Performance reviews are very common in the workplace. A typical performance would be a manager and other stakeholders involved in your work evaluating your performance over a period of time, often annually or semi annually.
However, some companies have adopted self-evaluation techniques where they have the employee evaluate their own performance (appraisal). But moms at work are not sure about how to handle these self-evaluations.
How do you maintain professionalism and honesty while doing self-evaluated performance reviews?
What impact do these evaluations have in your career?
Remember how you write a self evaluation performance review is crucial in your career.
In this post, I will share about why self-evaluations are necessary and most importantly how you can professionally and honestly fill them. You can use this guide to write responses to fill a self evaluation review for your annual, semi annual or monthly performance review.
Read: What to Expect in your First Performance Review
What is Self-Evaluation Performance Review?
A self-evaluation performance review is an opportunity for the employee to critically evaluate their own performance at work. It is a tool to assess productivity and set future goals that benefits the employee and the organization equally.
They are self-filled by the employees and often a precedent to a performance review or appraisal with the manager. They are very necessary and fit independent roles where your manager knows little about what you are working on.
How you write a self evaluation review is an indication of your professionalism. You should therefore be as professional and honest as possible.
Revealed: Why Performance Self-Evaluation Reviews are Necessary & Recommended
Companies opt to use Self Evaluation Performance Review for various reasons. They benefit a working mom by the following reasons.
1. Self Appraisals Allow you to Demonstrate your Value & Worth
Writing a self evaluation performance appraisal helps you to illustrate to your manager or leadership about how, why, when, and to what degree you both bring value, add value, and how you uphold and contribute to the company bottom line and productivity.
2. An Opportunity to Give Manager Insight into your Work
If you hold an independent role where you manager is not heavily or intensely involved in your on a daily basis, they may be in the dark in some aspects of your work. It is then important to have a self evaluated performance review as it brings your manager to speed about your work.
If this is not done, there is a risk of your contributions being underestimated or missed.
3. Helps Demonstrate how your Work Help Meet Company Goals
Self appraised reviews are a point when you can demonstrate how your work impacts your company or rather how they align with the company goals. You get to critically evaluate your skills and knowledge and the impact they have on the company.
4. An Opportunity to Showcase Roles and Responsibilities Take
Often you may be required or have the inclination to take in more work than is outlined in your job description. A self evaluation performance review allows you to self report on these additional roles you have in the company. Doing so can help you in getting a raise and/or a promotion
5. Helps Make Case for Salary Raise or Promotion
A self-evaluation performance review or appraisal and its content of achievements, value, responsibility and contribution to the company shows you are ready to take on bigger, larger-impact projects and deliverables. It also helps you in successful asking for a salary raise or getting a promotion.
6. An Opportunity to Say how you Feel about your Performance
In a normal performance review , you may not have the chance to be honest in voicing your feelings about your own performance. In a self evaluation performance review, you can honestly say how you feel about your performance.
7. Self Appraisal Allows you to know our Strengths & Weaknesses
In a self evaluation performance review, you evaluate your potential and realistic potential for growth. It is a good way of identifying your own strengths, weaknesses and how you can work on them.
8. An Opportunity to Display Growth Mindset & Self- Awareness
When you fill a self evaluation performance review or appraisal honestly and professionally it is a display of your mindset and how it is geared towards growth.
9. A Chance to Own your Achievements
Unlike when your manager is evaluating you, a self evaluation performance review will allow you to have a moment of owning up to your achievements as well as the limitations that you need improvement on.
10. Self-Evaluation Expose areas of Disconnect between you & Job Expectations
In normal cases, employee work expectations align with the managers expectation of your work. However in other cases there is a disconnect and a self evaluation performance review is a great way for your manager to discover this disconnect in work expectations and handle it.
11. Self-Appraisal Demonstrates Professionalism
Self evaluations help demonstrate maturity, criticism, critique, and forethought, which in good organizations is the key to promotion. Sometimes a manager will request you to fill a self evaluation performance review in order to test you.
By filling it professionally and honestly, you demonstrated maturity , reliability and credibility.
Importance of Honesty and Professionalism in Self Evaluation Performance Review(Appraisal)
While filling out self-evaluation performance reviews it is very important to remain honest and professional. Honesty and professionalism drive the value you will get from the review.
It is very tempting for moms to give themselves exceptional ratings. But that would beat the intent of the evaluation if the quality of the results are compromised.
The dilemma that many working moms face is that admitting weaknesses may end up calling attention to yourself from your supervisor and your boss. On the other hand highly rating yourself inflates your performance and has the same effect of attracting attention to yourself and receiving criticism for claiming perfection.
To therefore professionally evaluate yourself, you must be honest about you fill or write the performance review. While looking to strike the balance and remain as honest and professional as possible. Bear the following in mind
- The target of your self evaluation performance reviews is your boss/manager so objectivity and professionalism is key
- Your boss/manager may already know what your strengths and weaknesses are. On the other hand, your manager may not be aware of your contributions,
- The true intent of a self-evaluation performance from the manager point of view is to see if YOU know what your strengths and weaknesses are
- Your manager wants to know how you feel about your performance. You are being tested and expected to admit your flaws
- Career growth is all about learning and improving so perfection in your self evaluation performance review is not expected
- The manager wants to identify any areas of disconnect between the company’s and your job expectations
Read: Habits for a Positive Performance Review
Expert Tips & Secrets of Professionally Fill a Self-Evaluation Appraisal
- Remain Honest in listing your achievements. Don’t exaggerate or downplay
- Criticize Yourself to identify your areas of improvement. Look at yourself with a naked light
- Praise Your Achievements and accomplishments adequately. Don’t water down crucial achievements
- Account for Growth and Improvement. State how you are planning in growing and improving
- Connect your Work with Job Expectations. For your work to be valued, it must help your company meet its goals
- Use the good-bad-good sandwich method. Start with achievements, then weaknesses and lastly your growth action plan
1. Remain Honest in Filling Your Self Evaluation
Lying is not professional. In a self-evaluation performance review, your boss may already know your strengths and weaknesses. Hence write your self evaluation reviews in a way that you do not lie about them as this will be detected.
Remain as truthful as possible otherwise you are creating a trap for yourself. Do not deny strengths that you have and do not take credit for what you do not have.
In short don’t exaggerate your strengths or downplay your weaknesses. The approach is a very important way of professionally evaluating yourself. When you remain truthful, you will come across as honest, reliable, and credible, which is desirable and will play in your favor career-wise.
Remember that your may boss already knows about how your performance review should look like. A self-evaluation performance review or appraisal that will be too much of a contrast from the boss’s will attract scrutiny and hurt your career instead.
2. Criticize Yourself and Evaluate your own Weaknesses
Sometimes it is hard seeing through yourself. You may know some of your weaknesses but may have ignored others.
To have a quality evaluation of yourself, you must criticize yourself. You are the best person to do this as you can afford to be truly honest with yourself. Critic all areas of your work and this is how you will identify your weaknesses and areas you can improve on.
When writing self-evaluation performance reviews, it is right and advisable to always acknowledge your mistakes. Don’t think of them as mistakes, but opportunities for improvement, or areas where development is needed.
However, it’s in your best interest to do that without making yourself look incompetent too. Professionally evaluating yourself is all about maintaining honest and objectivity.
3. Praise Your Achievements in Self Evaluation
In addition, to have several strengths it is important knowing about them and capitalize on them. It is very professional to celebrate your small achievements and milestones. They illustrate that you have the capacity for intrinsic motivation.
So write your self evaluation to include all those skills, achievements, and strengths that make you better at your job. It may not sound ideal to most moms to praise themselves but professionally evaluating yourself requires you to know and acknowledge what your strengths in work are.
4. Account for Growth and Improvement
Everybody at the workplace has strengths and weaknesses. But moms who grow and advance career wise are those that take charge of their journey by learning and improving every day. Therefore it is ok to have and acknowledge these weaknesses that you have on the self-evaluation performance review or appraisal.
However, go a step ahead and be professional about it by mentioning what you are doing to change and improve on the current state. Specifically, write your self evaluation performance review to include what you are doing to better capitalize on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses.
Admitting your weaknesses and working on them is better than hiding them. It is also an important aspect of professionally evaluating yourself.
The step is important at any point in your career. It is also useful at any kind of self evaluation performance review. It could be a after 1 month, 6 months or annually.
5. Connect your Work with Job Expectations
Your performance will always be tied to what is expected of you at work. The role and job descriptions matter a lot in the workplace and you have to ensure your goals are set on the expectations.
Therefore as you fill the self-evaluations performance review, bear this in mind. Write it a way that reflects you are aware of what is expected of you.
Focus on the strengths and weaknesses that directly relate to your work. If you have other contributions and fail in what is expected of you, the performance review will likely be poor.
For your work to be valued, it must help your company meet its goals. As such remain professional and tie in your contributions and how your work meets and is working towards meeting job expectations. It is an important aspect of professional self performance evaluations or appraisals.
6. Use the “good – bad – good” Sandwich Technique
While filling your self-evaluation performance reviews, it is professional to remain objective. Your evaluation ideally should contain your strengths/accomplishments, weaknesses, and growth areas.
The most recommended approach is to use the “good – bad – good” sandwich technique where you list your strengths/accomplishments first, then acknowledge your weaknesses and lastly outline a plan to improve or grow.
Writing your self evaluation performance reviews using this approach helps highlights your strengths and weaknesses in a more objective way. It helps keeps the opportunities for improvement in perspective while being honest and professional about it.
The approach is also appropriate regardless of the period for which you are filling your self evaluation appraisal. It could be a after 1 month, 6 months or annually.
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