If you are a STEM professional, knowing you have an upcoming performance review can invoke feelings of dread and self-doubt, especially if you're a minority gender identity (like a woman) on your team.
You know how you show up in this meeting matters. It’s a prime chance to share your accomplishments and goals, gather feedback, and ask for support in new goals moving forward.
It can also feel like it’s putting to the test the most crucial relationship in your career: your relationship with your direct manager.
How can you show up in a way that both feels authentic and enhances that relationship?
As a STEM woman, you are statistically likely to have a different leadership or communication style that hasn't been normalized in your organization, even if it's equally effective when compared to the “traditional” masculine leadership styles common in many STEM organizations.
For example, when doing case study interviews of current women leaders in STEM, one interviewee told me: "I don't love what I hear in some of my leadership meetings as to why a woman PM isn't getting promoted. She can get the job done just fine, but because she leads differently, she doesn't always get a fair shot. That narrative has to change to get more women into leadership."
How you show up in performance reviews can demolish that narrative and, as a result, uplevel your career opportunities when done well. The good news is it’s all about preparation.
Here are four key things you need to prepare for your performance review:
Your goals: Reflect on your near-term goals at work. What are they, and what skills do you need to grow to achieve them?
Goal alignment with organization: Where do your goals align with the organization? Practice sharing your goals in the context of where you think they align with organizational priorities. Even asking for a raise can align depending on the value you bring sufficient value to your organization (see #3).
How to communicate your value: Share where you've provided value in the past and where you provide the most value in your role.
Your ask: Decide what you plan to ask for. Prepare for both how you will ask and how you'll overcome an initial "no" on your request (overcoming the “no” will be a separate article – if you want to hear more specifically on this, please share in the comments!).
Come prepared with these items to your review, and get ready to be uplevel your career! I’ve had clients use this prep method to ask for many different types of things, from working on more high-visibility projects aligned with strengths, asking for more responsibilities, changing roles, and getting that raise or promotion.
This article will unpack each step you can use to prepare for your review.
Know Your Goals
Your goals provide a roadmap and direction when you hit roadblocks. That’s why it’s CRITICAL that you are excited about them. (Managers, take note! If those you manage aren’t excited about their goals, they may be the wrong ones.)
You also don’t need to have a long-term career plan mapped. Changing technologies and job markets mean that plans of longer than 1 year often get trashed. Some planning is helpful; however, I find over-planning to be common with many of my clients. Over-planning can cause you to be both blind to opportunities outside the plan and cause stress when things don’t go “according to plan.”
If you’re unsure what your goals are, here are 4 reflection questions to consider before your performance review. Communicate these items to your manager during your review (OK if that’s the only option) or in a separate goal conversation (recommended where possible).
What’s your biggest professional aspiration for the next year?
Which specific skills or experiences do you need to achieve these aspirations?
How do these goals (and your achievement of them) benefit your manager, team, and/or organization?
What roadblocks might prevent you from achieving your goals, and what support would you need from your manager or peers to overcome them?
Write down your answers to the questions above as a first step in preparing for your review.
Once you know your goals, don't hold back on communicating them. Some studies show you must communicate something 2 -7 times before it’s “heard.” Sharing them one time only decreases the odds that you’ll get the support you need to achieve your goal. This is one reason I recommend having a separate conversation about goals BEFORE your review, if possible.
Here is a simple script you can use to speak to your manager on this topic in a discussion separate from your review:
“I’m thinking ahead in preparing for my review about possible future goals. Can we schedule 15 minutes this week for me to share my thoughts and get your feedback so we’re on the same page going into the review?”
Align Your Goals
Getting a “no” on a goal during your performance review can make you feel like your work is unappreciated. But did you know a “yes” - and active support of your goal – can be as simple as how you present that goal in your discussion?
You have every right to decide on any goal you want, regardless of whether it aligns with your current organization. It’s OK to want what you want, just because.
However, to get buy-in and support on achieving your goals, think strategically about how you frame those goals to your manager.
Use my favorite acronym for getting buy-in - WIIFT (What’s In It For Them) – to think about how best to present your goals so that when you achieve them, it’s a win-win for both of you. Brainstorm your answer to the following question:
What benefits are there to the company and your manager if you achieve your goal?
Those benefits may be obvious (i.e., bringing in a client, saving time or money), or you may have to get creative (thought leadership for your firm, keeping a repeat client happy, making your manager/firm look good, helping others be more productive with the spreadsheet you created, etc.)
When preparing for your performance review, it's easy to get laser-focused on your own professional aspirations. Getting buy-in and active support on those aspirations at work means you are prepared to articulate how your goals ladder up to organizational or manager objectives.
If you do not know your organization’s or manager’s objectives, ask! Asking is better done at least two weeks before your performance review so you have time to consider how your goals may align.
Here is another simple script you can include in your pre-review goal conversation shared in the “Align Your Goals” section of this article:
“I feel the best path for me to grow is to have goals that maximize my unique contributions to the team, that help both you and the team achieve their goals. To help me understand this, can you share more about the goals you have for yourself and the team?”
Once you’ve got this context, look for genuine overlap between organizational needs and your growth areas and share that in your review.
Communicate Your Value
“I didn’t realize how much work you were putting in.”
When I heard this from my manager, I was shell-shocked and angry. I thought, “Isn’t it your job to pay attention to this?”
Perhaps you can relate - have you ever gotten frustrated that you aren't being recognized and, at the same time, struggled to speak up for your accomplishments?
Communicating your value well is a common stumbling block in reviews. There is a temptation to undersell or not share your accomplishments, assuming your manager is already aware of them.
From your manager’s perspective (and as a manager myself), they manage multiple people and many projects. Even the best-intentioned managers don’t know your work as intimately as you do.
It’s always worth reiterating your accomplishments and checking in with your manager on where they think you are currently providing the most value to your team. Think of this more as a courtesy and reminder to your manager (who often has a stack of paperwork they need to do for your – and everyone else’s - review), rather than feeling like you need to “sell” your accomplishments.
Underselling or omitting that summary from your conversation likely means your manager doesn’t fully comprehend the extent of your contributions.
That translates into you feeling that you’re not appreciated or recognized. It also means you are less likely to get the most desirable projects moving forward and are less likely to advance in your organization (and the pay/benefits that come with it).
While I wish my past managers had been mind-readers (and I’d love to have that skill on my leadership path now!), that is not reality. Managers typically see just a slice of your impact day-to-day, especially if you are working remotely.
Help your manager give you the recognition you deserve in your review by using the 4 categories below to share how you have provided value and grown since your last review:
Projects delivered: Prepare a list of projects you’ve worked on and their impact
Efficiencies created: Did you save money for your team or a client? Did you make a spreadsheet or app that increases internal efficiencies? Add them to your list.
Skills and technology growth: Catalog any skills or new technologies you’ve learned. This includes ANY skill, be it a technical or leadership skill.
Culture betterment: Where has your work contributed to a better team or organization culture? Where has it contributed to goodwill from a client or higher-up in your organization?
With all the above, be prepared to share quantifiable evidence where possible. See four examples in the video below.
Write down your list of accomplishments using the 4 categories above, and practice saying them out loud before your next review. Below is a script to share these with your manager in your review:
“I know you’re busy and managing multiple people, so I took the liberty of making a list of where I think I provided the most value to the team this year. For me, the highlights are [share your highlights, and consider sharing a written list that can be included in the documentation of your review]. What were the highlights for you?”
Whatever you do, don’t downplay your achievements or omit summarizing them in your review because you have fallen for the career myth that if you do great work, it will stand for itself.
If YOU take for granted or underestimate the value you are providing, why should anyone else appreciate that value?
One of the most common places I see STEM women underestimating their value is taking their project management and skills in executing logistically complicated projects for granted. This happens because those skills come easily to them, and they don’t realize how much value they provide.
Consider for yourself: What skills come easily to you that provide value to your team? (Hint: These are often in the realm of leadership or communication skills.)
If for no other reason, remember that you self-advocating NOW by sharing your accomplishments means you are more likely to advance and pave the way for other women in STEM as you redefine leadership norms.
Make Your Ask Confidently
Asking for what you want at work can feel like the most challenging part of your review, but it doesn’t have to be. Fears around asking include uncertainty about what to say and fear of “no.”
No one wants to hear a “no” (and there are many ways to turn a “no” into a “yes”). Still, for many of the STEM women I work with, the more significant concern is professionally asking for what you want without wrecking your relationship with your manager.
You intuitively know that issuing an ultimatum doesn’t work for you, and you’re wondering how to ask to maximize your chances of getting a “yes.” At the same time, you want to ensure that you maintain (if not improve) a positive relationship with your manager regardless of the outcome.
The first and most important thing when asking is to do so confidently. That means practicing out loud (over and over if needed) until you sound confident.
Why is confidence so important? A study of more than 1300 professionals found that those who feel “neutral” or “unconfident” going into their negotiations only succeeded 16% of the time. In contrast, those who felt “confident” succeeded in their negotiation 75% of the time.
Feel confident, and increase the likelihood you get a “yes.”
Here are 4 tips to confidently make your ask in your next review:
Preparation = Success: The biggest stumbling block for those receiving reviews is a lack of preparation, specifically in communicating your value and knowing your ask in advance.
Practice out loud: Your performance review shouldn’t be the first time you’re saying the things you’ve prepared out loud.
Consider seeding your ask in advance: To minimize resistance to your ask, consider “testing” reception in advance by casually bringing it up in a 1:1 meeting.
Make your ask a statement: You don’t need to ask permission for what you want. Make your ask a statement to instantly sound more confident, and add a power question to invite your manager to co-create a solution.
Here’s one example of turning your unconfident permission-based ask question into a confident empowerment-based ask statement with a power question:
Instead of “Can I get more experience on X type of project in the next year?”, use “My goal is to get more experience on X type of project next year. How can we make that happen?”
Write your ask statement and power question down, and practice saying them out loud until you sound confident.
Remember, you don’t have to BE 100% confident to SOUND 100% confident. Preparation and practice make all the difference in presenting your ask confidently to maximize the likelihood of a “yes.”
Preparation Equals Success
Preparing thoroughly for your performance review is the key to setting yourself up for career acceleration and success.
By following the four steps of reflecting on your goals, aligning them strategically, quantifying your value, and confidently making your ask, you can maximize the likelihood of walking out of that review with your manager's full support behind you. Don't underestimate the power of self-advocacy combined with preparation. Do the work ahead of time to show up fully ready to communicate your values, ambitions, and ask. With the proper preparation, your next performance review can be a springboard to reaching your highest potential.
Want Help With Step-by-step Preparation For Your Review?
If you want step-by-step help in review prep, check out our workshop on this topic, where we will walk you through these steps so you are ready for your review! Learn more and register here: https://eriseinstitute.com/careerconvoworkshopsept2023
