How To Prepare For Performance

How To Prepare For A Performance Review

As with any meeting, preparation is key and it really is about building a business case that supports the outcomes you want to achieve from the review.

With this in mind, we would recommend considering the following questions:

• When was your last performance review and what performance or development milestones did you agree on?

• What problems can you solve now that you couldn’t solve at the previous review?

• What do you see as your areas of development or what would you like to be better at?

• What outcomes would you like to achieve from this performance review?

When was your last performance review and what performance or development milestones did you agree on?

We want to start from a point of if you met or exceeded expectations from the previous performance review.

If the answer is no, then we really need to have some clear reasons as to why not, what you could have done differently and how you are going to make the appropriate changes moving forward.

If the answer is yes, then we can start building a case towards one of your desired outcomes, usually:

• Salary;

• Autonomy; OR

• Promotion.

What problems can you solve now that you couldn’t solve at the previous review?

As above, it is about building a case towards what you want out of the review.

The purpose of this really is to take some time to think about what you have done since the last review and ensure that you come prepared with real examples of the different problems you can solve, or more importantly the problems that your manager/director etc no longer needs to worry about.

What do you see as your areas of development or what would you like to be better at?

It is all well and good to tell everyone how great you are, however it is really important to take a step back and consider your performance from your manager's perspective.

It will give you an opportunity to address underlying concerns of your manager and ensure that you have the opportunity to have an open conversation about them.

In addition to the above, by having these conversations openly with your manager it will get them engaged in your success.

What outcomes would you like to achieve from this performance review?

The final and probably most important point to consider is what do you actually want to get out of your performance review?

For most people it will be some combination of:

• Salary;

• Career advancement;

• Autonomy.

Salary

• Do you know what you are worth in the market?

• What is that opinion based on?

• Have you benchmarked your skills against others in the market with similar experience?

• Why might your salary be higher/lower than others?

Career Advancement

• What career advancement opportunities do you want in the next 12 months?

• What skills do you need to develop to get there?

• What would your manager like to see out of you in the next 12 months to give them confidence you can perform at that level?

• Do you think you are going to be able to get those skills where you are?

Autonomy

There is a big difference between Autonomy and Work From Home (WFH).

A lot of businesses will gladly give people more autonomy because it means they will have more time to focus on other value-add activities.

If there are specific areas of concern, i.e. you do not feel like you have an opportunity to make mistakes or you feel like you are being micromanaged in a specific area, bring it up in the meeting. It is important to bring it up in the right way, use specific examples however most people will be reasonably receptive to discussing how to get the best out of you.

Regarding WFH, we would encourage you to consider how your ability to perform your role will be affected by you not being in the office.

Essentially, if you are in a staff management role or there is a high level of stakeholder engagement working from home more than 1-2 days per week is going to be hard to justify.

Same goes if you are junior in your career and need a lot of training and development.

If however, you are very experienced in your role and you can just get on with it, most businesses will be happy enough to offer you the work from home you are looking for.

As a side note, be specific about what you need and the effect some flexibility will have on your life.

If you have commitments, for example you might play sport at a high level and training is at 5.30 every Tuesday, businesses are usually reasonably accommodating.

In Summary

You get out what you put in, if you take the time to prepare real examples, speak with a professional about what you are actually worth in the current market and build a business case, you will give yourself the best chance of a positive outcome.

If you are worried about how to broach these subjects, get in contact, vie email peter@halbowman.com.au