Seize The Performance Review

Here are three suggestions for how to deftly take control of your performance review—and how to make it more lively. Maybe if more people would take the lead in their performance reviews with their bosses, these meetings would change for the better.

You’ve been in plenty of job interviews, and you know how serious they can be. There’s another kind of interview that is usually goofy, with a kind of playing-house quality—a veritable waste of time for adults: the annual performance review meeting. But you can make it pay off better than any job interview, if you seize it.

Here are three suggestions for how to deftly take control of your performance review—and how to make it more lively. Maybe if more people would take the lead in their performance reviews with their bosses, these meetings would change for the better.

1. Don’t wait for your formal review: Start meeting with your boss very casually all year long. Do it once a week or once a month. Just tell him you want to talk briefly “to make sure we’re both on the same page.” These meetings are crucial because it’s how you establish that your boss’s expectations and your work are in synch all the time . It’s how you train your boss to watch your performance. (If your goal is to hide your performance, then stop reading. I can’t help you.)

2. Think and talk profit: Tell your boss, “Look, I know the CFO doesn’t measure how profitable my work is. But I’d like to try to figure it out, using any terms we can. If you assign me to do something, I’d like to figure out how to do it so it either helps to increase the company’s revenues or decreases its costs. Are you game?” (Yes, this is a bit risky, but so is a discussion between your boss and the CFO—without you present—about whether your work is paying off for the company.)

3. Look back and look forward–all the time: Do this all year long. Use some of these casual meetings to discuss how the work you did last year paid off–or how it didn’t. Be candid and be honest. “I realize that if I had done this rather than that … it might have benefited the company more. What do you think?” Listen for advice. Then take it.

How is this different from traditional performance reviews? You are influencing your boss all year long. But you’re also demonstrating that you’re always thinking about your performance in terms of the company’s objectives—and its profits.

A few weeks before your scheduled formal performance review, jump the gun and give your boss a short written report. In it, outline three things you did last year and show how they affected the department’s success and the company’s profitability. Then show three things you’re going to do next year–and discuss your projected outcomes. Of course, these are all items you and your boss have already been discussing. End the report with, “What do you think? How would we tweak this so it’ll pay off better for our company?”

The problem with most performance reviews is, bosses hate doing them, so they take a rote approach—and they do a lousy job of it. If you leave this to your boss, you may pay the price for his carelessness. On the other hand, if you take a preemptive approach and hand your boss the data and an interpretation of your performance in advance, you may help him see your value more accurately.

By the time your boss meets with HR to talk about you, he has a clear grasp of your value to the company. (See “How Big A Job Offer Do You Want?” The tips in that article about changing employers can also be used to get a good raise.)

If this seems like a lot of work, well, it is. But so is going job hunting because your company had a downsizing and let you go because your boss didn’t understand your value to the business.