Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus

Author:Peggy Klaus
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: BUS012000, Interpersonal Relations, Psychology, Business & Economics, General
ISBN: 9780446531795
Publisher: Business Plus
Published: 2003-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Performance Reviews: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

• “Help! My performance review is tomorrow.”

• “I was all ready to ask for a raise and promotion, but I lost my nerve.”

• “Oh, it was really nothing.”

• “He told me everything great he had accomplished since the last review, but none of it was part of his actual job.”

• “He was stuck on these two little things and it drove me nuts.”

• “The last thing I want to do in a performance review is call attention to my weak points.”

Lights, camera, action! Take Two. Performance reviews are right up there next to job interviews as the least favorite pastime for professionals. The challenge of convincing others you should get the job is now replaced with the challenge of convincing them that they have made the right choice. Despite managers finding them a chore and employees considering them torture, performance reviews are the perfect opportunity to turn up the volume on your career.

“But … people won’t like me if I say nice things about myself. I should let others do it for me.”

It’s wonderful when someone toots your horn, it really is—but don’t bet on it happening. And no one has your best interests at heart the way you do.

It’s never too early to start planning for your next performance review. If you’ve kept your brag bag up to date with a record of your accomplishments and milestones—and you’ve engaged in an ongoing performance review for yourself by strategically bragging all year long—then getting ready for your performance review will be easy. If not, you’ve got your work cut out for you. You’ll need to outline your progress since taking the job, or your last review, and assemble hard data that demonstrates what you’ve already done for the company and how you will do even more in the future. You see, when you don’t keep a log of your accomplishments, you’re more apt to forget the specifics that speak volumes about your value. And if you try to reconstruct a year’s worth of projects, successes, and challenges in the midst of the review, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to put on your best performance.

Today companies use all sorts of performance-review tools, but no matter what the tool, the best performance reviews let managers and employees have an honest two-way discussion about an employee’s milestones, mistakes, and areas for improvement. Don’t make the mistake of letting your manager do all the talking while you sit passively by and listen. It’s up to you to take the initiative and make sure your boss hears what you want him or her to hear.

DON’T WING IT

“Help! My performance review is tomorrow.”

Why do people wait until the day before their performance review to prepare? We so dread sitting in that hot seat that we’d rather take our chances and wing it. Well, you know the old wing-it rule, don’t you? Twenty percent of the time when you wing it, you do succeed in communicating what you need to in a very effective manner; the other 80 percent of the time you don’t.

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