[00:00:00] This is episode 289, and we’re going to talk about how to best prepare for your own year end performance review.

Here are the two questions. This podcast answers. One, how do you successfully transition into your first official leadership role? And two, how do you keep climbing that leadership ladder and continuously get promoted, 

although the competition and the expectations get bigger. This show with The Manager Track podcast will provide the answers. I’m your host, Ramona Shaw. 

I’m on a mission to create workplaces where work is seen as a source of contribution, connection and personal fulfillment. And this transition starts with developing a new generation of leaders who know how to lead. So everyone wins and gross. In the show, you’ll learn how to think, communicate and act as a confident and competent leader. 

You know, you can be. 

Welcome to this episode of The Manager Track podcast. So a lot of managers walk into their year end review thinking that [00:01:00] it’s kind of about listing what they accomplished. They think, okay, I need to show up well and confident, talk about my project, maybe mention some of my team wins. And I hope that my manager remembers a lot of the good stuff I did as well.

I definitely had years where that was my mindset going into the performance review conversation, but

That’s not really what the conversation is intended to do though. Or if you wanna leverage that conversation to your benefit and make the most out of it, that’s not how to go about it. ’cause your real job is to walk into that room prepared to have a strategic conversation about your impact, your growth, and about where you’re headed.

And most managers don’t prepare for that conversation to be had. So I’m gonna give you five ways to actually prepare for your year end review that go beyond just making a list of things that you did. [00:02:00] Okay. by the way, the fifth one is probably the most important one, so stay all the way until the end.

So number one is to build a clean evidence trail. Most managers walk in with vague claims like. I improved the team’s performance, or we had a better collaboration this year. But those statements are so vague that it forces your boss to either take your word for it. And kind of build on it or fill in the gaps themselves.

And when they’re filling in gaps, you just lost control of the narrative. So having this evidence trail means to put together a short list of concrete examples, data points, even before and after snapshots if you’re tracking the performance or the output somewhat in, in data. 

Think do comparisons, put those together, create that evidence. Think really about this in terms of proof. [00:03:00] So instead of saying, I did a lot of training for the new team members.

You could say, I onboarded five new team members and they hit their productivity milestones 20% faster than last year’s new hire. So you are not making claims. You are showing receipts. And the cleaner your evidence trail, the less your manager has to do the work of remembering or even validating what you accomplished.

because you bet if you are up for a big bonus or a salary increase or a promotion or increased responsibility and. That conversation will happen between your manager, their peer, their manager, or a group of people, and so your manager has to advocate for you 

If you are giving them vague statements, it’s gonna be so much harder for your manager to do this. So make it easy for them to not just know about your impact, but see it really clearly with that evidence trail. [00:04:00] So that was number one. Number two is

to create a story arc of your year, instead of just creating a laundry list of things you’ve done. So a strong review conversation in essence, has a narrative. It’s not just, here are the 15 things that I did right. Again, that could go into a document that you could write and then pass on. But if you talk about it in that conversation, you reflect on your year, explain the themes.

So maybe, hey, here are two or three themes that defined my leadership this year, and here is how everything I did connects to those themes. Maybe your year was about stabilizing a team, going through a transition. Maybe it was about building accountability into your team’s culture.

Maybe it was about improving how your team works, cross-functionally, whatever it was. Identify those themes and anchor your examples and your evidence to those themes. It’s a lot [00:05:00] easier to remember big themes, a story arc than it is to remember the 15 things you did. And so.

In addition with that, you direct the conversation instead of you reacting to questions or being very task focused, you’re not waiting for your manager to ask Instead, you’re walking in and you’re saying, here’s what this year was really about.

Here’s the through line that connects everything. And when you frame it this way, you’re showing strategic thinking, but you’re also showing that you see patterns, that you made intentional choices and that you understand what success looks like. Beyond just shipping of tasks. So that is number two.

Number three is now to anticipate your manager’s scorecard or perspective. So every leader evaluates through their own lens, some care most about the business outcomes and the metrics. Some care [00:06:00] about the team health, employee satisfaction, retention, work culture. And then others care about process improvements, operational excellence, quality, and if you don’t know what lens your manager is looking through, It’s likely that you’re gonna miss the mark. So identify their priorities and prepare your talking points for your year end review through. Their criteria, and even if you don’t fully agree with their emphasis, right, you can still tweak what you’re saying so that you’re making the point and you are attaching it to what they care about.

So if your manager cares deeply about hitting deadlines and you spend a year focused on reducing, let’s say, technical debt, you better connect the dots between the technical debt and let’s say

The future velocity of output. Otherwise you are gonna sound like you are valuing something and feeling accomplished about something that they don’t [00:07:00] actually care about.

So really make sure that when you prepare your talking points, you take into account how your manager thinks, what they value, and how you can connect your message in a way that lands. For them that connects what they really care about. By the way, in terms of like scorecard, in a future episode, we will talk about different ways that organizations and leaders measure performance

or talent in the organization and whether you are in a broader leadership role and you’re looking how to measure talent or if you are a manager, being curious about how leadership or HR might be assessing your own talent and future potential in the organization. That will be a really good episode to watch.

So be on the lookout, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast, and if you’re watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe and turn on notifications so that when a new episode gets released every Tuesday that you get alerted and don’t miss this one. [00:08:00] Okay, so that was number three.

Number four, prepare one uncomfortable truth that you’re willing to own. And that’s kind of a nice way to say, address something that didn’t go well or a weakness, because if you only show up with strength and wins, you look either unaware. Or overly polished, and neither of those is a good look for a manager.

It actually can create more mistrust, more suspicion in your boss, because they know that not everyone’s perfect. There’s always growth opportunities, even if you had a fabulous year. So I identify a real area where you struggle. Ask yourself what you learned from it. But also consider what you’ve learned through that challenge and then the specific change that you are making as a result. And in fact, I’m gonna double down on this, that if we talk about those weaknesses or struggles or challenges from the past, the way to [00:09:00] communicate those in a performance review conversation or a year end review conversation is to.

Not just leave it in the past and say like, this was difficult. This was hard. Here’s what I learned. But also to carry it into the future. For example, if you struggle with the workload in the past to then say, one of the challenges this year was dealing with the increased amount of workload, and it became really important for me to elevate my time management practices.

And as I continue to do so, I am noticing how I’m actually preparing myself through these new habits to be able to take on more responsibilities in the future and focus my attention on strategic work. So as the whole conversation is not just a recap of things that we achieved, it’s being really intentional about the story that we’re telling 

So think about one or two things that really stood out for you as challenges this year. Own it clearly, because this signals self-awareness [00:10:00] and maturity.

And then talk about the changes that you’re making and how that is an opportunity for the future and sort of unlocks new potential in you and your ability to provide value to the organization. So now let’s talk about the fifth one. And I said, this is probably the most important one. It speaks directly to what I just mentioned about looking forward and into the future.

Come with forward looking asks. Review conversations often end in. Okay. Sounds good. We had a nice conversation. Good work. Pat on the back and then nothing concrete changes. You might walk out thinking, well, I hope they remember this when promotions come around.

I hope they have everything they need to advocate on my behalf. And if you did plant the seed of what you wanna do in the future or where you’d like to see your career go. Maybe you hope that planting that seed is going to be fruitful down the road, but that’s fairly passive.

What we’re gonna look [00:11:00] for in that conversation is to be prepared with one or two clear and specific asks. Maybe it’s additional headcount for your team or budget for your team. Maybe it’s mentorship access or visibility with senior leadership.

Maybe it’s clarity on your scope or a concrete path towards the next level. Maybe it is access to an executive coach or a leadership training, whatever it is, make the asks tied to the business impact, not just personal preference.

Sure, it’d be nice if people cared about us and have personal preferences, but when it comes to asking from the organization, it needs to make business sense. So instead of saying, Hey, I’d like to take on more responsibility because I feel ready for it, that’s all nice.

Right? But that’s a personal preference. You might wanna say. Given that we’re expanding the platform team next year, I’d like to own the infrastructure [00:12:00] roadmap that would free you up to focus on product strategy and also give me a clear trajectory towards a director level scope. Now you position yourself as someone who’s thinking about next year’s impact, the organization’s need.

And of course where you wanna go. But not only where you wanna go, you were able to frame it in a way that clearly shows that you taking on increased responsibility is gonna help your boss and is ultimately gonna help the department or the business. And that all changes the tone of the conversation and helps you end that conversation on a more positive note and more clarity on what next. It also then makes it easier to have a follow-up conversation in a few weeks or maybe the beginning of January to check in on what you’ve asked for and say, Hey.

I wanna follow up on that conversation that we had, the asks that they made to figure out what next steps to take in order to get this, to make this happen. . So if you prepare this way and you consider all these [00:13:00] five different things.

You walk into that review with evidence, with a clear narrative, like those themes with self-awareness and with specific forward-looking asks, you are not just getting evaluated, you are shaping how you want to be seen and what you are building toward. And that’s a much more powerful conversation to have.

My hope is walking through these five ways to prepare will help you have a really productive and fruitful conversation with your manager in your yearend conversation or performance conversation.

And if you feel that not only was this helpful for you, but you wish that your direct reports would have this information and come fully prepared to the meetings you have with them, share this episode with them. Let them know, hey, this is insightful, useful.

Think about this before we have our year end conversation, okay? And with that, we’re gonna wrap it up. We’ll see you next time on another episode of The Manager Track podcast.

Bye for now.

If you enjoy this episode, then check out two other [00:14:00] awesome resources to help you become a leader. People love to work with. This includes a free master class on how to successfully lead as a new manager. Check it archova.org/masterclass. 

The second resource is my best-selling book, the confident and competent new manager, how to quickly rise to success in your first leadership role. Check it out at archova.org/books or head on over to Amazon and grab your copy there. 

You can find all those links, in the show notes down below.