Who honestly can say they enjoy performance reviews? In my other life as HR, every time we would schedule these interviews, even the air within the organisation would be strained!!!

Question: Why is it a big deal to attend a performance review interview? Before I get stones through my way and in my own defense am coming from a school of thought in which from the beginning of the year, you knew this was coming, so why make a give deal of it when it comes calling?

Unless of course your manager uses it to let you down easy. The manager will compliment the achievements you made throughout the year so much that you will be ok with more praise than that increment. Alternatively, criticize you into thinking that your increment exceptions were far fetched.

Can i let you on a little secret on how to get through the review unscathed?

First know what is expected of you. Have it in writing, copied to both yourself and the manager. Then request to know how performance will be measured and the reward you should expect upon delivering on your tasks. Then keep track of your own performance so that there will be no surprises and before the interview, put together a draft of your review, it will make your life much easier.

Having said that, I now find myself addressing me, who is self employed. If you are like me, end year performance review will definitely not apply to you, at the beginning of every year, you must have put together a wish list in the name of “New Year Resolutions”. Can you remember where you wrote? Eeeh dust off the cobwebs or the dust and steal a glance at it!!!! That my friend forms the basis of your end of year review!!!

Before you get to asking where and how mine is faring, let me confess…..i had none!!! A while back i stopped torturing myself with new year resolutions, I even adopted a beautiful way of summarizing this wish list in “My 3 Words” from a words Guru @ChrisBrogan, great stuff. I fell off the bus at some point – read 2015…So this year, i was determined to get it going again but from a different angel.

Every year, the church puts together this great theme which is unpacked at the beginning of the year, setting the pace for the rest of the year. So this year, i decided to adopt the theme – “Positioned for Impact”, taking God’s word literally.

How did it work out? Watch this space for more….

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Pauline is the CEO at Allen Cole, also consults for iWork and Elite Writers Hub. She works with small and medium size organizations to increase their visibility online through corporate blogging, content creation, website development and social media engagement.