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You’ve just gotten the bad news: you’re not going to get promoted this time around. Unfortunately, this is the kind of news that 70% of middle managers like you receive routinely. So the good news is that you’re in good company with other talented managers. The bad news is that the good news isn’t going to help you get promoted - one of the major factors affecting career development.
But before you read on, are you really ready for a promotion? Take my survey to find out.
So if you really are ready, I can help you get on the right track. The first thing you need to do after receiving the rejection blow is to handle the emotional aspect. You’ve been let down and it’s your absolute right to be upset. Give yourself a few days to absorb the blow and to get back into your usual mode - one of the important factors affecting career development in your future. Now it’s time for a little introspection.
The reason you’re so disappointed is because of the difference between how you view yourself and how your employer views you. You see yourself as a very valuable employee, worthy of promotion, while your employer is willing to let you wait a bit while evidently more qualified candidates are promoted. So what can you do about this?
Find out how others really perceive you - not just your boss but also your co-workers. This will take some investigating, but it will provide with a powerful image for you to work on so that you can be better poised for that next promotion. And you might get some great tips in the meantime.
Next, you’ve got to investigate yourself honestly. Doing so might require involving some of your trusted co-workers.
Here are 5 crucial questions to answer:
If your boss or co-workers had to rate your job performance, would they say that you fulfill every requirement excellently? Do you meet or beat deadlines consistently? Do you provide detailed reports of your activity so that others don’t have to seek clarification? Do you meet your monthly, quarterly, and annual goals?
Do you seek and execute challenges that are not part of your job description? For example, when selling a product, do you personally follow through on after-sales service, even though that’s the responsibility of the customer service folks? If you’re in finance, producing reports, do you ensure to provide extra material that will help your readers understand the full picture, not just your little island of data?
Being professional at your job isn’t enough. With local, national, and global teams collaborating across geographical borders, time zones, different languages, and cultural differences, your interpersonal skills are probably your most precious commodity. Is it pleasant to work with you? Do you answer emails, texts, or other communication on time and politely? At meetings, whether face to face or virtual, do you let others voice their opinion?
While modesty is a virtue, in the business world, it won’t get you very far. I’m not saying that you should be a show off, but remember to give yourself credit when credit is due. Have you surpassed a sales goal? Delighted a customer? Been recognized by a local organization? Make sure that the right people know about it. Oftentimes, you might assume that such information is public, but it’s more likely that your accomplishments are listed in an email your boss hasn’t (and won’t ever get to) read.
This is another issue that many middle managers like yourself take for granted. You’re probably thinking that of course your boss knows this - everyone wants to get promoted. But the secret is that not everyone wants it bad enough to speak up. So by all means, speak up and make your boss is aware of the fact that you’re ready for that next challenge.
Missing out on a promotion is a traumatic experience, but unless you’re ready to retire, you’ve got to get back to business - and your business is getting promoted. Finding out how others perceive you should be first on your list, which should be followed by taking a long, hard look at issues raised in the questions above.
Wishing you the best of luck in your journey towards the corner office.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
Originally posted on the Noomii Career Blog.
“Can a career coach boost my chances for promotion?” This is a very common question in today’s business environment, where everyone wants to get ahead - one of the basic career goals for managers. Based on my 35 years of experience in helping middle managers get promoted, my answer is yes: the right coach can help you open doors to new opportunities.
But just hiring a coach isn’t going to do the trick. A coach is kind of like a gym membership. You might sign up for the gym with great intentions, but your membership alone isn’t going to get you into shape. You’ve got to actually go to the gym for your membership to work. It’s the same with your coach. A coach isn’t going to get you promoted without effort on your part. So here’s what working with a coach should look like:
The best way to work with a coach is to establish a partnership. And like in every partnership, each of you should take on a certain role in order for the partnership to succeed. Here’s where a professional coach will help you get ahead:
If you’ve recently been turned down for a promotion, it’s pretty likely that your emotions have taken over your logic. At this point, it’s hard to really understand why you didn’t get the promotion and a coach can help you answer this important question. Experienced coaches know that self-awareness is vital to successful career goals for managers and as a result will help you view yourself as others view you. The coach will have a look at the whole picture, such as meeting summaries and performance evaluations and will help you fill in the gaps necessary you’ll need to successfully compete for your next promotion opportunity.
Right now, I can guess that the only goal you have in mind is to get promoted. That’s a good start, but not good enough. Based on an in-depth analysis of your current situation, an experienced coach can help you translate your general goal into a personal action plan, divided into stages and including specific timelines. In this way, you’ll be able to actually work towards your next promotion, knowing exactly what you need to achieve it.
With the abundance of “how to be a manager” guides out there, your natural tendency might be to try to transform yourself into something you’re not. A professional coach will help you develop new competencies while ensuring that what makes you stand out as a manager is still is preserved. This is the winning combination you need to get that next promotion.
A professional coach can help you make it or break it when it comes to your next promotion. It’s important to remember that like all successful partnerships, it takes effort from both of sides.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
It’s a fact: 8 out of 10 middle managers are wondering if they should be at the job they’re at right now. The reason that this percentage is so high among middle managers is that middle management is actually a junction in your career. At this junction, you can decide to continue straight and work towards a promotion at your current organization or make a turn and try your luck at a new one place of work. As I’ve explained in my previous posts in this series, there are basically three general categories as to why you might want to leave your current job: your intrinsic satisfaction, the organizational environment, and your need to develop. This post is dedicated to professional development goals for managers like you.
Like any new job, when you began, everything seemed so interesting. You couldn’t wait to dive into projects, updating yourself on previous steps so that you could take it from there. New challenges required becoming absorbed in unexplored territory and your job seemed more like taking an amazing class in “real business” than work - and your learning curve was as steep as could be. There couldn’t be more appropriate professional development goals for managers than this. But now that you know the ropes, you’re not as excited. Projects that once seemed like an exhilarating climb up Mt. Everest can almost be done in your sleep. The problem is that as a middle manager, there’s a pretty limited range of responsibilities that can be given to you - so you find weeks and even months - crying out to you: “same old, same old”.
One of the things you valued most about your job was your brilliant mentors. They were the key to getting you to understand things in a way you wouldn’t have been able to do on your own. While you’d look at an issue to be solved in one way, they would provide brand new perspectives, exposing you to new avenues for tackling the most important challenges. Compared to where you were in your career, their field expertise allowed you to tap into their knowledge and creativity so that you could develop your own approaches. There was nothing more inspiring or motivating than these mentors. But as the years have passed, many of them have left - either to other organizations or retirement. While these days you find yourself mentoring others, you long for the days when you could be inspired and motivated by others.
An aspect of your job that you’ve truly enjoyed over the years is the emphasis on professional development in all shapes and sizes: seminars, out-of-town conferences, online training programs, and even a well-stocked library of the latest and greatest in management practices. But recently, you’ve noticed less and less opportunities for professional development. When asking around, you find out that your organization has had to tighten its belt, but then you see that others are still being given opportunities. Is it you? Does your department not see you as worth investing in anymore? Is it your boss? Has he or she changed their tune with regard to the importance of professional development? Or is it really the company trying to save money? It’s worth investigating the reason, but it’s even more important to understand the dangers to your career posed by a lack of ongoing professional development.
We all know that an important aspect of job satisfaction is the feeling that you are growing both professionally and personally along your career path. Ensuring that you have the right challenges, mentors, and development opportunities are key to maintaining job satisfaction. Don’t wait for any of these to melt away with time. Either keep them active or find a place where you can reignite them.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
As you read this, about 80% of middle managers like you are thinking about leaving their current job. As I wrote in my first post in this series, I’ve identified three categories as to why most middle managers are contemplating new pastures: your intrinsic satisfaction, the organizational environment, and the need to develop - signs of how to measure success at work and your career. In this post, I’ll be talking about the organizational environment.
Many middle managers begin their journey at a company either as an entry level employee or after having risen to the middle management level at another organization. In both cases, when you began your current position, you were happy with the organizational environment. You liked the direction of the company, the general atmosphere suited your personality and work patterns, and your team mates seemed to be on the same page with you. All of these are tangible indicators of how to measure success at work. Things have seemed to work out well over the last few years. But now there’s something bothering you.
Remember when departments were more or less permanent fixtures in your company? If you had a specific question or concern, you knew exactly which department (and many times whom) to contact. Now it seems as if it’s anyone’s guess regarding where you turn to if you need to handle a specific issue. Is it Finance? Accounting? HR? When you first came to the company, the lines between departments were pretty clear. Now, getting an answer to a simple question requires actual research just in terms of whom to contact. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s more the feeling that the company you joined not so long ago just isn’t the same - not with department responsibilities being blurred all of the time. You begin to wonder if you still feel at home…
At the same time that structural changes have been taking place, you’ve been feeling a difference in the corporate culture. Your company has just not been behaving the same way you remember - or identify with. You might’ve heard of rumors in which the organization has been tiptoeing around some ethical issues or that certain customers haven’t received the first-class service you thought your company was committed to. Certain budget cuts have made you uncomfortable as well, leading you to think that the organization’s priorities are just not the same. The real question for you is if you’re feeling left out in the cold.
When you took on your new job, the job description fit you to a T. You were excited not only about the new responsibilities but also about the directions to which you’d be able to take some of these responsibilities. You envisioned yourself using your position as a way to truly upgrade your team and be a source of pride for your department. But recently, certain aspects of your job have been de-emphasized - strangely enough, those you felt were very important. And other aspects have been added - ones you’re not sure you understand or identify with. This has resulted in more pressure on you - prompting you to question if this is still the right job for you.
Once known as the Boy/Girl Wonder of your department, your boss wouldn’t think of making a move without asking your opinion - even in matters only marginally related to your expertise. You also served as an informal sounding board for team members who were always happy to pick your brain as they considered new ideas and directions. Days and weeks seemed to fly by. Lately, however, your feel as if you have too much spare time. As you make your way towards the water cooler, more doors seem shut than before. You don’t see your boss as much anymore, as he or she always seems engaged with others. “Do I no longer fit in”, you ask yourself. Am I no longer useful?
In today’s corporate world, we expect a certain amount of employee turnover. As an experienced middle manager, you’ve seen your share of people coming and going - a natural process both in people’s careers and company lifecycles. But the amount of goodbyes you’ve witnessed recently seems a little out of hand. Are others feeling the signs mentioned above? Is the company possibly going through something so major that many of your co-workers feel it’s time to go as well? Maybe you’re not alone...
As a middle manager, it’s much too early in your career to be complacent. If at least two of the factors above are gnawing at you, it’s time to make a decision. If you decide to stay at your company, you’ll have to adopt a flexible mindset and “roll with the punches”. Who knows, maybe the new (and possibly improved) organization will once again feel like home. However, if you’re not sure you can tough it out during what looks like a transition period, it’s time to find an organization with a better fit. Whichever you decide, I wish you great success on your journey to the corner office.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
“Should I move on?” If you’re a middle manager asking yourself this question, you are certainly not alone. Based on over 35 years of experience with hundreds of middle managers, I can confidently say that about 80% of middle managers are contemplating this question as you read this - and so statistically, you are probably one of them. There are basically three categories as to why you might want to leave your job: your intrinsic satisfaction, the organizational environment, and your need to develop. In this series of three posts, I’ll address each category, as they are essential to career goals for managers.
When examining your intrinsic satisfaction, if you are wondering whether it is indeed time to find a better place for you, here are some signs that might point to a “yes”:
Remember when you’d spend your Sunday evenings making a game plan for the next week? Everyone else around you was complaining that “Monday mornings always get them down”, when you actually looked forward to the challenges awaiting you at work. Getting up Monday (and every other) morning was no problem at all. Armed with a coffee and upbeat outlook, there wasn’t anything that you couldn’t tackle. But now, this seems like a memory - a not too distant memory - yet a memory. Have you lost that spark? Do you find yourself wishing that the weekend would last just one more day? Would you rather take the morning off - than going to work? It’s not that work has become unbearable, but it doesn’t seem very enjoyable either. You just don’t get a kick out of it anymore, which is so necessary for career goals for managers. Do you need something new?
We all know that there’s a connection between negative emotions and physical well-being. It wasn’t too long ago that you bragged to your friends and co-workers that you hadn’t taken a sick day for two years straight. Even when you did feel a little under the weather, you gulped down a pain reliever and carried on. Your symptoms would subside and you would head back for the grindstone, feeling just fine. But lately, you find yourself more affected by common colds, headaches, and stomach aches. While you try your best to minimize their effect on your work, you really feel that you do need to take a sick day every once in awhile to reset and re-energize. Is this just aging? Perhaps. But could it also be a sign that your unhappiness at work is affecting your health?
Not very long ago, you were very proud to tell your friends and family how awesome your job was. Even when they tried to convince you that their careers were more promising, more lucrative, more interesting...you knew inside that you had it the best. But now when you hear about people’s success in other organizations, you begin to wonder if your career is as great as you’ve been saying it is. Are you missing out on great things happening outside of your organizations? Are you selling yourself short by remaining in this job? Maybe you’re not giving yourself the credit you deserve.
My experience has shown that these three reasons are pretty accurate indicators of your need to begin looking elsewhere. But if you’ve read any of my other posts about deciding whether to call it quits, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of suddenly jumping ship - at least without some serious research as to whether such a move would boost or derail your career. Whatever you decide, I wish you a successful journey towards the corner office.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
You’ve done all of the right things and followed all of the right steps. You walked out of the interview confidently, absolutely sure that the promotion was yours - after all who else would they choose? And then the blow comes. Your boss lets you know that while they really appreciate your hard work and dedication, someone else has been given the promotion. Is this the time to throw in the towel? Leave the company? I suggest holding your horses and considering the following:
Most people don’t realize how important it is to acknowledge your feelings. Without processing this kind of let down, you won’t be equipped to move on to other career advancement solutions - either at your present job or if you decide to apply for a role elsewhere. Until you can face your disappointment as an honest, legitimate emotion, it will be very difficult for you to concentrate your energies on that next promotion or job opportunity.
Many middle managers take rejections personally. Unless you really do have a personal issue with your boss (in which case you would’ve known that a promotion was unlikely), the reason for the rejection is probably beyond your control. Indeed, you’ve performed well and are well-respected by your colleagues - very key to promoting any career advancement solutions. But perhaps there are other reasons you don’t know about that were taken into consideration.
Just because you don’t know the reason you were rejected doesn’t mean that the situation is completely out of your hands. Once you’ve regained your poise, it’s time to schedule a meeting with your boss to find out the specific reasons you were rejected. You’ll be surprised to find out that there are concrete steps you can take towards your next promotion while at the same time improving your own competencies. An added bonus will be that your boss will see how serious you are about the next promotion opportunity and that you’re willing to do what it takes to achieve it.
While the grapevine isn’t always the most reliable form of information, doing a bit of asking around might help you complete the picture in terms of the reasons behind your rejection. Are you possibly perceived differently by others than what you think? Is there some kind of hidden quality you haven’t recognized in the person who did get the promotion? Finding these things out will help you map the interpersonal skills you’ll want to improve on as you work towards the next promotion.
Getting rejected for a promotion is a very huge let down. The question is if you are willing to put in the effort to prevent it from happening again. While my advice above is targeted towards middle managers who want to remain at their current company, they are applicable to those who might decide to leave their current role and apply for positions at other companies. Whichever path you choose, I wish you luck and success.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
For most middle managers, the most pressing question along your corporate development career path is whether you’re really executive management material. This isn’t surprising at all, because as you climb the career ladder, you’ve been noticing how narrow the pyramid seems to be getting so quickly. You’re seeing middle managers who have either been in the same position for years or who’ve been shuffled around from one middle management role to another. And their destiny seems to be sealed. But is yours?
The first step in answering this question is to check with yourself - are you really ready for a promotion. So I suggest you take my short survey, entitled: Are you really promotion material? Based on your responses, you’ll receive a short report to help you assess your current situation and plan your next career move along your corporate development career path. If you’ve determined you’re ready for your next promotion, read on...
While I can’t promise you a concrete path towards promotion, my 35 years of helping middle managers achieve their career dreams have helped me identify a few common steps to follow:
There aren’t any shortcuts to achieving a promotion. To be recognized as promotion material, you have to consistently make sure you deliver results. While your performance doesn’t always have to outdo your colleagues, consistency is the key. A consistently well-performing middle manager is usually considered a good bet in the corporate world. It shows that you can take on challenges, manage with others, are motivated, and are poised for taking on even more responsibility.
While my last point emphasized excelling at your current role, when looking for potential candidates for promotion, decisionmakers will undoubtedly try to identify those middle managers who seem to have developed a wider, whole company perspective. This doesn’t mean that you have to take on the responsibilities of the CEO, but it does mean that you have to begin considering the challenges and opportunities facing your company as a whole - not just your department. So take the time to reach out to other departments in your company in order to gain a good understanding of your company from a wider perspective.
At the end of the day, the success of an organization lies in its people. An organization can develop the best solution for the most pressing challenges, but without an excellent team standing behind the solution, it's likely to remain in R&D - hidden from the world. As a middle manager vying for promotion, it’s important that you get to know a wide variety of professionals in your department so that when the time comes, you will be known and respected as a well-informed, approachable senior manager. While today’s workday can be hectic, perhaps set lunch appointments or quick after-work drinks with employees from other departments - and start learning what makes your organization special.
SWOT analyses are usually reserved for analyzing companies or rolling out new products and services. But this shouldn’t prevent you from pinpointing your current strengths and weaknesses as well as your potential opportunities and threats. Knowing this information will help you figure out what you need to preserve and what you need to develop now and in the future. This will ensure that you keep your competencies in tact, relevant, and ready for challenges
And finally,
There’s no magic mix when vying for a promotion. However, following the steps above will certainly help you along the way as you move towards the coveted corner office.
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
Every year the world over, annual performance (aka “feedback,” “assessment,” or ”appraisal”) reviews take place. In many organizations, reviews are a formal affair, while in others they are more casual.
What’s for sure is that over the last two decades or so, annual performance reviews have developed into both an art and a science, with companies pouring in their confidence, training and budgets into the process.
So it’s no wonder that stakeholders all around - executive managers, middle managers, and employees - take annual reviews seriously - so seriously that organizations tend to suffer from a pretty nasty case of the jitters during review season.
Performance reviews usually involve two “players.” On one hand are the obvious “targets” of the review - you. You’re the one being appraised by your direct supervisor. So it’s understandable that you might experience anxiety, as being reviewed can feel like stepping onto a shooting range with all guns pointed directly at you. But what many people don’t realize is that reviews can be just as stressful for those handing out our decrees. Realizing that every word supervisors utter is going to be scrutinized and analyzed by us, they have the almost impossible task of providing a year’s worth of appraisal within the framework of an oftentimes strict format.
So because of this built-in tension on all fronts, the actual meeting can actually be a paralyzing experience. The supervisor, on one hand, is tiptoeing along, while you might be trying to figure out the subtext behind each of the their statements. The result is a rather stilted encounter that both of you want to get over with as quickly as possible.
The question is if this is the way it has to be. Can this lemon of a meeting somehow be turned into lemonade? Can it actually help pave your corporate development career path? My answer is yes. Absolutely. Here’s how:
Take a fresh look at what an annual performance review is all about. Yes, it’s the time for your supervisor to appraise what you’ve been doing the past year. But it’s also a huge opportunity for you to get involved so that you can advance your own career. So reframe the review from a halting monologue by your supervisor to a meaningful dialogue between the both of you.
I’ve addressed the paralysis that can occur during annual performance reviews. Your job is to make sure you don’t fall victim. So be proactive. Don’t just nod your head in a comatic trance as your boss imparts words of wisdom. Speak up. Ask questions. Urge your boss to explore topics you see as important to you career. Of course, being proactive requires careful preparation, which I’ll be addressing in a later post.
Your annual performance review is too important to dismiss as just something you have to endure. It’s natural that you (and your supervisor) might feel out of your comfort zones, but it should not stop you from taking advantage of this important meeting as a key opportunity for your corporate development career path.
Future posts will be addressing specific techniques for helping you navigate your annual performance review so that you can move one more step towards your next promotion.
Good luck!
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
When looking at your corporate development career path, it’s important to closely exam performance reviews. Their significance can be seen through the generous funneling of resources allocated to ensure their success. Though many mid-level managers see being the object of review as appealing as a visit to the dentist, I want you to view it as an excellent opportunity to advance your career. But you have to prepare in advance. Here are some classic examples of goals for employees in performance reviews that should help you along the way:
Treat your performance review as you would any other professional project in which you’d expect tangible deliverables. After a performance review, you should expect deliverables to include both information you want your boss to know (e.g., Am I up for promotion? When?) as well as information you want from your boss (e.g., I’m not happy with the pace of my career, compensation package, etc.).
This one gets a little hairy, but if you stick with me, it’ll be worth it. You know that if you’re looking to get promoted, you’ll have to actually say it at some point during your annual performance review. You might even practice a key phrase, such as, “I feel it’s time for me to get promoted”. And during the review, you might even muster up the courage to actually say it...and then you’ll let out a sigh of relief because you did it without breaking out into a terrible sweat. But this whole scenario doesn’t seem right, does it? You’re right. And this is why you have to strive towards formulating two messages: one above the line and the other below the line.
Just like in marketing, an above the line message would be an explicit statement, such as requesting a promotion within a certain period of time, for example, two years. But a below the line message requires a bit more skill. Let’s say you’ve decided that if you don’t get a promotion within two years, you’ll leave the company. If you were to state this as an above the line message, you’d find yourself offered a cardboard box before you finished the sentence. However, to strengthen your original above the line message, it would still be beneficial to let your boss understand your seriousness about your two year limit. I’ll cover how to do deliver this below the line in the next step.
The best way to explain how to formulate a below the line message is by giving an example. Taking the scenario in Goal 2, you might mention to your boss that so far, you’ve made sure to get promoted about every four years and that in two more years, you’ll have been in this current position for four years already. Your boss isn’t stupid. They’ll know exactly what you mean. And at the same time, you won’t have seemed disrespectful or unappreciative. So now let’s return to your above the line message.
As I’ve described above, you’ve managed to get that fateful phrase out of your mouth and now you’re finally relieved. Good job, but you’ve only done (really less than) half the job. Don’t worry, you don’t have to repeat what you’ve just said. Your boss heard it. But now it’s up to you to make sure they act on what you’ve said. This can be done simply with a follow up phrase as simple as, “What do you think about this”. Something this short will force your boss to relate to what you’ve said and provide you with an answer - even if it’s tentative. Without this little follow-up, your career goals remain in the air with no one taking any responsibility. So don’t look down - look up...and ask.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve understood the great potential annual performance reviews can have for you. With the right kind of goals and preparation, a review with your boss can bring you a few steps closer towards your corner office.
Good luck!
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
The information you can get during your annual performance review is extremely important for your career. Most reviews begin with a general snapshot of your performance from the previous year. But you can get a lot closer towards your tempting career advancement out of an annual review, especially if your goal is find out how close you are to that next promotion.
But let’s face it. Most of us enjoy annual reviews as much as after school detention. We feel so uncomfortable that even if we’re given sound career advice we might decide to follow, the negativity we feel usually prevents us from taking real steps. In fact, while 89% of us leave reviews determined to make a significant change, only about 30% actually do anything about it. The other 11%? They claim that what was said in the review has little to do with them.
So what’s causing all of this review angst and what can be done about it? Read on.
Not in a higher power - in your boss. For whatever reason, you just can’t bring yourself to believe what your boss is telling you. Maybe they’ve been lax with the truth in the past or maybe there’s just something you can’t put your finger on. Whatever it might be, the result is that you approach your annual performance review with low energy and little motivation to learn anything.
So here’s what you have to do:
Plan a research agenda by first gathering as much information as possible that’s relevant to your next promotion and then preparing a list of questions. When your boss has finished the review, begin asking your questions and don’t let up until you have satisfactory answers. This, in effect, will turn the tables and provide you with an active role in the review, rather than just a victim of someone you don’t trust.
The quality of the annual performance review is due partly to the process itself and partly to your boss (discussed above). If you feel that the review isn’t hitting the points you expected, then you’re likely to lose faith in it right away. Add to this that your boss might be feeling the same way and therefore is trying to run through it as quickly as possible. Needless to say, there’s not much quality that can result from any of this.
So here’s what you have to do:
Come with questions. Lots of them - especially ones that require more complex conversation. In this way, you upgrade the review process from something very shallow to a meaningful experience. And if the review goes overtime, schedule a follow-up session to continue talking - off the books, so to speak. It’s in your interest to find out as many avenues for improvement as possible, so that you can stay on the promotion track towards tempting career advancement.
Sometimes, it seems as if your annual performance review has been watered down to a script your boss is obligated to read to you. It’s no surprise that we often walk away from such situations, wondering just how much thought was put into the process.
So here’s what you have to do:
Don’t let your boss get away with reciting your review and then moving on to the next person. Ask for a rewind - a review of the most important points. This will urge your boss to prioritize the points - so that you’ll understand which ones should be dealt with immediately. In this way, your boss has provided you with input and you can then form an action plan to address it.
It can be hard to put what you’ve learned into practice - and therefore sometimes you just might not want to hear it at all. Getting so much information and trying to somehow practically apply it can be an overwhelming experience for everyone. And the more time that passes, the less the chances you’ll actually be able to apply anything you’ve learned.
So here’s what you have to do:
Don’t take it upon yourself to make sweeping changes. When you try to bite off more than you can chew, you choke. Instead, try to break down the changes into manageable baby steps - steps that you can monitor and add to when you feel comfortable. After six months or so, check in with yourself to see if you’ve made progress and adjust accordingly.
An annual performance review, for many reasons, is not a day at the beach. By understanding what you’re uncomfortable with, you can begin to help shape it to meet your own needs - and progress one step further towards your corner office.
Good luck!
And always remember:
Great managers are made. Not born.
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