The end of the financial year is performance review time for many Australians. If you are wondering what you need to do to prepare for your performance review meeting, read on to find out.
Why prepare?
Investing an hour or two to prepare for your performance review will help you feel more confident.
It’s an opportunity to reflect on the progress and achievements you’ve made throughout the year.
It will help you be clear on what you want to achieve in the year ahead and what growth or professional development opportunities might be available.
How to prepare
- Review your individual and team objectives
Gather your individual and team objectives or KPIs that you set at the beginning of the year (hopefully they exist – if not, there may be emails or strategy session notes that set the direction).
For each goal, write a couple of points of what you achieved and the outcome. If you have data to support how you’ve met your KPIs or objectives (e.g. producing this video in-house saved $5,000), jot this down.
- Reflect on your progress and achievements
What are the two things that you are most proud of?
Was there a lesson learnt, or something that you would approach differently next time?
What strengths have you identified that you would like to build on in the year ahead?
- Where do you want to be in 12 months’ time?
What do you want to achieve within the role and the organisation in the next 12 months, and how does this contribute to where the organisation is headed?
How do you want to grow? E.g. what skills, strengths or experience do you need to build?
What professional development opportunities do you need to help you grow? This may be formal learning like coaching or a course to improve a particular skill or develop formal qualifications.
Or it could be informal learning, like identifying an area that you’d like to be mentored in (e.g. running an effective meeting) and reaching out to someone in your workplace or business community and asking for some tips.
What are your strengths and areas of experience and how do they relate to where the organisation is going? There may be projects coming up that you’d like to contribute to, or extra value that you can add.
- Show up as your best self
While we can’t always anticipate or control how a conversation will go, we can take responsibility for how we show up. E.g. if you are positive, professional and open to feedback you help set the scene for a positive and productive meeting.
Think positively – most leaders genuinely care about their people and want them to succeed.
It’s ok if you feel a little nervous ahead of the meeting. If you receive unexpected feedback, you don’t need to respond in the heat of the moment. Just politely acknowledge the feedback and note that you’ll consider it.
May investing this time prepare you for success!
