Self-evaluations are a chance for leaders and employees to write about their professional development, success stories, and areas for improvement. They’re meant to help their writers reflect on past accomplishments and to illuminate the pathway toward future career growth.
It’s performance review time. You’re probably buried underneath notes on your direct reports, considering a year’s worth of accomplishments, reviewing their salaries, writing formal evaluations, and scheduling one-on-ones.
“When personal growth is consistently put on the back burner, it can lead to poor decision making, misdirected frustration, or even burnout,” she said. “While self-sacrifice can often be in the most immediate best interest of the organization, leaders need to feel and be at their best to successfully lead.”
At many companies, self-evaluations are part of the formal reviews process, but they’re not meant to only be a look back on past performance. When done thoughtfully and intentionally, self-evaluation can be a powerful tool to help leaders direct their professional growth in the future.
Self-evaluations give leaders a space to think critically about themselves, measure their perspective against employee feedback, and take stock of their positive traits and areas for growth. Most of all, they’re a great chance for companies to learn how to better support and uplift their employees.
PREPARE IN ADVANCE
When writing your self-evaluation, you should never rush things. It makes errors more likely and won’t give you the time you need to be thoughtful in your responses. It’s okay to bring notes into your self-evaluations — keeping a record of your accomplishments, challenges and endeavours over the course of the year will help you not forget anything major. Once you’re at least a few days out from writing your self-evaluation, block out a dedicated chunk of time on your calendar to collect your thoughts and decide on your talking points.
INTEGRATE OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES
Your self-evaluation doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Your performance is informed by those around you. How your direct reports and co-workers feel about their relationship with you is a major indicator of how you’re doing and involving external perspectives will provide better feedback.
INCLUDE BOTH HARD AND SOFT DATA
To get a truly accurate picture of how well you met the expectations of your role, you’ll need data to back yourself up. Don’t be vague about your accomplishments — have concrete examples like OKRs, site traffic numbers, and KPIs at the ready to establish your contributions.
BE REALISTIC
It can be hard to talk about their shortcomings, especially for company leaders that might feel pressure to maintain a model image. But while it may be scary to discuss the times you failed to live up to expectations, the ability to do so is a strength. Good managers are transparent about their challenges — don’t shy away from being vulnerable, embrace it.
“Be honest. We all have weaknesses. I learn the most when I fail,” said Peters. “On the flip side, make sure to include how you plan to improve in that area of opportunity and give examples of early growth when applicable. Self-awareness is important but self-correction is even better.” KEEP AN
OPEN MIND
After you’ve written your self-evaluation, you can expect your employer to follow up with feedback of their own. Keep yourself open to praise, advice and suggestions so that you can continue to grow as a manager.
“Good manager evaluations will thoroughly address your self-evaluation and build upon that with their own feedback, opinions, and advice. Take it in stride,” said Peters. “Keep in mind that they’re your manager because they have experiences you may not have. Be a sponge and open to learning from their knowledge base.”
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