Linda D Tillman, PhD
Maximizing Your Performance Review
The performance review is a source of stress for everyone involved.
Rather than a point of stress, the review should be an interaction for mutual growth for both the employee and the employer. Each person involved can choose to maximize the positive effect of the review as she moves toward a future with the company.
- Laying the external groundwork
Gail Evans writes that “the woman who gets noticed is the one who makes sure that her bosses know how good her work is.” She as well as Deborah Tannen (Talking 9 to 5) encourage women to become their own public relations agent.
For most women “bragging on yourself,” as we call it in the South, is inappropriate,
rude conduct. My grandmother used to say, “Don’t make yourself public,” by which she
meant that we shouldn’t tell others what good things we had done. Men, on the other
hand, are trained to boast. The guy who gets to go out on the field is the one who tells
the coach that he KNOWS he can make a touchdown.
To pave the way for a positive performance review, a woman must push aside the
messages from her cultural training and work on building her reputation for good work.
- Here are some of suggestions for laying the external groundwork and working on your own PR:
· Make it a point to tell your boss/supervisor what you and your team are accomplishing. In addition to doing it orally, also send a memo or an email on a regular basis to keep the person above you informed about your achievements.
· If you take the opportunity to talk about yourself, use “I” rather than “we.” Women are often so quick to give others credit. For example, the way of speaking that comes naturally to most women who want to keep the playing field level is to say, “We’re following this plan for the Hemphill case....”
· To bring more direct attention to your accomplishments, you could choose to say, “I had a great idea for the Hemphill case. This is how I plan to carry it out with the team:....”
· Go to lunch!
Determine who needs to know you for you to move forward
with your career and make arrangements to get together with this person.
You will have an excellent opportunity to hear his/her opinions in a more casual
setting (and for him/her to hear yours).
· The golf course is another venue for making connections. Perhaps you should play golf as well. If someone who could help your career move forward finds you interested in his/her perspective or in the progress of the department, your performance may be noticed more.
- Pat Heim in Hardball for Women suggests that you gain positive attention for yourself by:
- Asking a colleague for feedback on a project just to let him/her know how
successfully it is going - Getting your projects mentioned in the company newsletter
- Offering to attend meetings of other departments or groups to let them know what
your area is doing
- Asking a colleague for feedback on a project just to let him/her know how
- Strengthening the internal frame
- Building up external support is very important but you can
undermine your work simply by what you tell yourself on the inside.
The following internal calisthenics may help you feel more positive on the inside as well.
- Get prepared to accept compliments. Most of us are great at
deflecting or reworking compliments until they have no meaning.
If in your performance review, you devalue something for which your supervisor is complimenting you, you detract from his/her confidence in you.
- Practice simply saying, “Thank you” when someone says something good about you or what you have done. Trying this on a daily basis will strengthen your insides when you go to the performance review.
- Building up external support is very important but you can
- Fight the impostor syndrome.
- Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes identified this phenomenon
in the 80’s. Women who experience the impostor syndrome
are successful but often attribute their success to contacts,
luck, timing, perseverance, personality or otherwise having "fooled" others into thinking they were smarter and more capable than these women "knew" themselves to be.
- If you are among the “impostors,” then talk to yourself
about what you have done well. When you find your inner
self arguing that your accomplishment isn’t really all that
great, try to create a new voice to combat the negative with
some positive reassurance.
- Say encouraging things to yourself. Think about the coach sending
the player out onto the field. The coach says to his/her player:
“You can do it. Go for it!” If the player makes a mistake, a good coach says, “You’ll do better next time.”
- Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes identified this phenomenon
- Create a “Wins Folder”
- During the period between performance reviews, create a “wins” folder for yourself.
- When you receive a letter with a positive comment about your work, put it in the folder.
- When you get an email, supporting something you are doing,
print it out and put it in the folder. - When your team saves a patient’s life, wins a court case, or brings in money for the company, put notice of this in your “wins” folder.
Take this folder to your performance review so that you will have “show and tell” to strengthen your positive attributes
- Respond Proactively to Criticism
- A performance review will concentrate on both your strengths
and areas for improvement. This type of negative feedback is often
uncomfortable. Getting feedback about needs for improvement is
a basic part of men’s sports. Sports practice sessions are filled
with the coach yelling, “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you SEE
the ball?” Boys learn not to take this personally – it’s just about
winning the game. - Because women are trained to keep everyone happy, negative feedback feels personal. We frequently think that we’ve done something “bad” or “wrong.” Instead, we need to think of such feedback as constructive. If we become defensive in response to a perceived criticism, we give away our power.
- A performance review will concentrate on both your strengths
and areas for improvement. This type of negative feedback is often
uncomfortable. Getting feedback about needs for improvement is
a basic part of men’s sports. Sports practice sessions are filled
with the coach yelling, “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you SEE
the ball?” Boys learn not to take this personally – it’s just about
In Hardball for Women, Pat Heim suggests that you remember that the criticism is one person’s opinion. Having considered that, question what the critical person’s motive might have been. Perhaps the reviewer feels competitive with you; perhaps the reviewer has a policy about never giving positive performance reviews; perhaps the reviewer is having a hard time at home and taking it out on you.
After examining the above possibilities, negative feedback needs to be contained.
Heim suggests mentally drawing a box around the critical comment and putting it away.
Dwelling on the negative will defeat your forward progress.
Growing from the criticism can include a negative assertion (making an inquiry when something negative is said). Courage is required to ask about the criticism, but you may obtain helpful information for yourself. Bravely you might say,
1. “I’d like to know what you objected to in the report
that I submitted.”
2. “I want to improve in my sales ability. What would
you suggest that I do differently?”
3. “You mentioned that I didn’t have enough new
clients. What numbers do you expect and what do
you suggest that I do to get there?”
If you respond to negative feedback with tears, your reviewer may feel a need to stop the review or to avoid further negative comments. You then don’t get to hear the feedback that you may need to get ahead. If the tears come in spite of all of fighting them back, then calmly comment, “Please don’t pay any attention to these tears. I want to hear all that you have to say.” Or take a break for a few minutes to calm yourself and then return to the review.
- Making the Most of the Positive As Well as the Negative
At the end of your performance review, make a statement to the reviewer summing up what you have learned. State three items that you plan to improve on and three accomplishments of which you are proud.
· "Let’s see, Marian, as I understand it, you think I need to
increase my visibility with the client contacts, which I can do by sending
weekly emails. I also think I should work on my writing to make my
reports less wordy. I can begin to work on that by employing my grammar
check in my word processing program. You also requested that I speak
up more in department meetings. I’ll challenge myself to make a
comment in every meeting from here on out.”
· “I am very pleased to hear that you liked my work on Project X. I feel proud of bringing in the new business with that Project and know that you can count on me to continue to do that for the company. You also noted that I had taken a leadership role in making XX change. I plan to continue in that role and work for XX change in other aspects of my department as well...., etc.”
Follow up with your performance by acting on the suggested improvements and making your supervisor aware of your continued progress.
Using these guidelines, your performance review can be a much
different and more positive experience.