"Accept responsibility for your life. 

Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, 

no one else." 

- Les Brown

Mujeres y Allies,

One of the most challenging times in our careers can center on the annual review process or a “performance improvement plan” focused on correcting our productivity or work quality.  For women and people of color, the review process and the evaluation of our work can create all the normal anxiety about getting negative feedback plus the added concerns about the role of bias in being held to different standards.  Most of us have seen that women and people of color have to work twice as hard to be recognized for their skills and contributions.  What’s the best way to tackle this during an evaluation? How do we even address if bias has entered into being placed on a performance improvement plan?  This week’s #3LVCareerHacks is about how to approach and use evaluations effectively. 

Uno, dos, y tres. Let’s do this con ganas!

In some organizations, managers are required to force rank employees into “top”, “moderate” “average” or “low” performers.  In essence they are grading on a curve. Each year they eliminate as many “low” performers as possible and at the same time promote the moderate and top performers.  If this process exists at your company, you must ask early on what criteria are set for each category and manage your work accordingly. These environments often pose the greatest degree of competition because there are only so many who can be at the top and your strategy should be to focus on meeting the criteria that defines excellence at the top.

Most annual performance evaluations have a portion dedicated to your self assessment.  This is your chance to enter information about your own achievements, activities or key success stories.  If you think it’s best not to brag or boast about your work--stop. This is THE best place to summarize for your boss your accomplishments, your efforts to learn new skill sets, or your approach to your role on the team. If you can highlight how your work contributes to the bottom line--even better.  This is where you will want to document how you saved money, added revenue, solved problems, or delighted loyal customers.

If you are fortunate to have a boss that provides constructive feedback for you to integrate into your approach for work, leverage that information to grow.  But If you have been given negative feedback, don’t fight back with emotions. And, don’t sit back and accept it as the total view of your work either. Be prepared to ask questions about how your boss arrived at these assessments of your work.  Your best question: what would you have needed to see me do differently in order to meet your expectations? This forces a conversation on tasks, skills, behaviors and results and separates out personal style--one of the risky areas where bias can emerge. If you are delivering the results expected--meeting deadlines, productivity goals, or revenue targets, it’s important to ask your boss to review those results and ask if these were included in their assessment of you. If they’re unwilling to shift their evaluation, see your HR business partner to ask for support on how to navigate the situation.  This isn’t a moment to sit back and just accept.   

That’s it. #3LVCareerHacks on preparing for performance evaluations. 

Got a comment for us? Give us a shout at @SavvyLatinaInfo @LatinaVIDA360 or on our Facebook Group. We’d love to hear from you!  If you’ve made one of the CareerHack tips work for you, we may feature you in the next LatinaVIDA360 Career Power Hacks Podcast! 

Live Your VIDA with Intention! 

--Abrazos,

Your LV Familia!

P. S. Remember, here are the other LatinaVIDA resources for you:

• Evernote Notebook of Curated Work-Life Resources, Readings and Tips

• Join our Private Facebook Group

• LatinaVIDA360 Podcast Latina Leaders in Conversation and NEW Career Power Hacks

• Our #Slack Community to Share Experiences with LatinaVIDA Circle Guide

• Past #3LVCareerHacks Newsletters (please share with friends and family)

• Latina Cubicle Confidential: A Personal Blog from our Co-Founders

RESOURCES