Mid-Year Reviews: Don’t Count on Your Boss’ Memory

For many organizations, it’s Mid-Year Review time.

This should be a time to celebrate your achievements. It is NOT the time to debate them.

There is one problem, though…you’re boss is unlikely to remember what you’ve done these past few months. They probably cannot outline your accomplishments accurately, so do it for them!

Here’s how…

Ideally, you have a well-established development plan that your boss and you agreed to at the start of the year. You do….right? In that plan, you set benchmarks and goals that would be the metrics by which your performance would be evaluated. From this, you should be maintaining a scorecard that let’s you, and eventually your boss, see how you are progressing.

Prior to your review, it’s important that you create an outline of each workstream and what you achieved for each one.

For example, a recent private equity client of mine recently told me that, during the first half of the year, she managed the funds flow on her own for a company her firm purchased. Through this process, she mastered the organization of this endeavor and worked with several third parties to complete the paperwork required. Her achievement was in the area of organization and managing third parties. She will now add this to her other accomplishments this year and outline them for her boss prior to their review meeting.

By providing this information proactively, she is relieving her boss of the burden of trying to remember individual accomplishments…a large ask given that her boss supervises several other people. They both now have an outline of her achievements and growth that they can use to assess where she is based on her development plan.

And if you’re thinking, “My boss will certainly remember when I _________”, what I’ll ask you is how sure of that are you? And will they remember it accurately? In my experience, they forget easily because of so many other priorities they have to juggle. By reminding them, you are jogging their memory and helping them fairly assess your growth his year.

So, if you don’t have a scorecard you are updating, create one today. You, and your boss, will be glad you did!