The OTHER Interview (performance reviews)

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Dave of no last name reports: <<While I've been watching the interesting
threads about interviews, my manager handed me a questionnaire to fill out
prior to my annual review... I find it easier to describe my goals,
strengths, weaknesses, etc. when I'm applying for a job than I do after I've
been working in a position for a time.>>

It's natural enough to fear these things; most of the time you go into these
reviews having no idea of what the manager thinks, and that's cause for a
measure of trepidation. For one thing, you know you're going to be surprised
because you haven't talked to the manager all year; for another, you worry
about whether the manager will think you're bragging if you rate yourself
highly or (worse yet) worry about whether the manager really has no idea of
what you're doing, and will use your own timid appraisal of your abilities
to evaluate you.

<<I know it's no fun for managers either, but I still haven't mastered the
art of being on the employee side of the fence.>>

What's worked for me in the past (and in the present, for that matter) is to
actively manage my manager's knowledge and expectations of me. That means
that I keep the manager well-informed of what I've been doing, without being
annoying about it, and regularly solicit feedback on what I've been doing
well and what I've been doing not so well. This accomplishes a variety of
important goals: It makes sure the manager appreciates my work and remains
aware of the good things I'm doing. It gives me a chance to fix any problems
immediately rather than letting them surprise me at the end of the year; if
I can fix them, they won't ever arise during the appraisal, and if not, I
can use them to define a goal for my performance next year. It keeps the
lines of communication open, and if I pay attention, I can sometimes get an
idea of things the manager is thinking but not saying. Best of all, it
brings me to the end of the year with a reasonably clear idea of what the
manager thinks of me; that lets me fill out the blasted form with a measure
of confidence that I'm reporting information the manager already knows and
neither exagerrating nor underestimating my worth. That takes a lot of
pressure off both of us, and that's surely a good thing.

The key "gotcha" here is that I'm assuming the manager actually wants to
work with me to improve my performance, and will be open and honest about
where I need improvement. It also assumes that I've correctly judged my
manager's tolerance for my presence; this approach works best in small,
relatively open groups. You really do have to be wary about being seen by
the manager as a pest, about being seen by the other staff as a brown-noser,
and so on. But the trick is to develop, to the extent that this is possible,
a friendly and honest working relationship. YMMV (your manager may vary).

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"I vowed [that] if I complained about things more than three times, I had to
do something about it."--Jon Shear

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