#96 Jigsaw of Year-end Appraisals
March comes with a mixed bag of emotions, giving you butterflies in your stomach. Let’s find out how can we make it better!
Busy filling nominations for yearly award or 360 degree feedback for your colleagues?
Do you also think that whatever you fill in your self appraisal, the outcome gonna be same or is pre-decided?
Well everything said and done, this is a tough time for every corporate geek as it eventually lays down the path for the next year in terms of work and role. The process is draining and often demotivating when you understand the gaps between self and your manager’s expectations. While every organisation has a unique way of conducting and further concluding the appraisal process, I have gathered some tips to help you guys to ace this process, this time around.
Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral, loose, and free-floating – these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything.” – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Author.
Prepping yourself for the process
Everyone believes in recency effect to maneuver their reporting bosses and show that they are working hard for the company. It works for some but is not a sure shot way to get a crazy appraisal. This is not a month battle to fight and win as we all usually perceive it to be, Infact it’s a combination of year round efforts and outcomes. Why and how to prepare yourself for the grind:
Set expectations at the start of the year
Keep a track of expectations set at the start of the year during previous year’s appraisal cycle and discuss it at length with your reporting boss on how to achieve them.
Schedule periodic feedback (Quarterly/ Project based)
Feedback loop is not an yearly ritual and something to be done when mandated at the year end. It is indeed a direct way to reiterate the expectations with seniors and also mend ways of working if required.
Prepare a tracker for self
Everyone is a multi-tasker these days, and thanks to the addition of 4 by 4 screens in our lives, our memory has gone for a complete toss. We have become forgetful and it would be hard to sit and scan through emails at the year end to frame your work for the review. To make it a quick process, you can either choose to maintain a self tracker or do a monthly review of your projects and send that data to self via emails.
Align your work with your KRAs
We all get consumed with daily tasks or overwhelming cross functional work that comes our way, and go off track our goals without even realizing that we are missing onto the main bus. Periodically review your daily/ weekly tasks to corroborate that your main bus of goals is in line with your task list.
Focus on building your personal portfolio
Getting a promotion or a big hike is the main purpose of this review cycle. But remember that your current appraisal is a one time redemption coupon that expires every March. You have to add points to the coupon all over again for your next successful redemption and thats’ where your personal portfolio growth will come at your rescue. Keep your eyes on how can you learn, upgrade your skillset and add value to your team better.
Spend time in thinking about ‘What’s next would you like’
Having a foresight to what you want and how you plan to achieve it helps you tame your monkey mind and see things clearly.Often, we go into these crucial conversations without giving a thought on way forward which sometime backfires on us. Rescan your trajectory and how the organization is thinking to keep some suggestions handy for an insightful discussion with seniors.
Always think about ‘How could it be done better’
Offlately I have realized that we don’t put thoughts on enhancing the efficiency of efforts on our closed projects. We get blinded by positive outcomes that we feel what we did was the best way, but a times that can be a one time luck of favourable circumstances. Take this review cycle as an opportunity to introspect and talk with your mates on building effective methods at work.
Hacks to make your self review stand out
Now that you have accumulated all your projects and performance together, it’s time to pend down for your supervisor. Your clarity of thoughts and style of operating in the team is the game changer for your review and here are some tips that can help you showcase them better:
Highlight your key work with due credit to your team
Talk about your standalone and team work separately and highlight key learnings from those projects. As you grow up the ladder, it is tough to differentiate the impact of work but one thing that can justify it is the project outcome.
Connect your response with your KRA
Your responses and KRAs can’t talk two different languages, just to showcase your work. They have to be synced up and a correlation has to be stated, and your self tracker will come in handy.
Add impact and outcome of your projects
Quantitative and qualitative, both equally matters when it comes to review cycle. Your impact can be the learnings for future projects or details of what worked for us. Numbers add the weight to your work and don’t forget to mention them when you get a chance to.
Brag (Don’t) about yourself
Review is not the battleground to play lowkey, infact go all-out to talk about how have you delivered your work the last year.
If you believe people are fundamentally good and worthy of trust, you must be honest and transparent with them. That includes telling them when they are lagging behind in their performance. But having a mission-driven, purposeful workplace also requires that you approach people with sensitivity.” – Laszlo Bock, Author
Managing your Manager :P
Managers are key personnel to manage us, but let’s reverse the riles and turn the tables for this process. Am I asking you to manipulate the manager? Yes and No, and if at all you choose to do it, be smart and rational with this approach. Here’s how you can do it:
Pass on the growth pressure to your manager
Trust your boss and pass on your growth fears to them. Communicate effectively about how you think and perceive about the future for self and for your organization/ team.
Avoid overwhelming responses
Just because you have given a fair share of mind space in preparing the review, avoid feeling overwhelmed with your work and related talks. Seek your manager’s feedback on what he think about your performance.
Be an Active listener
As stated before, take this as an opportunity to be patient and listen to your manager’s thoughts on work, projects, career path and business. Trust me, that one hour discussion goes a long way and even become a guiding force for your next cycle
State your points clearly
Having a disconnect during discussion is okay, but don’ lose your calm and respond to the facts (avoid reacting). Don’t reach to conclusions immediately and take some time to introspect on the conversation; if required schedule another brief discussion slot. Safeguard yourself from moving into next cycle with a confused or negative viewpoint.
There’s no doubt that the entire process adds extra stress on you and your performance, but the key to outshine is to always focus on growth and learnings. Competition and complex org structures make it difficult for decision makers to always meet your expectations. So, go with an open mind, lay down your thoughts clearly and add value to them and self. These are difficult conversations yet much required to ensure that you evolve. Treat it as a next step in your journey and not a blocker in your path.
Hope today’s blog helps you to look at the bigger picture of the process and prepare yourself and the environment right :)
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If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.”
Michelle Obama