Five Tips For Preparing for Your Mid-Year Review

by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

This is the time of year when we dredge up those objectives documents we produced with our managers back in January and assess whether we’re on track.  The half-year review process differs from company to company, but chances are your boss will be asking you if you’re going to hit your targets for 2009 – and if you haven’t made much progress so far then the next six months are going to be tough.

Here are five tips for preparing for your review:

1. Do your homework

Don’t go into your review meeting unprepared.  Find the objectives that you wrote earlier in the year.  You might not have looked at them since January, but the first time you do shouldn’t be sitting across a meeting room table from your manager.

Knowing what was expected of you is only the first part of being prepared.  You also have to have some examples in your pocket of how you are actively moving towards hitting those objectives.  Don’t worry if they aren’t all complete now – we’re only half way through 2009 so no one will expect you all to have reached 100% of your goals.  In fact, if you have they obviously weren’t difficult enough.

Work out how far through you think you are: maybe you have set up a project team and got things going on one objective, or increased your sales revenue by two thirds of your stretch goal on another.  You’ll need to explain to your manager what you have done against each one.

2. Make a case for flexibility

Sometimes you won’t have achieved anything against an objective at all, and sitting there trying to explain that it wasn’t just laziness is an awkward situation.  Prepare how you are going to tackle this scenario.  Often there are excellent reasons for why you have been unable to achieve a particular objective.  Maybe the marketing strategy has changed and your objective is no longer relevant.  Perhaps the financial forecasts showed that it was more important for you to focus on building the small business portfolio instead of the major client portfolio.

Objectives are rarely set in stone.  If one becomes obsolete through circumstances beyond your control then discuss taking it off the list with your manager.  Suggest an alternative.  There is no point in you working towards something that adds no business value – even if at the beginning of the year you both thought it would. 

3. Get evidence

If you don’t have a good relationship with your boss the whole review meeting can be awkward.  You want to make it as dispassionate as possible.  Getting evidence from other people is one way to prove your point.

Ask your colleagues for feedback.  You can use a 360 degree feedback form or simply ask them for their ‘free text’ responses to your performance at work.  If you prefer, target your question towards an area where you know your manager thinks you need development:  “How do you feel my communication skills have been on Project X?”

You can also hunt through your emails for evidence: any time that someone has said thanks for a job well done is proof that your effort is appreciated – and not everyone would have copied your manager in on that type of praise.  If you don’t share this feedback with your manager, no one else will, so let her know that other people think you are doing a good job!

4. Schedule a meeting, even if your boss hasn’t asked for one

Nothing in the diary?  Even if your manager hasn’t scheduled a half-year review now is a good time to be looking at your achievements year to date.  And telling her.  It doesn’t have to be formal, but it is worth finding time to go through your progress with your manager.  It keeps you focussed on the targets for 2009 and it also means that she is aware of what you have done so far.  Women often find it hard to blow their own trumpets, and a half-year review meeting is one opportunity for you to do that in a very professional and non-threatening way.

5. Make plans now

Reviewing progress year to date is all very well, but what if you haven’t made that much progress?  Use this chance to put some plans in place to recover what you can before the year is out.  You really don’t want to be trying to complete an entire project in the last quarter before everyone takes their holiday breaks, so planning now will give you more flexibility to achieve what you need to before December comes around.

If you need help, ask for it.  Putting in the request now means that people still have time to schedule in any support you need without it being a mad rush to get something done – which will only make them feel put upon.  Remember, lack of planning on your part does not constitute a crisis for someone else!

You can also make your full year review easier by putting in place some plans now.  Schedule half an hour in your diary once a month to update your objectives with progress and evidence to date.  It’s hard to remember everything you have done at the end of the year, so keeping records on a ‘little and often’ basis will make your end of year preparation much simpler – and a reminder here and there will also jog your memory about what you are trying to achieve, making it more likely that you’ll spend time on it without risking that the day job takes over.