Ensuring a Great Performance Review
6 actions before your review and 2 actions during and after your review
Ethan & Jason here—welcome to a paid member-only edition of Level Up: Your source for executive insights, high performance habits, and specific career growth actions. Many subscribers expense this newsletter to their Learning & Development budget, here’s an email template to send to your manager.
**Exciting news** We are hosting our first Level Up Seattle in-person meetup on Tuesday, November 19!
We cannot wait to meet members in-person.
Details with RSVP link toward the end of this article.
As an Amazon VP, I gave hundreds of performance reviews and received dozens myself.
Reviews determine our raises, as well as our odds of promotion and access to special programs and treatment.
For this reason, it is important to maximize your results.
I outline 6 actions you can take before your review to get the best possible score, as well as what you can do during and after the review to build a productive path forward.
Each part has specific actions you can immediately take.
Part 1: Before your review
You need to start preparing for your review in the months leading up to the review itself.
Follow these steps.
1. Ask for feedback well ahead of your review
A good manager should never surprise an employee with feedback. If there is a problem, they should tell you about it when it happens.
That said, several things prevent managers from doing this:
Some managers are afraid of conflict, or they do not want to upset you. So, they wait until the review “forces” them to communicate the issue.
Other managers simply allow themselves to get too busy and do not prioritize giving you feedback. So it only happens when they are forced to make time for it.
Finally, some managers do not really think about feedback until they sit down to write the review. Then, they try to recall a few good things and a few bad things you have done as material for the review.
While managers “should” give you feedback, don’t wait around for that to happen.
Take control of your career and take action.
Ask your manager for feedback ahead of the review, and if you get any corrective feedback, start addressing it right away.
You want to be able to check back in with your manager before the review to ensure that the issue has been addressed.
Action: When did you last ask for feedback?
Should you ask today?
2. Ask for the review score you want
Do not just ask for feedback.
Know and understand the review system, then ask explicitly for the review that you want. This may sound strange, but the idea is to ask your manager not just for “feedback,” but also to ask them directly if you are performing at a “top tier” or “exceptional” level (or whatever the name of the score you want is).
Asking specifically like this does a few good things:
It forces your manager to think about your performance against a specific set of criteria. This ensures that if you have a gap in their eyes, they will bring it up. They know what you are expecting, so they can think whether or not they will give you that score.
Letting a manager know your review expectation puts pressure on them to deliver that score. They know that if they give you a lower review, you will likely be disappointed, which may lead to conflict or you quitting. This will make them more likely to give you this review, particularly in “tiebreaker” cases where they must choose between you and someone else to get the high score. By asking, you make yourself more likely to get the review you want.
Action: Have you asked for the clear standards of the expected review result?
Do so today.
3. Line up your peer reviewers
Many performance reviews have peer input.
Do not wait until the last minute to talk to peers.
Instead, start chatting with your peers and your manager’s peers a few months before your review. Let them know you will ask them for feedback at review time, and use this as a chance to ask them for any feedback they have now while you still have time to address areas for improvement.
Get their feedback, ask for their support, and if someone seems hostile, see if you can arrange not to have them as part of your review.
Action: Have you identified your intended peer reviewers and let them know you want their feedback?
Reach out today.
4. Never just “work hard and hope”
Many people believe that if they simply work hard, their work will “speak for itself.”
This is a nice dream but ultimately a naive belief.
Everyone around you is busy, and they are focused on themselves, not you. Some people may notice your hard work, but many will not. Take control of your career and make sure you receive appropriate credit for your results. This is a much more effective strategy than thinking that you “should not” have to market your accomplishments.
“Should” and “should not” do not impact your career; “does” and “does not” are what have true impact.
Action: Take your review and performance into your own hands.
5. Send your reviewers a prep list
Throughout the year (or the period since your last review), maintain a list of your major accomplishments and deliverables.
As review time approaches, send this list to your manager and all of your reviewers. Remind them that you spoke earlier about feedback, and now you are following up to give them a handy reminder of some of your activities and contributions. If you got negative feedback from them, highlight how you have addressed it.
This is important because people have terrible memories, and recency bias has been proven to lead to performance reviews based on the last things the employee did.
If your review is on a yearly cycle, what you did 10 or 11 months ago is very unlikely to come to mind for the reviewer unless you remind them.
Actions: Are you maintaining a list of results for the year?
Who should you share it with and when?