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Nail Year-End Reviews: How to Reflect, Grow, and Get Promoted · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
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  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert.
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  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
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  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
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  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
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  so you can show up with confidence at work.
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  Hello. Everyone, it's that time of year
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  again, Your interviews, I think we're probably all going through
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  it, assessing how we did, assessing how our teams did,
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  looking at our goals. I hate the paperwork of.
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  It I know, I know I when I was writing the script for this one,
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  I was like, oh, there's going to be like a collective eye roll
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  about year end reviews, especially if you have a big
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  team and you have like a lot of direct reports and you have to
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  go through like 15 different reviews of people.
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  So I know every single company does reviews differently.
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  So some have a formal process, some don't have a formal
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  process, some don't even have your end reviews at all.
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  I have been at companies that have a mix, so a very, very
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  formal like 4 * a year process with 360 feedback and which is
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  like peer feedback. And then I've been at companies
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  where you just write your own review and your manager signs
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  off on it or ones where just your manager writes your review
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  and you maybe do it once a year, if that maybe you may have
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  forgotten about it, do it another year.
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  So I don't know about you car. What have you experienced?
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  No, I think you're right. I have the same experience where
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  when you come into a company, it's interesting even when you
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  join and you don't know where you are in the cycle because I
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  feel like companies run it differently.
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  So I also, and I don't know if this has been your experience, I
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  feel like the more formal and large a company is, the more
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  formalized and transparent they are about review processes.
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  So I've definitely been at places that have structured like
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  systems where you are putting in your goals and then those goals
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  you that you get reminded of what those goals are.
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  And then I've been at places that are much more casual and
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  it's more about just you and your boss connecting.
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  You mentioned 360 reviews and just for folks who haven't been
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  through that, often times they're blinded where you'll
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  invite a bunch of people or people will be selected by maybe
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  your manager and they'll be submitting things about you and
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  then you get all the feedback anonymized.
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  So you maybe don't know or you see the patterns in what people
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  are saying, but you maybe don't know who said what.
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  One of the things about reviews is, yeah, it can be really
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  interesting, right? Because you're, you might be
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  asking someone who's a cross functional partner you don't
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  work with every day and they might have an interesting
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  perspective about how they work with you or what you've done
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  really well. And I actually really like the
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  peer feedback part because you can hear from people who aren't
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  your managers and get really good feedback.
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  It's documenting your work and your performance.
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  So for example, like if you get a new manager and your old
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  manager left and they have no contacts, they can go and read
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  your reviews and kind of see what type of performer you are,
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  what you've done in the past. So there is a lot of like HR I'm
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  Air quoting types of reasons for reviews and the purposes that
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  they can serve. But we're going to talk about
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  how you can make sure it's the best for you and you can really
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  utilize it to get value and reflect.
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  I'm so excited about this because for me it always feels
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  like judgement day or like I said, paperwork.
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  You're filling out a rubric, you're getting reminded of what
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  you like set out to do 6 months to a year ago.
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  And yeah, so. So one of the things I would say
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  before we dig into like specifics about the year end
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  review is things that you can do during the year to make this
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  process much easier. And I think I've mentioned it on
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  a lot of on a lot of podcasts in the past, but I keep like a
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  self-assessment document. So as things happen throughout
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  the year, I throw in wins and I throw in the data and the links
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  because what happens is you get to the end of the year and
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  you're like, Oh my God, what did I do?
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  And it's really hard to remember 11 months of work.
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  And I think the other thing I want to call out is that these
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  are very helpful to make sure that the work that was set out
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  in your job description matches the work that you're doing.
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  So try to set reminders throughout the year to kind of
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  like revisit. And then it makes it also easier
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  at the year end to not be like, Oh my God, I said I was supposed
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  to do this a year ago and I haven't even revisited it.
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  So even if it's just like a quick review here and there
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  throughout the year, just for yourself to check in and make
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  sure that it matches. Because a lot of times these
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  year end reviews are tied to compensation or bonuses.
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  And that's why a lot of people focus on them because what gets
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  measured gets managed. And we had an episode about
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  that. For me, they're always about
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  proving yourself and thinking about the ways that not only did
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  you complete the tasks, but contribute to the bottom line
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  and also like move your responsibilities forward, like
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  grow your responsibilities. And for anyone who's listening,
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  going, I haven't done that for this year.
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  Just set a New Year's resolution that you'll do it in the coming
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  year and do what you can with this year's.
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  Exactly. And so let's talk about a couple
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  things to remember as you're writing your your interview or
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  helping your employees write your reviews.
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  So number one is be specific. And that's where the
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  self-assessment really helps. Like what data do you have?
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  What impact did you make? Like how many campaigns did you
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  set up? Like what was the output that
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  you did or what were the results that you saw from it?
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  It's much easier to be specific because then people can point to
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  examples and then tie that back to the work that you've done.
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  So as much as you can try to be like super clear, even if
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  someone gave you like praise in an e-mail, save that e-mail or
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  copy and paste that and include it in because it showcases what
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  you did well, specifically about the work that you've already
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  done. When I, anytime I've managed
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  A-Team, I actually keep a folder of the compliments that I send,
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  the compliments that other people send or examples of
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  people's work that I want to revisit.
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  Yeah, when I, when I want to revisit.
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  So anticipate that your boss may be doing this and they may be
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  saving the negative stuff too. That would be natural for them
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  to do. So know that that's happening
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  and do it for yourself. I love that the other one, use
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  them to help you grow, right? Like this is an opportunity.
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  We had a feedback week, Listen to feedback week.
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  It's a great way to think about giving peer feedback or
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  receiving feedback during your year end review.
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  These are there to help you look at what you did well, where
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  there's opportunities for you to grow.
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  So try to come into it and approach it in that way and look
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  at it as a value renewable mechanism rather than another
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  chore, which I know is really hard because you have your
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  regular job and then you have to write all these reviews, but try
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  to think of them as a way to help you grow.
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  You're reminding me, Lauren, have you been at places that
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  actually have that as a mandate? What do you want to learn in the
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  coming year? Yes, I have.
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  That's been a part of the year end review.
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  Like where do you want to develop?
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  What pieces do you want to get more involved in?
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  That's a good reflection point that I've had in a lot of my
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  year end reviews. Yeah, and I would say same.
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  And I would say that if that's coming up for you, definitely be
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  as honest as possible. It's kind of valuable, I think
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  to reflect on what the business needs, but also what you want in
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  your career. Cause often times there is some
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  funding for training courses. So I've had direct employees
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  actually like do their research and say, can we afford this
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  training program for me or here's the copy of a book I
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  want. And you, you often have a little
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  bit of development money to like, help people learn what
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  they want to learn. I love that and that leads
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  really well into the the next point, which is leverage them
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  for new opportunities because most of the time a review is
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  followed by a conversation with your manager to go over the
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  review and talk about things you did really well.
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  Maybe areas where you can stretch into in your next role,
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  Talk about a promotion. That's a great time to express
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  like, hey, I'm looking to move into this role or what are the
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  things I need to do to get to the next level?
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  So it's also a conduit to have that conversation with your
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  manager if you don't already have those set up throughout the
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  year. If you want to jump to a
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  different function or get involved in the specific
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  project, it's a great way to use this time to have that
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  conversation with your manager. Yeah, and there's some low
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  hanging fruit that is going to be available to your manager,
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  like introducing you to people in other departments if you
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  express interest in learning their roles.
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  Like there are some things that isn't going to take your manager
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  much effort at all. It was an easy ask to help you
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  get to know the business. Well.
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  I'm curious, Lauren, have you had folks also use your end
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  reviews as options to like give your boss feedback as well or
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  talk about the team dynamics? Yeah, actually my first job out
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  of college, my boss actually during year end reviews asked us
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  all to give her a review and share feedback and things that
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  went well and things we liked and things we didn't.
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  And I really liked that because sometimes it's hard to give your
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  boss feedback, right? But if they're asking for it and
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  they're allowing this time to be the opportunity to have that
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  conversation, that was super powerful.
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  Yeah, and I think you've brought up a good point, which is sort
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  of know if your manager is open to that or if you yourself think
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  they might need feedback are this might not be the time
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  understand what their expectations of this event are.
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  Because sometimes they're thinking about it too, depending
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  on how many direct reports they have as the paperwork they need
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  to file or the number of people that they can give a promotion
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  to or how they can justify keeping people on the same pay
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  grade. Like sometimes that is legit
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  what your boss is doing. Not to make anyone paranoid, but
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  they have their own sort of agenda.
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  You might not know the full extent of it, but then other
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  times you it's an actual moment to like really connect with
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  someone. So getting kind of a sense or a
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  vibe, asking the folks around you who might have been on the
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  team longer if this is your first time going through it, or
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  even getting like the documentation from HR to
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  understand what the expectation is around paperwork.
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  Because the other thing you want to do is like fill this out to
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  the best extent you can. Sometimes they're literally just
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  making sure that like you fully filled it out.
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  You shouldn't show up to a review without sort of doing
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  your homework. I think that's a great point
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  about HR. There's a lot of resources
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  around year end reviews that they have, so definitely utilize
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  them. There's a lot of questions you
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  can ask, There's a lot of frameworks and rubrics to help
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  you think about it. So there's a lot of resources
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  available to you. Yeah.
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  So even though your interviews can cause an eye roll and give
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  me a lot of extra work, they can be super helpful for you to
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  reflect about yourself, about your team, about your leader and
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  to set goals for the year. So try to be clear about what
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  you achieved and be specific. Listen and learn where it might
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  be helpful to build into your growth plan.
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  And try to look at this as an opportunity to assess how you
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  did and where you're going next. Good luck everybody.
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  And that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us on
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  Unspoken Career Truths. Don't forget to follow us on
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  share it with a friend.