Take back control of your performance review and your career

For a lot of people, the performance review is the one moment in the year when they find out how they’re really doing. It’s usually one person’s view, written in a hurry, about months of work they can barely remember. By the time you hear that something wasn’t landing, there’s no time left to do anything about it.

You probably can’t change how your organisation runs its reviews. But you can change what you walk in with, and how early you hear the things that matter. As a manager, I’ve always been impressed by people who go looking for feedback rather than waiting for it to arrive. This guide is how to do that for yourself.

Why waiting for your review leaves you behind

I’ve sat on the manager’s side of a lot of performance reviews. However hard a manager tries, they have the same problems:

• They only see part of your work. Most of what you do happens with teammates, not with your manager in the room.
• They remember the last few weeks best. The great thing you did in spring can easily be forgotten by winter.
• The timing is backwards. Feedback that arrives at the review is feedback you can no longer act on before the review.

None of that is your manager’s fault, and none of it is in your control. What is in your control is collecting a wider, fairer picture yourself, early enough to use it.

What a self-initiated 360 is

A 360 review gathers feedback about one person from the people around them. A self-initiated 360 is simply one you set up for yourself, rather than waiting for your organisation to do it. You choose who to ask, you get an anonymous summary, and you decide what to do with it.

How to run one for yourself

1. 1
   Pick your timing. Aim for two or three months before your review. That gives you time to read the feedback, act on it, and maybe even ask again.
2. 2
   Write down what your role is actually for. List three to six responsibilities in plain language, like “Review code constructively and promptly”. If you can, agree them with your manager first. It’s surprising how often that conversation is useful on its own.
3. 3
   Choose four to six people. Pick people who work with you regularly, including a couple from outside your immediate team. At least three responses are needed to keep everyone anonymous.
4. 4
   Tell them why you’re asking. People give better feedback when they know it’s wanted and what it’s for. There’s a message you can copy below.
5. 5
   Read the summary when you have time to think. Not two minutes before a meeting. Make a cup of tea, read it twice, and wait a day before deciding what it means.
6. 6
   Pick one or two things to work on. Not ten. One or two you can actually do something about in the next couple of months.
7. 7
   Tell your manager. Share what you learnt and what you’re doing about it. Managers notice people who go looking for feedback, and it makes the review itself a much easier conversation.

What to ask

Keep it short. Long forms get rushed answers. The five questions I use in Trust Reviews are:

1. In terms of values, I trust them to… (rated against your team’s values)
2. In terms of the responsibilities in their role, I trust them to… (rated against your responsibilities)
3. How often does their engagement with the team and the work impress you?
4. When have they impressed you and what did you admire about them?
5. When could they have helped you or the team more and what could they have done?

Asking about trust works well because anyone you work with can answer it from their own experience. The last two questions are the gold: one tells you what to keep doing, and the other tells you what to try next. You can see the exact form your reviewers would get on the example review.

How to take the feedback well

The first read of any feedback can sting a bit, even when most of it is lovely. That’s normal. A few swaps that help:

• Instead ofTrying to work out who said what.
  →
  TryLooking for themes that come up more than once.
• Instead ofArguing with each comment in your head.
  →
  TryAsking what would make someone see it that way.
• Instead ofTrying to fix everything at once.
  →
  TryPicking the one or two things that matter most.
• Instead ofSkimming past the praise.
  →
  TryWriting it down. It’s evidence, and it’s yours.

Walk into your review with evidence

This is where taking control really pays off. Instead of hoping your manager remembers the good bits, you can bring them. Before your review, gather:

• ✓
  What people said they admire about you, in the summary’s words.
• ✓
  The one or two things you chose to work on, and why.
• ✓
  What you’ve actually done about them since.
• ✓
  If you’ve asked twice, what changed between the first summary and the second.

That last one is the most powerful. “Here’s what my teammates said, here’s what I did about it, and here’s what they said a few months later” is a story most managers rarely hear, and it’s hard to argue with. It’s also exactly the kind of evidence that helps when you’re making the case for a promotion.

How often to ask

Twice a year is a good rhythm for most people: once to find out where you are, and once to see what changed. It’s often enough to show progress and rarely enough that nobody gets tired of being asked. That’s why the Trust Reviews Personal plan includes two reviews a year.

If you’ve just started a new job, the same idea works during probation too. For a six-month probation, a review after two months and another after four gives you two chances to hear how you’re doing and act on it, well before anyone makes a decision.

You’re allowed to go first

You don’t need permission to want to get better at your job. Asking your coworkers how you could help them more is one of the most generous, grown-up things you can do at work, and most people are glad to be asked. Your review might still be once a year. Your feedback doesn’t have to be.

If you’re curious what you’d get back, have a look at the example summary. It’s a real summary format with made-up feedback, so you can see exactly what you’d be walking into your review with.