Write next year’s review now

How to turn your long-term career goals into reality

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Yesterday we talked about how to nail an upcoming annual
performance review. Today's tip is more forward looking. You can
plan a great year by writing next year's performance review.

(00:28):
Now here's how this works. If your organization has an
annual performance review process, at some point in the next
few weeks, you'll sit down with your manager and figure
out the past year's successes and opportunities for growth or
whatever euphemism your organization uses. This serves its purpose but

(00:49):
has its limitations. Yesterday we talked about recency bias. Whatever
happens in October tends to matter more than what happens
in February. This is a great opportunity if you handle
October right. So that's what we focused on. Though it's
kind of unfortunate if your big wins happened early, but
most fundamentally, the past is done, gone over. If you

(01:15):
had some major disaster in July, the time to deal
with it and learn from it was in July, not
in November or December many months later. Likewise, if you
had some major success in May, that's the point to
analyze what worked, so you can benefit from that knowledge immediately.
We can't change the past once it's over. The future, however,

(01:38):
is not so constrained. It is wide open. By figuring
out what you'd like to say at next year's performance review,
you can shape the next year to increase the chances
of these victories coming to be. So today, try this exercise.
Pretend it is December. If you work for an organization

(02:00):
and you'd like to continue working there, you could pretend
you're sitting down with your manager. But you could also
just decide that your long term career is solely in
your purview. You're going to give yourself this performance review.
So it is December, and in this future vision, you
are beaming. It has been an amazing year for you professionally.

(02:24):
You are popping the champagne corks and celebrating. If this
were to be the case, what three to five things
would you have done to make the year so amazing.
Think about what these three to five things might be
and write them down. Now it can really be whatever
you want. Maybe this is the year you score that promotion,

(02:46):
or finally hire an assistant who makes your life easier
Maybe this is the year you bring in a fantastic
client or launch that networking event you keep talking about.
Maybe you got accepted into a graduate program, or you
wrote a draft to vote book. You gave a well
received talk at your company's annual retreat. Feel free to
be specific, and also feel free to think big, because

(03:10):
the truth is, you don't have to show this to
anyone now. I'd encourage you to share any big dreams
you have with people who might help make them happen.
But whether you share or not, if you know what
you'd like to do by December, this can start shaping
your schedule over the next year. You can put this
list somewhere you will see every day, so it can

(03:33):
start informing your schedule choices. If you know you'd like
to give a talk at the annual retreat, you can
prioritize looking over the last few year's topics and meeting
with the organizers. If you'd like to bring in a
new client, you can prioritize going to events where you
might meet such people, or renewing connections with old colleagues
or friends who have taken jobs at organizations that might

(03:55):
work with you. Now. Of course, in life, we need
to be open to possibility too. We can't plan everything.
If I were to have written my twenty nineteen performance
review at this point last year, in early October, I
would have had no idea that I would launch a
podcast called Before Breakfast in March. I would have had

(04:15):
no clue that by the end of the year many
millions of people would have downloaded the show. I am
thrilled with this development, and it certainly listed as a
twenty nineteen highlight, but I wouldn't have anticipated it until
I looked into some late brainstorming sessions with the right people. However,
I did know that I wanted to do certain other things.

(04:35):
I wanted to launch my time management fable, Juliette's School
of Possibilities, and I wanted to come up with a
new book topic. And so I've made time for those
things while leaving space for whatever other wonderful opportunities might
come up. These things are not either or so right
next year's performance review. Now, as we know from Stephen

(04:57):
Covey's book The Seven Habits of Highly effect to People,
successful sorts tend to put first things first. A big
part of putting first things first is knowing what those
first things are writing next year's performance review. Now helps
you identify those priorities so you can make them a

(05:17):
part of your life. In the meantime, This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

(05:38):
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. That
Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before

(06:06):
Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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