There are quite a few things to consider when planning to succeed in your performance review. Most likely, you are feeling fairly confident or slightly nervous. Either way, there are certain things you can do to help yourself during your performance reviews.
Have you ever considered your own personal brand? A personal brand is a valuable asset to both you and your company, and can work to connect you with teams, clients and colleagues to accomplish amazing things.
Moreover, others might look at productivity when reviewing their performance at work. How can you effectively maximise your output at work?
Reviewing your performance
At the end of the year, a performance review can be a great chance to shine and remind your Manager why they hired you in the first place. It can also be useful for your personal self-reflection.
Before you step into the meeting room with your manager, consider doing the following:
Give your performance review the time it deserves
Set aside time to really think about and prepare your performance review properly.
Reserve a time to make a concise but thorough evaluation of your past 12 months of work. Think a page or two-typed document.
Remember, you are your own best advocate and taking the time to do this will make it easy for your Manager to recognise your accomplishments.
Quantify, quantify, quantify
It’s always better to speak in numbers when it comes to measuring anything, particularly your own success.
Wherever possible, when listing your accomplishments try to think of how much, how long, how many? Managed a team? How many people? Exceeded your sales targets? By how much?
Even measures that may initially seem qualitative (like process improvements or community involvement) can usually be set against industry benchmarks in some way to indicate how you have performed.
Collect feedback independently
To understand how you are perceived within the organisation from a broader perspective than just your Manager’s, seek out feedback independently from your fellow team members, peers or clients.
Collecting commentary and feedback from other sources can go a long way towards showing what you’re doing outside your required role description, and how you’re representing yourself and your team across the company.
Keep detailed records of your accomplishments
The end of the year is never a good time to look back and try to remember absolutely everything you’ve done in the last 12 months.
Throughout the year, keep a separate file in your inbox and file away emails where people have thanked you for a favour, great performance or outstanding service.
Also, keep a separate running document where you can list even small wins throughout the year, so you have this to refer to when it comes to year-end. This will make the process much quicker and likely, more effective.
Have a plan
If you really want to set yourself apart, instead of just looking back on the year that was, create a strategy for the upcoming year as well.
For example, a document or slide deck outlining what you’re planning for the year ahead based on what you’ve learned. This shows you are proactively thinking about the business and how you can contribute.
How to brand yourself: Creating an effective personal brand
Your personal brand, or your reputation, holds a lot of weight.
Thanks to advances in technology and an increase in online social media platforms, creating a personal brand is easier and more important than ever.
Creating a personal brand that stands for something is a valuable asset to both you and your company and can work to connect you with teams, clients and colleagues to accomplish amazing things.
Before you start it's important to define who you are and who you are not. What will be your unique message that you cannot resist telling everyone?
Once you know your values, your message and why they are so important to you, you can pursue this with passion. Here are some personal branding tips to keep in mind.
Don’t wait. Act now
A big mistake people commonly make when it comes to personal branding is waiting for their timing, circumstances, content or ideas to be 'right’ before they can start.
Instead, that project they’ve been wanting to tackle at work, setting up that profile online or writing that article from an authentic place, can all be started and corrected along the way.
You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to start.
Choose your communication channels and commit
There are so many ways to get your message out these days, with more popping up every day.
Whether it’s a weekly blog, using LinkedIn, or creating a speaker series for a group of colleagues – building a personal brand does take commitment.
Choose one or two ways you’re going to commit to get your message out to the world and make sure you inject energy into them regularly. There’s nothing worse than a Twitter profile that hasn’t been updated in months or a weekly article that doesn’t get delivered.
Update the basics of your LinkedIn profile
Make sure that at least the basic details on your LinkedIn profile are up to date.
With over 35% of the workforce in Australia using this platform, it’s a great way to be visible in your company, profession, and industry.
As a priority, ensure your photo is a professional, head and shoulders shot of you. Next, update your professional headline underneath your name to reflect the search terms you would like to be found under. And finally, write a 200-word summary of your experience, skills and personal interests and post it under the background section.
Build your network
You can have all the social media profiles you want but if no one is listening to or following what you have to say, they can be ineffective.
Actively seek out like-minded people, groups and publications that can help you spread your message. The more you seek this out, the more energised you will become with your passion.
Opportunities, teams and people you want to be involved with will start to emerge. Your brand will evolve over time but only if you grow your network both online and in-person.
Collaborate – don’t compete
You need help to grow your network and your personal brand.
It’s important you don’t see people or groups that are doing something similar to you as competition.
They may be doing similar things, but no one will be able to do it in exactly the same way as you. See these value-aligned people as a resource for new ideas, introductions and inspiration. Be generous with them and expect they will be the same with you.
Preparing for a performance review? How to maximise your productivity
When we are working well, we tick things off our to-do lists and experience those feelings of pride, motivation and a can-do attitude. These feelings often extend to other areas of life.
But then we have all experienced those days when very little has been accomplished.
The key to consistently maximising productivity is effective time management; knowing what, when and why we should do things throughout our working day.
Prepare the day before
Spend a few minutes at the end of your day to prepare a to-do list for tomorrow and prioritise your tasks, starting with the most important. This way, when you come in you can begin tackling your workload from the beginning of the day rather than wasting time remembering where you left off and what you still have to accomplish.
Give yourself time constraints on your to-dos, so it will push you to be more efficient and meet your own deadlines.
Limit your email and phone time
Constantly checking your emails can be a barrier to productivity. Checking emails once an hour or less should be alright, nothing sent through email is ever urgent enough to require an immediate response.
If your job allows, leave your phone out of sight and on silent. This will reduce the urge to check messages, notifications, social media and other distractions. It will also help you to focus on the task at hand; even minor interruptions that seem to take seconds can add unnecessary time to projects.
Take a lunch break
This won’t always be possible, but no one should work through lunch every day. Try to go outside into the fresh air and the sunshine. If you can only fit in a 10-minute stroll, do it. You need to ensure that you take care of yourself.
Focus your attention
Close your browsers and concentrate on the task in front of you through to completion. The fewer interruptions, the more efficient you will be. If you can, find a quiet place in the office to work on tasks that require serious focus and attention.
Make yourself accountable
If you need to get something done, tell a colleague that you are working on it and give them a realistic timeframe that you plan to complete your task by. This will make you remain more focused and work within the set parameters.
Sit or stand up straight
Your mind needs oxygen to work most efficiently and your lungs need to have the capacity to expand and contract. If you are hunched over while typing, you can't breath as easily or as deeply as if you were sat up straight. The more oxygen delivered to the brain, the better your concentration levels will be.
CIM Employment by Altius is a Disability Employment Service (DES) and Disability Management Service (DMS). Our team of skilled and experienced allied health professionals and employment consultants work closely with employers, job seekers and workers to achieve long-term sustainable employment outcomes.
To find out how we can help with your career call us on 1800 258 487.
