7 things you should tell your boss at review time
Do you consider performance reviews a time purely for your manager to provide feedback? Well, you’re half right.
A performance review provides the perfect opportunity to have a healthy two-way conversation with your manager about how you’re functioning in your role, what ambitions you have and other relevant issues.
Not all of us get formal reviews in the workplace, but it’s important to have a conversation with your boss about performance and goals one way or another.
For the best way to navigate this, career coach Leah Lambart from Relaunch Me shares her advice on the seven things you should tell your boss at review time.
1. What you love about your job, and what you wish you could be doing more of.
Start off by talking about what you love about your job, and you’ll set a positive and productive context for your performance review, Lambart says.
“Performance reviews should also be about finding ways to play more to your strengths in order to feel more productive, engaged and energised at work,” says Lambart. “A great way to approach a performance review is to list all the activities within your role that energise you most and see if your manager can help you find ways to do even more of these tasks in the future.”
For example, if you enjoy making promotional materials for your workplace as part of your marketing job, you could say, “I enjoy helping out with promotions and would love to be of assistance in that department regularly, if there’s an ongoing need.”
2. Other skills you have that you believe would benefit your workplace.
“We all tend to assume our managers are aware of all our skills, but that’s often not the case,” Lambart says. “Your manager may not always be aware of what you have achieved or may have forgotten, so it pays to document your value-adds before any performance review meetings”.
Good preparation for a performance review might include listing all the skills that you have developed in the past twelve months and documenting ways that you have added value to the team and the organization, says Lambart.
Before you bring them up, think about how using these skills could benefit your workplace. “This isn’t just about what you want to do, it’s also about what you can bring in addition to make this role easier, and the company’s performance better.”
3. The achievements you’re most proud of, and why.
Don’t be a wallflower when it comes to talking about your accomplishments and what motivates you at work. “Focus on what you have achieved and how this has contributed to the team’s outcomes and the wider organisation,” says Lambart.
It’s important to talk about your achievements in the context of work. Consider how you have worked as part of the team to undertake them.
“Achievements can be quantifiable—like exceeding KPIs—or they might involve less tangible contributions like building strong stakeholder relationships, streamlining processes, or improving team morale,” says Lambart.
4. What you need in order to do your best work.
“The performance review is the perfect time to discuss your career development goals with your manager and to explain what you need from them in terms of support,” says Lambart.
“This might include introductions to key people within the business, time off to study, exposure to new projects or more regular feedback discussions”.
The performance review is a great time to set goals that you want to achieve and including practical and realistic actions that you can take to achieve these goals. Lambart suggests exploring completing a formal course, job shadowing, gaining exposure to new areas of the business or finding a mentor to help build your skills and expertise.
5. The skills you want to gain and why.
It’s important to continue upskilling, and raising your eagerness to gain new skills with your manager shows you care about your work. However, you need to make sure the skills you want to develop are related to your role, and that they will benefit your workplace. Learning macramé might sound appealing, but it’s probably unlikely to be relevant to your work if you’re a receptionist. But you might be able to find other creative tasks you could take on if you let your manager know about your creative streak.
“If you are looking to develop new skills that may require support from your manager, consider how these new skills will add value to your team and the wider business,” says Lambart. “Linking your personal development to business needs makes a stronger case for support.”
6. Which processes you think could improve, and how.
Performance reviews are great opportunities to provide feedback on processes that you feel could be refined, and doing so will show your manager that you’re proactive. Keep in mind, though, that not all things can be changed.
“This may provide an opportunity to make a suggestion and then offer to take responsibility for implementing the idea in order to develop further skills or to enhance your exposure to new areas of the business,” says Lambart.
Come armed with a suggestion or two on what could be changed, and make sure you tie it back to improvements. Remember that to change the process, your manager will need to present a business case. The easier you make it for them, the more likely you are to get the change you want.”
7. What you would like to achieve in the next 12 months.
As with the skills you want to gain, this is your chance to demonstrate your alignment to the business, says Lambart. Try to find some common ground between what you want to do, and what the business is focusing on and set goals based on this.
"Goal setting is an important part of the performance review,” says Lambart. “But make sure your goals are SMART—specific, measurable, and timely. Focus on no more than three so they remain achievable. Discussing and aligning them with your manager means they’re more likely to support you, and having regular catch-ups to track progress helps keep you accountable."
