As we approach mid-year, companies with a formal performance evaluation process in place will launch into the mid-year review. Even if your company doesn’t offer one, give one to yourself. If you’re an entrepreneur, give your business a mid-year review. The mid-year review is an excellent way to:
- Get career-focused face time with your boss;
- Get candid feedback on what isn’t working so you can course-correct;
- Hear what is working so you can do more of that;
- Jumpstart the process of asking for a merit raise, promotion or a new assignment;
- Position yourself to receive your fair share at bonus time.
Here is a three-step process for preparing your mid-year review:
Itemize your goals and review the metrics used to measure them.
Based on your previous performance review, what did you agree to work on and how are these measured? Do you have specific business targets to hit, such as sales generated or project profitability margins or number of new clients? Do you have qualitative metrics to hit – e.g., to tighten your communication style, to broaden your strategic focus?
Remember to include what has changed for your role and your company. If you absorbed new responsibilities, the mid-year review should include a summary of what you’ve taken on (your manager may have forgotten s/he assigned this to you or not realize how much you currently have on your plate). If the company changed strategies such that parts of your previous performance review are out of date, say a focus on new clients is now a focus on expanding existing clients, the mid-year review is a good time to confirm changes of direction with your manager.
Assess performance to date and solve for gaps.
If you have sales to generate or new clients to enroll, are you halfway to your annual target? If not, is your target too aggressive or do you need more help? Prepare an explanation for why you are behind. Ask for the resources you need. Share your plan for catching up. It could be something as simple as showing that the majority of sales typically occur in the second half of the year (by preparing this in advance, you are not caught off guard).
If you have a qualitative change to make, do you have feedback from colleagues or management that shows improvement? If communication style is an issue, go back through your emails to find positive comments from colleagues or clients about your collaboration skills or a great presentation you led. Better yet, start a dedicated email folder to save such judos as you receive them.
Taking the time to objectively review your performance can serve as a wake-up call which can jolt you out of the day-to-day tendency to drown in busy work. In fact, Jonathan Tzou, head of growth at task completion app Complete, identified prioritizing busy work as one of the worst ways to complete goals:
Most people have the tendency of gravitating toward what we call 'busy work': work that makes you feel like you're doing something impactful, when in reality what you're doing is not impactful at all. It's not entirely our fault, however; the brain is naturally wired to want to do busy work. According to a research study conducted at the University of Potsdam, four out of five students became far more inclined to do busy work when they weren't reminded of the key objective at hand through verbal cues around primary keywords. The moment the reminders stopped, students began avoiding the difficult primary objective and gravitated toward the menial, less impactful tasks that we know as 'busy work.'…In order to cross the chasm of busy work to meaningful work, you must find ways to remind yourself to do the work that makes the biggest difference. Focus on the outcome of said work and not the massive effort required to finish it. Do this and watch your efficiency flourish.
Prepare your ask.
So you’ve reviewed key goals and metrics, assessed your performance, and solved for gaps. The mid-year review is not just about you helping the company hit its goals, but also a time for you to position yourself to hit your goals. I recommend a separate meeting to actually ask for a promotion or raise, but you can certainly state your interest in these objectives and use the mid-year review to schedule that next conversation. You will want to pay close attention to the feedback you get in your mid-year review because this will form the basis for any objections from your manager.
If you do decide that a raise is something you want to ask for, Michelle Joseph, CEO of Chicago-based talent consulting firm PeopleFoundry, shares these negotiation tips:
Do your research on your job title, as well as the market. Sites like Glassdoor.com and Salary.com are able to help show you what you’re worth job-wise. If at a complete standstill salary-wise…try to negotiate around vacation days or bonus incentives. Adding three or four extra days per year can work in place of salary, and bonus incentives work well for both sides. It keeps in place checks and balances for doing your job.
Whatever you decide to ask for, make sure it’s grounded in reality. This is why it’s so helpful to review your last review and assess how you’re doing with these short-term goals. Fantasizing with too lofty goals is another one of Jonathan Tzou’s bad ways to complete goals:
People who fantasize by setting unrealistically high expectations generally see horrific results in completing their tasks. Researchers from NYU and the University of Hamburg conducted a study on how people coped with various types of challenges, particularly in the weight of expectation versus fantasy. The results? Students who overly fantasized about high job prospects received significantly fewer job offers and earned less money. Similarly, those with crushes who overly fantasized about high relationship prospects were significantly less likely to enter intimate relationships. Why? Higher expectations resulted in less effort. And we all know where less effort leads. The Solution: Visualizing goals is perfectly fine, but excessively fantasizing is a grave mistake. Instead of setting “goals” around lofty outcomes, work on tangible, actionable things that can affect the here and the now.
Stop fantasizing and take action towards your mid-year review today!
For more career advice (to help your mid-year review or other career issues), check out SixFigureStart® free toolkits on Negotiation, Networking, and Personal Branding.
