“Do you find it easier to walk now that you have regularised your strength training?” My Pilates coach asks me one and a half months into the course. I don’t even pause to think. “No, it is all the same.” Post facto, I wonder, perhaps there’s something to it.
It indeed works, Pilates. I find it easier to climb steps, am more conscious of my muscle usage. It is one of the most consistent physical activities I have done since time immemorial.
But, it takes me a while before I pause and do this review, pat myself on the back.
No, don’t shut the post yet. It isn’t about Pilates at all. It is that time of the year for some of us, when we have to write onerous reviews of our selves.
My first year at the workplace went by in a blur. In the midst of a financial crisis and budget cuts, it felt quite pointless to put effort into self-reviews. But, here I am, a decade and a half later, older, wiser, and more invested in self-reviews.
Why? Well, of course, because who else can talk about and make a case for what I have done, if not me. But, more importantly, who else can take stock and give the most honest feedback on me, if not me.
Below are some things I do to make self reviews less painful and more effective.
Collect data: At the end of 12 long months, I don’t usually remember all that I have done at the workplace. I trawl through my folders and emails to remind myself of all I have done. This is actually the most time consuming of processes.
Organise information: Collecting data and all is fine but it looks so haphazard. All over the place. I structure them into buckets, project-wise but also role-wise. In some pieces, I am only a supporter. In others, I am the owner.
Get inputs: I reach out to people I worked with through the year for feedback. This is a long list because conversion rates are poor. I suspect everyone reels under the pressure of review season, so a longer list helps in getting at least 2-3 inputs.
Measure output: I am not a fan of too much English in reviews (contrary to how much English I write here). I try to measure outputs, either through financial metrics or foundational ones. I find this hardest to do in program management roles, so that takes some hard work thinking through time and resource efficiencies, bottlenecks resolved etc.
Be shameless: I don’t believe in being coy around appraisal season. Or any season for that matter. I put myself out there, speak about what I have done. It’s a thin rope, one can fall into the pit called incessant bragging very easily. So, I try to be as objective as possible but exhaustive in my self review, covering everything I have done. I don’t discount much as too small to talk about.
But be honest: There’s no such thing as a flawless being. But, I am not here to talk about my weakness for ice cream. I am here to talk about my development goals, investing time in learning new things, for instance. Self-review is a good time to think about those areas too, for I am my best and worst critic.
Just follow these 6 points and you are all set to crack self-reviews.
No. That’s absurd.
Much like everything else in life, self-review is an ongoing process. It evolves with time. But the key to getting it right eventually is to be intentional, to see value in investing that time in understanding and evaluating one’s own self.
For, no harm ever came of prioritising our own selves.
This is along the lines of a post I'm working on about goal setting. I think this was an awesome topic.
How often are you realistically evaluating yourself? Ben Franklin did it 3x daily!
On point and well presented. As always.