Four things to seek in the face of a below-average assessment
Middling performance reviews can be a gut punch, especially when you think things are fine.
No one likes to hear that they're the world's okayest employee.
How you respond to a lukewarm performance assessment, though, is critical both to the way forward and to your personal well-being.
Getting knocked down and getting up again
My last performance review ended up being not so great.
The details of why I was given a C-minus aren't particularly important.
But regardless, it's not the trajectory I want to be on. I desire to make things better wherever I go, not whenever I go.
It's time to do the Chumbawumba Tubthumping thing.
Seek feedback
Our govvie performance reviews have feedback as part of the process.
In my career, though, I've found some managers to be better at giving “opportunities for improvement” than others. If I hear nothing but praise it makes me a bit suspicious.
In this case, I press a bit and ask them what's the biggest thing I can work on during the coming year. I haven't always gotten an answer but sometimes I have.
Seek clarification
In my case this year, the clearest indication of my so-so performance was the size of my DEMO payout, which amounts to bonus pay as close as the government is allowed to give bonuses out. It was noticeably lower than the previous year. Actually, it was lower than any year in the previous decade.
After receiving it, I went back a few days later and asked whether this year was bad for everyone or just me.
During that conversation, I got some of the reasons why others in the branch outperformed me. I had never suspected that I wasn't treated fairly, but it was good to know some of the wherebys and whatfors.
Seek actionable advice
In light of this information, I proposed things that I could do differently in the coming year and whether they would mitigate my shortcomings.
This sets the new year off on the right trajectory.
Seek a parallel income path
I started doing this even before this year's performance review.
I'd certainly be a lot more worried about the performance review if I didn't have my after-work income streams cooking.
What works when you're in the driver's seat of your career also works when you feel someone else is driving.
Building other income sources in the five-to-nine takes the edge off of the uncertainty. At the very least, I can tell myself that I'm creating my own options now.
This is something we can all do.
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage entrepreneurship in people, including myself.
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