, By You
It seems to be Annual Review Season in the lives of several of my clients, so I’m thinking a lot about this subject.
I’m a huge believer in self-acknowledgement in general. But at annual review season, even moreso.
Even if you work for an organization that does annual reviews REALLY, REALLY well (and that’s maybe 1% of organizations), and even if you get a REALLY, REALLY great review this year — it’s just not enough acknowledgment. Why? Because other people don’t know HALF of what you do.
They’re not there with you on ordinary Tuesday mornings when you navigate a treacherous conversation with an extremely disgruntled client and you somehow manage to turn things around through your listening skills, your relational skills, your technical skills, your integrity, and your sheer endurance. No one but you even KNOWS what a great save that was and what it required of you!
But YOU do, and if you were writing your own annual review, you’d get something into it that acknowledged this contribution: the net result, and all that went into it.
No one knows that when you reviewed your notes “one last time” the night before your meeting last week, you came up with a strategy change that would make it a much better meeting. You went with it, staying up til all hours to make all the other changes your change would require. And what happened? To all your staff, it appeared to be just another one of your usual good meetings. No one knows the degree to which you go the distance.
But you do. And if you were writing your own review . . .
So here’s the drill. Write your own review, for your eyes only. Acknowledge not only your results, which is the only thing that most people (including you?) see, but also your behaviors and your personal qualities that are part of the way you work.
Here are some examples of behaviors that deserve to get acknowledged and rarely do:
You take the time to write a carefully worded email when called for.
You realized you were working inefficiently and took steps to clean it up.
You got timely advice from HR (and followed it) regarding a direct report with performance issues.
Here are examaples of personal qualities to be acknowledged:
You’re reliable, dependable, diligent, and hardworking.
You have high standards and you know when not to be a perfectionist.
You have a great sense of humor.
When you write your own review, be sure to ackowledge your results, behaviors, and personal qualities. You might consider writing one for work and one for outside of work. And you don’t have to wait for once a year.
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