Dont be Left Hanging in Your Performance Review!

I have many clients who come to me during their Annual Performance Review (APR) cycle to ascertain what they can do to secure a high (translation: deserved) APR rating and a good review. Most of these discussions happen about a month before their actual APR timeline. At this time it is almost too late for my clients to influence the outcome of their APR, other than to just prepare for what might end up being a series of unpleasant surprises despite their confidence in the great work they did throughout the APR cycle during the previous year.

Why does this happen?

There are many reasons why APR sessions disappoint employees. For one, most managers see this as a burden than a boon (which it can be if done right!) to their leadership platform. Second, these APRs are done on a timetable with all of them coming at once. So, to many managers this creates a major problem in managing their workload, as all the routine work (endless firefighting) continues unabated. Additionally, most organizations treat this as a nice-to-have, rather than as a requirement for any manager who has direct reports. So, the penalty for doing a poor review or for treating this in a cavalier manner is small to none, so most managers treat it that way. The consequence is that those reporting to such a manger get disenchantedeven demoralizedbecause there is little or no differentiation between mediocrity and excellence.

In the cases where managers do take APRs seriously a hardworking employee, who has delivered excellent results is not guaranteed to have a commensurate review to reflect their contributions. So, when these concerned clients come to me they go through great lengths to explain to me all the outstanding work that they have done and how much they have contributed to their workgroups and teams success. Yet when they receive their final review and rating during the APR process they are often disappointed.

So, what are some of the countermeasures one can take to have your great work result in an equally great APR? Here are my suggestions:

1. At the beginning of the APR cycle make sure that you have a solid agreement of goals and roles with your manager. Make sure that they are quantified, measurable, and agreed-to (SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound).
2. Prioritize these goals and agree to these priorities with your boss. In other words agree that if #4 goal is partially met because of a vendor delay you will ratchet-up you #2 goal by 10% (or whatever you agree to).
3. Be aware of what is important to your boss. In the APR plan your boss may agree to these priorities and SMART goals, yet from their political lens other putative priorities may be even more important, but they cannot always be listed in your APR plan. For example, your boss may be striving to get visibility as a good performer in front of their superiors and they see this translated into presentations and demos to bosses in their peer group and to their higher ups, etc. (managing the optics). In such cases have a discussion with your boss and ask them what is important to them that is NOT in your APR plan. Flesh it out with some in-depth discussion. If your manager is not forthcoming on this suggest some ideas and present plans until their face lights up. Then figure out how to showcase that aspect of your contribution to your managers success.
4. During your ongoing meetings with your boss bring up the progress on the SMART goals in addition to the ones you do for the optics. This will enhance your boss view of your true contributions (making them look good).
5. If you do not have opportunities readily available to make visible your work to the higher-ups ask for help from your boss and others to open avenues for this to happen for you. If that, too, comes short then learn how to write great emails about your successes that reach the higher-ups without making them look gratuitous, repetitive, or boastful.
6. Do a semi-annual waypoint check on your progress and have a discussion with your boss about where you are on some of the key SMART goals you signed up for and if you are going to meet the targets based on your rate of progress at that point. Make adjustments as required (both up or down) and document them in a message to the manager and to your file. This is now your revised APR baseline
7. A month or so before the APR timeline remind your manager of the progress and show results of your work so that there is clear understanding of how you have performed throughout the year. Do not forget to bring in items that went above and beyond.
8. If you see any surprises looming on this front have a discussion also with your HR representative and ask for guidance on what can be done to get what you deserve on your APR rating.
9. When you sit down with your manager for your APR discussion make sure that you are prepared to openly listen to what is delivered to you without too much resistance, objection, or interruption. Let the manager present their view and then, depending on the outcome, decide to respond in that meeting or ask for another meeting after having a chance to reflect on the proceedings. The latter is a much better strategy if there are too many surprises in the APR.

• Before you sign-off on your APR make sure that you agree to what is written in that document and ignore any oral promises your boss may make to get you to sign because of the time pressure. Some managers sweet-talk their employees with oral promises of changes and they remain just that. To protect against such possibilities if a promise is made that is outside the write-up being signed send an immediate email to your boss stating what was promised to you and how that is going to be carried out.

Too many employees deal with the APRs in a passive way and do not take enough proactive measures to protect their career and how they advance in their organizations, as a result. Often they are left hanging (a la that cat above) in suspense. If you employ some of the suggestions here you may protect your APR rating and how you advance in your career.

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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