How to prepare for your performance review: what I see from the other side of the table
What counts in an annual review, why it helps to take notes throughout the year, and how to bring a plan for next year.
By Daniel Schmeiß4 min read- Reflection
I have worked in IT since 2010, and with people responsibility since 2019. So I know performance reviews from both sides of the table. Today I am usually the one leading the conversation. From that side, I see how differently it goes when the other person comes prepared.
An annual review is only half a look back. The other half is a plan for next year.
If you come prepared, you can shape both halves: with examples of what changed because of your work, and with proposals for what comes next.
Take notes throughout the year
By November, much of the spring is forgotten, on both sides. That is why it helps not to wait until just before the meeting to collect notes.
Some of my colleagues keep a document for this and share it with me. They call it a “brag document”. They add topics throughout the year, as soon as something is finished or went well. Before the review, they don’t have to reconstruct anything.
If you don’t have a document like that, go through the projects and topics of your year once before the review. Your calendar, tickets and old presentations help.
What I look for in the look back
Impact. I pay less attention to what someone did than to what changed because of it, especially for the customer and in the company’s key metrics, such as revenue, costs or lead times. “I built the new form” is a task. “Since the new form, fewer customers call support” is impact.
Initiative. I look at whether someone found topics during the year without being asked and implemented or improved them. Good examples are problems in the team or in the technology that many people had accepted for a long time, until someone simply fixed them. For instance, a handover between two teams where information kept getting lost. Or someone hears in a team meeting that figures are copied into a spreadsheet by hand every month, teaches themselves a reporting tool and builds a report that updates itself.
Growth. What counts here is what someone can do today that they couldn’t a year ago. It shows how they have moved themselves forward over the year. That includes saying openly what didn’t go well and what they learned from it.
Sphere of influence. Some things are in your own hands, some you can influence, and some you have no influence on. What someone achieved or improved in the first two says the most about their work.
Of course, what didn’t go well belongs in the conversation. It helps to then work out together how it can go better in the future: what you can contribute yourself and what you specifically need from your manager for it. I see it as my job to put the people I work with in a position to do that.
The same goes for things outside your own area. If something there bothers you, it helps to bring what you have already tried or what you propose. Then the criticism becomes something both sides can work on.
For your own preparation, you can turn this into four questions about your year:
- What changed for customers or in the company’s key metrics because of my work?
- Which topics did I take on without being asked?
- What can I do today that I couldn’t a year ago?
- What did I achieve or improve within my sphere of influence?
The second half: next year
For the plan, three questions help that you can ask yourself beforehand:
- What do I want to achieve next year?
- How do my plans connect to the company’s goals?
- What do I specifically propose?
The second question is the hardest, because you often know the company’s goals only roughly. They are usually in strategy presentations or quarterly goals. If they stay unclear, you can ask your manager before the review what your area will be measured on next year.
A concrete proposal then says three things: what you want to do, which goal it supports and what you need for it. Say one of the company’s goals is that customers get answers faster. “I’d like to work more on automation” then sounds like a personal wish. “I propose analysing the most frequent support requests and fixing the three biggest causes. For that I need one day a week” shows how your plan supports the goal.
There is more on describing a request in the other side’s terms in the post Speak the language of the people you want to reach internal Reflacto blog post.
If you want to sort your answers beforehand, the Reflection for preparing your annual review internal Reflacto page helps. It follows the GROW model internal Reflacto page: what do you want to have said and heard by the end of the conversation, where do you stand today, what options do you have, and what will you do next? Your answers stay on your device.
When the rating doesn’t fit
Even well prepared, a rating can take you by surprise. You don’t have to push back on the spot. It is fine to say: “I see that differently. I’d like to think about it and come back to you.” With your notes, you can then find the one point you see differently and ask for a second conversation.
The first step
This week, go through the projects and topics of your year once and write one sentence for each about what changed because of it. Add one proposal for next year. After that, keep adding what happens throughout the year. That becomes your own “brag document”: a running record of what you achieved and what changed because of it.