How often have you completed a performance review and identified actionable goals and next steps only to then not really look at them when work life gets busy again? The day to day, for anyone in a leadership role, gets extraordinarily busy. Think about your last 2 weeks. How many different kinds of tasks have you had to jump into?
People don't frequently think of the post-review review. This is another kind of self-review. It can be a lot to process all at once, and, as humans, we tend to focus on the critical feedback as opposed to the positive feedback we’ve heard. Often individuals in high-performing, high-expectations roles are always striving to do better, not necessarily for a promotion but to be seen as more competent, more capable, and therefore more successful in the challenges roles they take on.
First is the mindset that you go into reviews with. Yes, I might sound like an HR talking head for a moment and this line might feel very “corporate” to folks, but regardless of how performance reviews are used at your company, the true and desired goal is to be able to give individuals valuable feedback that help them succeed at the company. Now, does this play out perfectly and always feel that way at every company? Of course not, but trying to go into reviews with that attitude, and picking out the pieces of the review that resonate with that wavelength, can really go a long way.
Second, is how to process. I always start with give yourself some time. It is hard to give feedback effectively, and it is hard to receive critical feedback. This is why so many people go so long in their careers getting feedback like “just keep doing what you’re doing” or without getting feedback that truly allows them to grow, learn, and improve. When you’re getting feedback, try to take a beat. If you agree with it, great! Ask some clarifying questions and you’re ready to move on to the next step. If you don’t agree with it, or are confused by it, I encourage you to express the confusion or use a statement like “I’m processing this and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I need to think so that I can come back with better questions that will better help me understand where this feedback is coming from” (more on this in the next post). Oftentimes people land on “we agree to disagree” which is an ok place to land but of course not ideal from anyone’s perspective as likely similar feedback will continue surfacing as a result.
Third, and this is the trickiest, is determining what feedback you think is legitimate and not legitimate. We live in the real world and what that means is that people have conscious and unconscious biases. They also see some things and don’t see others. To be honest, they pay attention to some things and don’t pay attention to others until performance review time comes around. After using the processing language above, and before fully coming up with a plan, make a note of what feedback is easy for you to understand, process, and take action on, and what feedback feels more challenging. Not to tease the next post again, but in the interest of keeping this post a reasonable length, stay tuned for more on what to do with the feedback that feels challenging for you to process.
Fourth, use this information to come up with a plan. Hopefully you’ve received actionable feedback with good examples providing where your areas of growth are, but, let’s face it, the higher up you are and the more experience you get, the more likely it is that you’ll get vague or nebulous feedback and will need to figure out how to turn that into actionable feedback for yourself. Don’t try to tackle all the things at once. With your manager, or on your own, attempt to determine which piece of feedback is most impacting your success in your role or at the company and then take some time to figure out what you may be able to do about it. Is it more reading and research? Is it connecting with peers or a mentor on the topic? Is it something else? And by when do you want to do that? Once you have the feedback and you know what you want to do and by when, you can also use that timeline to try to measure the effectiveness of the actions you’re taking to improve in that area, either on your own or with your manager. Having a plan, continuing to look at it, and regularly reflecting on where you think you’ve made progress is the biggest takeaway to a performance review because so often we get the feedback, process it, and then put it down or keep it in the back of our minds without really regularly doing a self-check-in on it.
Notice that this post isn’t at all about giving feedback or having the performance review conversation. There are lots of posts and books about that, but I think what exists less is how to process and what happens as the recipient of a performance review.
If you’re trying to process your performance review but finding it challenging, book 1:1 time with me to help.
