Your Performance Review

Performance reviews are all too often an ominous fact of life for some professionals. They bring to mind the fear of report cards and parent-teacher meetings instead of the opportunity for improvement at the work place. But today's performance review -- if approached intelligently -- can be more encouraging than discouraging.

A performance review should be as important to you as it is to your supervisor. This is your chance to measure your own success and demonstrate your ability to self-motivate. The following steps can help make your next performance review a positive experience instead of a negative one.

If it's not regular policy, schedule a performance review on your own.

Some companies still have no established policy for performance reviews. Little do they know that regular meetings with employees can do wonders for the corporate direction and the company's potential success, not to mention what it can do for the staff. Take it upon yourself to schedule a time to meet with your supervisor. Explain that you want to get feedback on your performance to date and map out your goals for the coming year. Your superior will not only be impressed that you want to set goals for yourself, they will also appreciate the fact that you'd like their input while doing so.

Before the big day, review your job description.

Remember all of the paperwork you collected on your first day of work? Somewhere in that stack of forms and applications there was probably a formal job description outlining your responsibilities, and it has probably not seen daylight since that first day. Now is the perfect time to dust it off. Your supervisor will almost always use this at a review, and it can't hurt to know what they have on record about your position. If you notice a task that you haven't been completing, note it and bring it up in your review before your supervisor has the chance to do it for you. Mention that you'd like to discuss additional tasks and how you can fit them into your established routine.

This is also a good time to discuss changing or amending your job description. If you've added any responsibilities to your workload, be sure that they are recognized by your supervisor. And if you still don't have a formal job description, this is another case where you should take matters into your own hands by creating one and having it approved at your review.

Understand how your employer measures success.

For sales people, it may be the number of products sold. For nurses, it may be the number of satisfied patients. But for most of us, the measure of our professional success is not so simple. One of the most important ideas to confirm at a performance review is how your performance is measured. Your supervisor may discuss specific projects or tasks and how they are completed. Some companies have "360" reviews, where employees evaluate each other. In this case, your team members are often the measure of your own success, or at least part of it. Be sure you understand just what you are being measured by in your review. If your supervisor mentions they are not satisfied with your 35-hour workweeks, this is the time to ask if performance is measured by quantity of work or quality of work. Some employers have very different ideas about this issue and it's important to understand what your management values more. Understanding your company's measurements of success helps you to improve your chance for future success in the eyes of your superiors.

Try to understand the big picture.

So your boss doesn't give you the raving reviews you were expecting. What's going on? It may be that the achievements you are most proud of over the last six months do not align with the company's goals for that same time period. Maybe you landed six new clients in New York City and didn't have as much luck on the West Coast. You are still proud of the New York work, but your supervisor may not have such strong feelings if the department's task was to strengthen West Coast presence for the firm. And that's simply a communication problem.

Use your performance review to ask questions about the company's goals and direction for the coming year. Realign your own goals to follow the lead of your department. Maybe more of your time could have been spent concentrating on potential West Coast clients if you had a better idea of your supervisor's goals. It's important to realize that you are part of a team, and your own ideas about what you want to do are not always going to be best for the overall success of the company. Your performance review is a great time to discuss what your supervisor wants to accomplish in the next year, and how you can help the department achieve those goals by setting personal objectives throughout the year.

Create a plan for future success.

Once you have discussed your performance -- be it good or bad -- it's time to start planning for the next year. Let your boss know that you are taking all constructive criticism into consideration as you start planning for future work. Discuss certain areas where you both agree improvement is needed. Even if your overall review was excellent, there is room for improvement. If your review was not so good, there's no better time to find out exactly what you can do to improve. Before the end of the meeting, attach an additional sheet to your job description with your "Goals for 2001." Keep a copy for yourself as a reminder of what you need to accomplish in order to be considered a success over the coming year. Your supervisor will appreciate your thought and hard work, as well as your openness to reviews and constructive criticism. Plus, you will have a no-fail list of tasks to get you on your way to an excellent performance review the next time.

In the grand scheme of things, a performance review can be the attention you've been looking for on the job. Not only does it let you know what your boss knows about your work (and what you have to tell them yourself) it also lets you know how you can be a better employee. Performance reviews are not just an annoying chore that come with corporate life; they're an opportunity to map out your path to success, both for yourself and your company.