Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 19. Figure out how to prepare (in advance!) for your performance review

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19. Figure out how to prepare (in advance!) for your performance review · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

0:00
Hello and welcome back to the all figured out podcast.
0:03
I am your host friend in your ears career coach Mom and person
0:07
who is just a cheerleader in your corner.
0:11
I am the host of the all figured out podcast.
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Thank you so much for joining me today.
0:15
I am so thankful for all of you who have been tuning in week
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after week and sharing with me. Everything that you've learned
0:20
from this podcast, from my solo episodes like this one coming up
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or even the amazing guests that I have on.
0:27
We've had some real stars and I Just love hearing your takeaways
0:31
from the episodes and even some of the tips that you've
0:33
implemented in your life already.
0:35
Before we get into today's episode, I just want to let you
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know, a little secret that I've got on my website.
0:41
So if you ever hear me talk about a resource or a worksheet,
0:45
I often will take those tips that I have, put them into
0:47
worksheets and we'll put them onto my website under a tab,
0:50
that's called free resources. So if you go to Aundrea, bar.com
0:55
and go to the very top and the very right hand corner, there is
0:58
a button that says free Earth is that is where you can actually
1:01
find all of my downloads that I mentioned.
1:04
So some recent ones that I've put up there have been the five
1:06
steps to Career Clarity for parents.
1:08
It's a really awesome workbook that I created just to help any
1:12
of you who just want to get a little bit more career Clarity
1:14
in your life and based on a recent episode that I have the
1:19
interview prep guide. So this is all sorts of
1:21
interview questions that you your friend or your partner can
1:25
download so that you can be completely prepared for any sort
1:29
of interviews that you. Have coming up the episode that
1:31
I did on this recently was actually all about how to just
1:34
get started in the job searching process and one of my tips, I'll
1:38
make sure that I linked that episode in the show notes.
1:40
One of the tips is actually to start with the interview prep
1:43
guide first. So listen to that episode to
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find out why, and make sure you had to andreea bar.com and go
1:49
over to the tab called free resources to find any of my free
1:53
resources that you feel are applicable to you at this point.
1:57
So for today's episode, I'm going to be walking you through
2:00
Through 10 things that you can be keeping track of all year
2:03
long. Well, in advance of your
2:04
performance review, in an effort, to make those review
2:08
Seasons easier, more meaningful, and ultimately more successful.
2:13
And to put it bluntly to make sure that you get recognized.
2:16
For all the hard work that you do in your 9 to 5, or whatever
2:19
your corporate, or outside of the home career looks like.
2:23
And let's call a spade a spade, let's get you that big fat
2:26
raise. You're listening to the all
2:29
figured out podcast, I'm your host Aundrea bar.
2:34
As a career coach for parents, a mom and entrepreneur.
2:37
And someone who spent ten plus years in the corporate world, I
2:41
still don't have it all figured out and maybe you don't.
2:44
Either this podcast, I'll share tools and strategies that I use
2:47
as my client and in the many areas where I don't have things
2:51
figured out, I'll be bringing you some amazing guest experts
2:53
to help us fill in the gaps. So tune in each week as we
2:57
explore how to make career and life decisions that truly work
3:00
for you, your family and your big goals.
3:04
Let's make moves. In my corporate career, I
3:09
actually worked in career development.
3:11
In-house at a large organization in the retail industry and I
3:16
supported every year with the review period.
3:18
So you might call it a review, a performance review.
3:23
I think trying to think of other things that people call it.
3:26
But I think, you know what I'm talking about.
3:27
It's that time where you sit down with a manager, or someone
3:30
who's probably more, senior than yourself, and you just talked
3:33
about the year that's past or the period That's past.
3:37
And you look at some Gold. You look at how everything is
3:40
gone, your accomplishments and things like that.
3:42
And he talked about, then the future.
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So, what's next, what are you working on next?
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How can things improve, and that sort of thing.
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So, I've seen performance reviews done really, really
3:52
well, both from the manager side and the employee side and I've
3:56
seen them go just terribly wrong.
4:01
And I think that a huge piece of this is, of course, the
4:05
structure of the performance review from the organization.
4:08
Um, so, you know, when I worked in house and we were working on
4:10
the performance review cycle, we were constantly, trying to think
4:13
of ways to make the process easier more efficient, just more
4:18
meaningful to both the employee. The company, the manager and
4:21
everything like that. So that's one piece of it.
4:22
We're not really talking about that today.
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I'm talking about the work that you can do in advance of your
4:27
performance review to really make it a meaningful
4:29
conversation. And so I have seen it go wrong.
4:32
I've seen it go wrong in being a manager myself and having
4:36
employees, come to the table, Completely unprepared or I've
4:41
seen it. Go really well and seen
4:42
employees come to the table, incredibly well prepared and it
4:46
just makes for such a great conversation and I want to share
4:50
some tips with you on how to be in the latter category of that.
4:55
I want you to walk into that performance review and remind
4:58
your manager. Why you are such a rock star,
5:01
why you deserve a huge raise, why you deserve to be there and
5:06
why there are so incredibly? Lucky to have you on their team.
5:10
When I coach clients through this work, I always always
5:12
always ask them what is important to your manager and
5:16
what is important to their boss. Now, I do want to say that
5:19
you're playing a game by any sort of means when you're
5:22
talking to somebody, you want to really be thinking about, you
5:25
know, what kind of conversation do I want to be striking up
5:27
here? That is really thinking about
5:29
where this person's coming from? Well what will be interesting to
5:32
them. And so when you're actually
5:33
preparing for the performance review and you're thinking about
5:36
what you want to keep track of, Over the year, I want you to
5:39
frame it in terms of what is important to my manager to know
5:42
about me and what is important for them to be able to brag on
5:46
my behalf to their manager, another way to look at.
5:50
It would be, what accomplishments of mine will
5:52
make my boss look great. So, that's something I'm going
5:55
to leave you with as food for thought, as you are thinking
5:58
about, how to continuously prepare for your next
6:00
performance review period. Arguably, one of the most
6:02
important times in the year that will support the your future
6:07
endeavors in or career both from a financial perspective and for
6:10
your growth and as we know your career affects a lot of other
6:14
aspects of your life. So what I have here are 10
6:18
things that you can be keeping track of well in advance of your
6:21
performance review throughout the year to again make the
6:24
review season just so much more smooth and so much more
6:28
meaningful meaningful, so that you walk away feeling really
6:32
good really inspired meaningful. So that your manager walks away,
6:35
feeling really good and really inspired by you.
6:38
And like I said before, let's get you a raise, if that's in
6:42
the question. So, here are the 10 tips for how
6:45
to prepare for your performance review while in advance, okay?
6:49
Number one in your checklist is pretty obvious, but I have to
6:52
call it out. It's actually looking back at
6:55
your performance review from the last time you did this.
6:59
I know mind blowing, I'm thinking back on my years in the
7:02
corporate world, I can truly say that until I got into you know
7:07
actually working Career and people development.
7:10
I don't think I did this once. It's so funny.
7:12
How much time and effort you can put into this, how you can
7:15
scrutinize over every word, how you can spend the time, having a
7:18
conversation with your manager, you sign off on it, they sign
7:22
off on it. It's this whole shebang.
7:25
And then often times, I would say, if I were to just guess I
7:29
would say, 90, 95 percent of the time, a performance review is
7:33
never looked back on again. Maybe some of the goals,
7:36
especially if their Performance Based goals.
7:38
If you work in a commission based roll, that's a totally
7:40
different story but just kind of the goals that are set so that
7:44
you can just be working towards developing towards something.
7:47
Often times. Those aren't looked back on so
7:50
right there and then that is such low-hanging fruit for you
7:53
to go back and actually just take a look open up the hood and
7:56
just take a look at what it was that you and your manager talked
7:59
about the last time you did this work and that can be a really
8:01
great jumping-off point to kind of frame what it is that you
8:04
want to be re-evaluating throughout the year.
8:07
A lot of the motivation for wanting to actually do this
8:09
episode is I just personally found it really time intensive
8:13
and kind of annoying sometimes to have to go back and do these
8:18
performance reviews but especially doing them when you
8:21
know that they don't go anywhere and that they're never
8:23
referenced again. So if you have to put this time
8:26
and effort in, why not make it something that you can actually
8:29
feel excited by and come back to, and really work with your
8:33
manager through go back. Look at your previous
8:35
performance review and really pull out the point.
8:38
There that you can be tracking throughout the year so that can
8:40
be kind of like your Baseline. Do it in a way that feels good
8:43
for you. So, for some people that's going
8:45
to be creating a spreadsheet, a word doc.
8:47
It could be like the notes on your phone.
8:50
It give you a no plug, whatever it is, but just a way to
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continue to kind of remind yourself.
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What are some of those goals that we set?
8:56
What were the conversation points that we really kept
8:59
coming back to that? I could be referencing next year
9:02
and again the whole theme of this episode is going to be if
9:05
you can get ahead of some of this work and just slowly keep
9:08
Back over the year, you're not going to have that huge headache
9:11
when it comes time to put pen to paper for your performance
9:13
review and when you're doing your self-evaluation, all right?
9:16
The second thing here is something that I have done
9:20
myself in the past and that is having a brag box.
9:24
Now I don't know what I used to call it before, I think I just
9:27
called it like my happy face folder which sounds kind of
9:30
silly thing and it allowed known to a microphone but I've seen it
9:33
on Tick, Tock and Instagram. Now it's actually a thing that
9:35
people do. I thought it was just something
9:37
that I Figure it out myself, so go figure.
9:40
Now if you're old school, you can literally create like a
9:43
sparkly box with construction paper that you drop little notes
9:46
to yourself in. I like to do this in the form of
9:49
an email inbox. And what I do is every time I
9:52
get an email that makes me smile, or I even sent an email,
9:56
that makes me feel really good and confident and I'm like, yes,
9:59
you know, I really stood my ground in that email or whatever
10:01
it was, especially when I was in the corporate world.
10:04
Or if I received an email where I received praise for something
10:07
or Or, you know, I got some results back from a campaign
10:11
that I worked on in the past or I get, you know these days.
10:14
It'll be emails from clients with their huge wins, which just
10:18
feels so incredibly good and make some of those hard days
10:22
really, really meaningful. So create an inbox that you can
10:26
come back to you. I think this is probably the top
10:28
tip. This should have been number
10:29
one. The brag box is such an easy way
10:33
to just kind of file things away.
10:34
It's kind of like with your taxes when you're saving
10:36
receipts like most We'll have some sort of system in, which
10:39
they can save their charity receipts, and things like that.
10:43
It's like that. So when it comes time to the end
10:45
of the year, kind of like tax season, when it comes upon you,
10:48
you can look back on the rag box.
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This little folder that you've created, and you actually look
10:52
through and be like, oh yeah, that happened.
10:54
Oh yeah, that happened. Another theme for this episode.
10:57
Is that humans have terrible memories and so this is going to
11:01
help. You remember all that you've
11:03
accomplished all the amazing things that have happened and
11:06
Ergo it's going to make you be Able to remind gently, remind
11:10
your manager or your organization.
11:12
Why you're so great. The third piece here is
11:14
outlining for yourself and reminding yourself any sort of
11:17
obstacles that you've overcome over the year.
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What I mean by this is not so much like the mental obstacles
11:22
of the mental hurdles or the personal things that you've kind
11:25
of overcome. Those things are going to happen
11:27
for sure. But what are some of those
11:29
external obstacles that you faced internally in your job,
11:33
with clients related to your job, and the work that you do
11:37
that. You overcame and overcame, you
11:40
know, with Grace, with success and so on.
11:44
So some examples of this could be, you know, you had a really
11:46
really challenging client who fired the organization or you
11:51
were working with somebody who was a, really big challenge in.
11:54
Your manager was totally aware of that, and it was just
11:56
something that you were actually able to resolve and preserve
11:59
that relationship. What are some of those pieces
12:02
that you were able to overcome? I think sometimes we think about
12:05
like the really big Grand winds. Like you know, I moved the
12:08
needle on this project we you know increase Revenue by fifty
12:12
percent or some of those pieces and those are amazing and we're
12:15
going to get to that for sure. But I think that what people are
12:18
really inspired by as we all love that Underdog Story.
12:22
We love to hear about people overcoming obstacles.
12:24
I think about any movie that I love that if you know, has like
12:27
a sports team or something like that, it's, it's always starting
12:32
off in a position where there's hardship and witnessing and
12:35
seeing the person overcometh. So, what are some of Stories for
12:38
yourself that you can be sharing with your manager.
12:41
Number four. This is a really cool one.
12:42
This is one that I think again gets really overlooked and it is
12:45
what are some of the opportunities or we could use
12:48
the word weaknesses that you've identified in yourself, over the
12:51
last year. It could have been something
12:53
from your past performance review or could be something
12:55
that's popped up. And what are the steps that
12:57
you've been taking to overcome that or grow in that area?
13:03
So, say public speaking is something that you've been
13:05
working on over the past year, And maybe you're not even had a
13:09
point yet, where you feel, like you even want to get up in front
13:12
of more than two people and speak.
13:15
But what are the steps that you've been taking to get to
13:17
that point? So it's not all about the
13:19
successes, it's not about getting to an end result in
13:21
something. It's about showing that you've
13:23
been really trying and that you're really committed so say
13:26
your manager did actually bring up.
13:28
Hey I'd love for you to get more confident and more excited about
13:31
public speaking. It's going to be really
13:33
important in your roll down the line.
13:35
Blah blah blah. So you're not quite there yet.
13:37
You know, public, Is one of those things that I think we can
13:39
all continuously strive to get better and so I don't really
13:42
believe that there's actually an end result and maybe you don't
13:45
even feel like you want to get up in front of more than those
13:48
two people. So what can you be telling your,
13:51
your manager, your organization? How can you be showing them that
13:53
you're working to overcome? This what are some of the
13:57
stretch assignments that you've taken on for yourself?
13:59
What are some of the meetings where you have spoken up?
14:01
And hey maybe it's not gone very well.
14:03
Are you didn't feel great about it but you tried what are some
14:05
of those opportunities that you've given In yourself to
14:08
really Flex that skill and kind of like the overcoming obstacles
14:11
point. That I was just talking about
14:13
the person who tries hard the person who's really putting an
14:16
effort even if they're not the best, I mean, come on.
14:19
Those are the people that we all gravitate towards and are
14:22
rooting for. So come up with that list of
14:25
what are some of the opportunities or some of the
14:27
weaknesses that you've been working to rectify?
14:29
What are the steps that you've been taking?
14:30
Whether you've been successful or not, showing your work and
14:34
showing the progress that you are striving to make the next
14:37
few years? You're going to be a bit more
14:39
related to your business outcomes.
14:41
So Point number five, here is financial results.
14:44
So if you are in an organization where there's any sort of tie in
14:48
your role to financial results, of course, those are things.
14:50
You should be keeping track of. Now again, this is all about
14:53
getting prepared for the performance review period.
14:56
So it's not daunting, it's not this huge task that you have to
14:58
spend hours and hours and hours on.
15:00
So what's a system that you can come up with to continue to keep
15:04
track of some of the financial results that you have seen in
15:07
your role? Well, now, if you're an internal
15:09
resource like the last corporate job that I had, I was a cost
15:12
center, I was an internal resource.
15:13
I was not somebody who was affecting the bottom line in a
15:17
really linear way. If that's you, that is totally
15:20
fine. So, how can you actually think
15:22
about the efficiencies, or where you have saved money for the
15:26
organization Point? Number six, what have you done?
15:29
That has supported the Strategic objectives of your Ridge
15:32
apartment or of your organization.
15:35
Now, most work set Regardless of the structure, regardless, if
15:40
you're a huge corporation or if you're small, they've done some
15:43
sort of strategic planning, you know, the group that you work
15:45
for has done some sort of strategic planning to really map
15:48
out. Whether it's the next one,
15:49
three, five, ten years and likewise hopefully your manager
15:54
or the people that you work alongside have come up with some
15:57
more specific objectives for you.
15:59
Your role, the group that you work with in and so start to tie
16:04
your results and the things that you have accomplished to some of
16:08
the Strategic objectives. So kind of like just any of
16:10
these points that I'm making here.
16:12
What are some of the key outcomes that you have achieved
16:15
that have helped to move the needle.
16:16
Again, strategic objectives and point.
16:19
Number seven here is from a cultural perspective, how have
16:22
you done the same? So how have you been a champion
16:25
of the culture? How have you moved the needle on
16:28
any sort of the cultural goals that you might have in your job
16:32
in your role? That the company might have say
16:35
it's for attention or mentorship?
16:38
For things like that. What if you done that, I really
16:40
supported the culture. I want to point out that a lot
16:43
of the pieces related, to culture often extracurricular.
16:46
And so, it's really important to mention those because they're
16:49
probably things that you're doing at the side of your desk
16:53
or other things that you're doing and you're having to come
16:55
in early or stay late, or you're just working hard to make the
16:59
environment at work are really great place for yourself to be
17:03
for your co-workers, to be in a place that we spend a lot of
17:06
time. So keep track.
17:07
Of those. I know a lot of times, we really
17:09
think about the financial and the Strategic results that we
17:13
have in the year. And a lot of times, these
17:15
performance review, questionnaires, if you're
17:16
feeling went out as a self-assessment, they don't
17:19
always bring up culture. And so I think it's really,
17:22
really worth making notice some of those and weaving them into
17:25
the conversation that you have during your performance review.
17:28
Number 8, but are some of the management results that you've
17:31
had. If you are a direct manager of
17:33
anybody below you or even if you're a mentor or you have
17:37
people on your team, And that you support in any sort of way.
17:40
How have you led with Grace, with Effectiveness with success?
17:46
What are some of the results that you can be sharing that you
17:49
have had with other members of your team or other members of
17:52
the organization? This could also be managing
17:54
clients. So if you are an individual
17:57
contributor, who works with a lot of clients and you'll have
18:00
some amazing clients that you're really fostering beautiful
18:03
relationships with. You, could have some really
18:05
challenging clients, you could. Have some challenging leaders in
18:09
your organization that are just known to be really challenging.
18:12
How can you bring up some of those wins that you've had
18:15
related to how you have managed others number nine?
18:20
What are some of the extracurricular activities that
18:22
you have partaken in within your organization?
18:25
So well there's the cultural element that I brought up the
18:28
point. Number nine is extracurricular
18:30
involvement. So this isn't always related to
18:32
culture but what are some of the elements that you have taken on
18:36
that have been outside? Of your role and your job
18:39
description. It is super, super important to
18:43
make note of those, not in a passive aggressive way, not in a
18:46
way to say, look at all this stuff that I've done, that's
18:48
outside my job description, but in a way that's saying, hey
18:51
look, there's been a lot of, say, stretch assignments that
18:53
I've taken on. There's been a lot of work that
18:55
I've taken on, that's outside of my scope, and I've been happy to
18:58
do it. You know, I've been happy to be
19:00
a part of the team and roll up my sleeves, but he just wanted
19:03
to call out some of those wins that I've had as well.
19:05
Super important to bring that up.
19:07
Especially when it comes time to just looking at your portfolio
19:10
of work especially as a working parent when you're like, whoa,
19:15
there's just a lot going on. All fronts, it's really
19:18
important to remind yourself of the work that you're doing.
19:20
That is outside of your intended scope and making sure that you
19:24
yourself are giving yourself credit for that.
19:27
And that you're ensuring that you get credit for that from
19:30
your management team and point number 10.
19:32
This would not be a parenting podcast or a podcast
19:35
specifically for parents if I didn't.
19:37
Talk about the life side of things.
19:39
And for this point, it is personal achievements.
19:42
What are the personal achievements that you've
19:44
accomplished over this past year in spite of or alongside being a
19:50
working professional? Now there's some organizations
19:53
that really, really like to bring the whole person into the
19:56
organization, I will use the lemon as an example of one of
19:59
the trendsetters in this space, where they would really
20:02
encourage employees to share goals with one another from the
20:05
personal space, not every organization does This and
20:08
that's totally fine. But I think regardless it's an
20:10
amazing exercise to always, keep track of the fact that you are
20:14
doing an amazing job at work. You are doing so much for so
20:18
many like I always say and it's important to also recognize what
20:22
are some of the things that you've achieved in your personal
20:25
life? Have you had a baby?
20:26
Have you returned from a parental, leave of some sort, in
20:30
addition to point 129, and all the success, all the obstacles
20:35
and opportunities. You've overcome that is the List
20:38
of 10. I hope that this was super
20:39
helpful for you to just start to think about preparing for your
20:43
next performance review cycle whenever that is typically, it
20:47
is about Midway through the year.
20:48
So if your fiscal years does start in January it's coming up
20:52
this spring so I wanted to give you a head start to start to
20:54
make note of some of these elements start to make that brag
20:58
Box. Start to think about your
20:59
financial and your strategic results, the culture results.
21:02
You've had the management results, all those goodies.
21:05
So I will make sure that I put the The link to my blog post
21:09
that's associated with this, in the show notes where I will
21:12
outline all of these tips. So, if you're driving or washing
21:15
dishes or doing whatever, you don't have to be making notes,
21:17
just go to andreea bar.com podcast and that's where you
21:21
find all of the show notes. And I do really detailed show
21:25
notes to make sure that this is one less thing that you have to
21:27
think about. So, I hope you found this
21:29
valuable. I hope that you're taking away
21:31
some nuggets and there's a few things that you can start to
21:33
think about. Even if you don't even put pen
21:35
to paper, there's a few things that you can be thinking.
21:37
Out as you go through your day and your week and you're months
21:41
and your quarters and your year so that you can have really
21:45
really amazing performance review conversations and get
21:48
those phrases that you deserve. I'll talk to you next week.
21:52
Thank you for listening. You can access all resources
21:54
mentioned in this episode via my website andreea bar.com, /
21:58
podcast and let's chat on Instagram.
22:00
I'm at andreea bar coaching and I reply to every DM I get if you
22:05
loved this episode, don't forget to quickly hit that button on
22:07
your Or podcast app to give me a five star rating and drop in a
22:10
review. It would truly mean the world
22:13
and if you're like me and love to share things that you love,
22:17
send this episode to a friend who you think would appreciate
22:19
this topic. Thanks again for listening, and
22:22
I'll chat with you next week. Or podcast app to give me a five
22:09
star rating and drop in a review.
22:11
It would truly mean the world and if you're like me and love
22:15
to share things that you love, send this episode to a friend
22:18
who you think would appreciate this topic.
22:21
Thanks again for listening, and I'll chat with you next week.