Strategic Preparation for Annual Reviews

Janice Chaka:

Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Today I want to talk about performance reviews and what that looks like for an introvert and how to navigate them. Performance reviews in a lot of organisations are held regularly or semi regularly. Sometimes it can be once a year, sometimes it can be twice a year, maybe it's quarterly. It really does depend on the organisation and the department on what's been set up. And performance reviews are one of those things where you are somehow supposed to know and remember what you've done in the previous 6 months, a year, 3 months, etcetera. And this is a really good opportunity for introverts to shine because a lot of the time you might not have been as maybe vocal or visible and so 1 on 1 meetings, but specifically performance reviews, are a really good time for you to hone your skills and hone highlighting the work that you have done in the organization. So I wanna talk about how you can be strategic about your performance review and how to be proactive about documenting your work and identifying key achievements and how to use that to bolster your performance reviews.

Janice Chaka:

So here's the thing, in terms of we thrive here on preparation. So one of the things to do, and start now, I don't care when you are listening to this, if it's performance review season or not, start gathering examples of your work. The way you can do this is by using a log, a journal, a spreadsheet, a happy folder, whatever it is, but at least once a week I need you to go and look back and review what you've done, work you've done towards a project, work you've done towards stretch goals, things that clients have said about you, and have this log. This will reduce the stress when the review approaches because you have all this information there, and this helps you with the data driven approach that you can use to shine at your performance review because you then use that data that you have collected over the past year, 6 months, 3 months, whatever it is, to back up all the accomplishments and the goals that you have done, the milestones that you have done, the extra work that you have done. And, if possible, while you are tracking this, is track metrics and results and any measurable outcomes that you have from your work to help make a stronger case. And this also helps with impostor syndrome because you have the data there. The data was telling you that you did how many hours work on one project, or you were the one that was mentioned that helped everyone on another thing, or that this client said this wonderful thing about you. You have all of this data there, but also doing this on a regular basis helps you keep track of how far you are along with your particular KPIs and metrics.

Janice Chaka:

So going ahead and reflecting on a regular basis means that you can sort of ask reflective questions to yourself such as, what projects have I worked on? What challenges did I overcome? How have I contributed to the team's success? How is this in line with the goals that I set at the start of the year or the middle of the year or whenever it is you last set goals? Has my manager given me any feedback? Is this something that I need to work on or change? Making sure that you review regularly means that you can adjust and pivot as needed, rather than 2 weeks before your performance review, you realize that you are only 20% towards all the targets that you set at the start of the year. It also gives you an opportunity to tweak targets or adjust targets or the wording or the metrics that are being used for the targets. So thinking about these things as in making sure that you prepare, gathering examples of your work throughout the year reflecting on a weekly basis and having one place to put them, reflecting on things that you have worked on, how have you improved your visibility, which people have you worked with, which team members have you worked with, What challenges did you overcome? How did you contribute to the team's, the projects, the organization's success? And the other last real quick thing that you can do is just doing mock reviews with a trusted friend, mentor, or coach that can help you sort of reduce your anxiety and give you conversation and stories to carve around these metrics that you are going to present during your performance review, and that will help you be more confident about it and feel more prepared. Navigating performance reviews doesn't have to be scary. It's just one of those other things because you are the one in charge of your career, not your boss, not your manager. Yes. They have a say in it, but you have to put in the work to make sure that you get recognized for what you do you've done and deserve. And so this is one really important way of doing that.

Janice Chaka:

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Career Intrepid, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.