January 21, 2025 • 15 mins
Performance reviews don’t have to be dreaded formalities—they can be golden opportunities for career growth. In this episode of the Mid-Career GPS Podcast, discover how to transform these annual check-ins into powerful tools for advancement. Learn to take control, articulate your ambitions, and steer conversations toward your desired career outcomes.
Drawing on years of leadership experience, I offer practical strategies to help you navigate performance reviews effectively. From setting clear goals to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with your management, this episode will equip you with the tools to make performance reviews work for you. Whether you're aiming for a promotion, new projects, or increased visibility, I’ll guide you on prioritizing your goals and securing the support you need.
Key takeaways include:
- Planning and preparing for impactful performance reviews
- Taking responsibility for your career trajectory
- Categorizing goals into high, medium, and low priority
- Asking key questions to prevent stagnation
- Enhancing communication with supervisors
- Moving beyond easy topics to foster meaningful discussions
- Creating a focused agenda for performance conversations
Don’t let performance reviews be a missed opportunity.
This episode challenges you to rethink traditional approaches and take proactive steps toward career growth.
Thank you for listening to The Mid-Career GPS Podcast.
Please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts here.
Visit https://johnneral.com/resources to get The Mid-Career Job Search Jumpstart and join The Mid-Career GPS Membership Community.
Visit https://johnneral.com to join The Mid-Career GPS Newsletter, a free, twice-weekly career and leadership resource for mid-career professionals.
Connect with John on LinkedIn here.
Get John's New Mid-Career Journal on Amazon here.
Follow John on Instagram @johnneralcoaching.
Subscribe to John's YouTube Channel here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Neral (00:01):
Hey there, a couple of episodes ago, I shared with
you that my theme for 2025 issimplicity, and what I want for
you is to find ways to make thismid-career journey simpler,
easier and more effective.
That's why, in today's episode,I want to talk with you about
those dreaded check-in or annualperformance review meetings.
(00:24):
About those dreaded check-in orannual performance review
meetings.
I know that transforming thisentire process to make it
simpler is all about takinggreater command or control of
those meetings.
I did it when I was leadingteams and managing staff, and I
did it to help me manage up moreeffectively with my leadership.
So in this episode, I'm goingto share with you how to
(00:47):
transform your next check-inmeeting, make it simpler and get
more stuff done.
Are you intrigued?
Well, let's get started.
Hello, my friends, this is theMid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm
(01:14):
your host, John Neral.
I help mid-career professionalslike you find a job they love,
or love the job they have, usingmy proven four-step formula.
This year more than ever, ifhaving career support and a
community of people to supportyou and your career goals is one
of the things you put on yourbucket list for 2025, I'm here
(01:34):
to help you with that, if you'veever wanted to be a part of
such a community.
I would love to have you jointhe wait list and be the first
to hear about my brand newmid-career community when it
launches.
The easiest thing to do is govisit my website at
https://johnneral.
com.
You can also check the shownotes and right there on the
(01:57):
homepage there's going to be abox for you to click a button to
join the waitlist.
I will add you to that emaillist and you will be the first
to hear about updates on thiscommunity and when it launches.
So all you have to do again goto my website, https://johnneral
.
com, or check the show notes formore details and I'll see you
inside.
(02:19):
Okay, here we are.
It's the middle to end ofJanuary, and if you have not
started planning for your annualperformance review, more than
likely you're going to need toget started.
And for a lot of mid-careerprofessionals, especially in
organizations where these arenot highly valued or regarded,
(02:42):
these kind of meetings can feelvery much like a check the box,
and I want to challenge youtoday to simply offer you.
It doesn't have to be that way.
If you truly own, you are 100%responsible for your career.
These are golden opportunitiesfor you to take advantage of
(03:03):
FaceTime conversations andpartnership around whether or
not your manager, supervisor,leader whomever that may be is
really invested in your careersuccess within that organization
.
So let's work backwards.
Every organization needs tohave a compliance procedure
(03:28):
around performance reviews.
These include setting goals,setting timelines and what
compliance for meeting thosegoals look like From there.
Once that's established, youand your manager should create a
plan for what those regularcheck-in meetings should look
like to support those goals fromwhat you've agreed upon in the
(03:52):
annual performance meeting.
But you and I both know whathappens.
People get busy, projects getoverwhelming, projects get
overwhelming.
People fall into bad habits,meetings get canceled, one or
both parties lose interest inthe entire process.
And now you start hearingthings like oh, I know it's been
(04:14):
a while since we checked in, Iknow we've really been busy, and
all of a sudden you may befeeling like this process sucks
and it's not important and yourboss or supervisor or manager
doesn't care.
How do you change that?
Well, the thing that I want youto keep in mind here is that
you're the one that gets tochange that.
(04:34):
Not everybody is fortunate,throughout their entire career,
to have a phenomenal manager.
Sometimes we got to do a littlebit of work on this, have a
phenomenal manager.
Sometimes we got to do a littlebit of work on this.
So, if you're taking controlhere, what I want you to know is
that it is your job orresponsibility to keep your
performance goals top of mind.
(04:56):
If you want a new project, ifyou want to increase your
visibility, you want to be in aparticular meeting, you want to
get promoted, those are thethings that are important to you
.
What you need is thepartnership from your management
or leadership that they agree.
Those are important as well.
It is not the soleresponsibility of your
(05:20):
supervisor or manager to overseeyour performance plan.
Right, you know you are aneffective employee.
You're a high performer, highpotential.
Don't expect or don't fall intothe trap that management's just
going to take care of youbecause they are busy like
everybody else.
And if you're sitting there andyou're saying, but John, that's
(05:43):
their job, I'm not going todeny that.
But we know, especially if youare a high-performing,
high-potentialed, mid-career,professional, mid-level, looking
to rise within the organization, you may be taken for granted
and that's why you've got totake command of this process.
(06:05):
Your performance is yourpriority and when you build that
partnership with yoursupervisor, that they're on
board and in agreement withsupporting you with those goals.
It makes achieving those goalsmuch simpler.
So, as you think about whatyou've talked about in terms of
(06:26):
your annual performance review,what I want to offer you today
is to create three buckets.
Bucket number one are the goalsthat have the highest priority.
And if you're sitting here andsaying, look, my highest
priority is, I need to getpromoted, I need to be moved to
senior manager, director,whatever that is, that's not the
(06:49):
goal.
That's the outcome of the goal.
What I want you to think aboutare what are the things you need
to be doing to demonstratethose competencies that allow
you to achieve that goal?
So bucket number one's thehighest priority.
Bucket number two is medium.
Bucket three is your lowestpriority.
(07:09):
Now, when you go to everycheck-in meeting, what I want
you to do is to always focus onthose items that have the
highest priority.
Here are some questions you canask yourself.
Why are they of the utmostimportance?
What's the timeline?
(07:29):
Here are some questions you canask yourself.
Why are they of the utmostimportance?
What's the timeline?
What challenges are you facing?
Who needs to support and whoneeds to support you, what do
you need?
And then, lastly, where doesyour supervisor need to be
(07:50):
involved or informed?
Let me say that one again whendoes your supervisor need to be
involved or informed?
I've seen people overlook thisparticular question, especially
when they're trying to increasetheir visibility within an
organization.
Especially when they're tryingto increase their visibility
within an organization, theywill forget to say things like
(08:10):
oh, I was attending this meeting, I went to this department, we
had this conversation, I waspulled in for this.
And if the supervisor may notreally know all those things
that are going on, because weknow, communication gets lost.
That's why having these threebuckets aligned to your goals
what's the highest priority,medium and lowest priority
(08:33):
allows you to take command ofthat agenda in the check-in
meeting and say look, here's theprogress, here's what I'm
working toward.
Once you've looked at thehighest priority, you can then
move to the medium ones.
When you think about thosemedium priority goals, how much
attention is it getting?
(08:54):
Where are the roadblocks?
What do you need?
And then, if time, during thatcheck-in meeting, you can go and
address the ones that are ofthe lowest priority.
You can go and address the onesthat are of the lowest priority
, but here's the pitfall, and ifyou're multitasking or whatever
, come back to me for a secondhere, because I really want you
(09:17):
to focus in on this.
The pitfall is that oftentimeswe as human beings do not like
to be uncomfortable.
We will gravitate toward thethings that are most comfortable
for us, and so where I see thishappen in check-in meetings,
especially when I was doing thiswith my teams was that they
(09:38):
would talk about the things theyfelt most confident about, or
that they did because theywanted to come into the meeting
and showcase how well they weredoing with something when, in
all actuality, it was keepingthem stagnant.
And when I would push or pressor inquire about hey well, what
about this particular?
Well, I haven't gotten to it,why not?
(09:58):
Well, I've been really busywith stuff.
What does busy mean?
What's taken up your time?
Do we need to allocateresources differently?
How important is this to you?
Right, and the more I starteddoing this with my teams over
the years, where I also saw thetransformation for me, was it
let me have very differentconversations with my leadership
(10:21):
that when I would sit and gofor my performance review or I
would go in for a check-inmeeting, that I came ready and
prepared, with an agenda, withaction items, with talking
points, so much so that it wasmy check-in meeting.
That's the thing.
(10:42):
This is your check-in meeting.
You should be the oneessentially running it.
Your supervisor is there tosimply facilitate the process.
But so oftentimes when I workwith people and I talk to
mid-career professionals, wherethey're frustrated, they're
being overlooked, they're notgetting promoted, they're
missing out on opportunities,when I ask them this question,
(11:07):
they don't have a great answerbecause they're depending too
much on their supervisor to takecare of them.
That's why, in this entireprocess, you have to be mindful
about what you are giving.
Yeah, think about what you'reavoiding.
(11:32):
Oftentimes there's the answerto the solution to whatever
challenge or problem you'refacing.
What do you need?
What do you need right now toensure or give you the greatest
chance of success in achievingwhatever goals you have set
within that performance meeting,that check-in meeting?
(11:55):
I want to be clear this is verydifferent than a performance
improvement plan.
If you are put on a PIP, aperformance improvement plan is
something which your supervisormust oversee and maintain,
because there are very strictagreements and guidelines within
the PIP to determine whetheryou come off the PIP or you exit
(12:16):
the organization Completelydifferent topic in that regard.
All right.
So to recap, the takeaways Iwant you to have for this
episode are this Whether it beyour annual performance review
or your normally regularlyscheduled check-in meeting honor
that process.
(12:37):
You honor that process.
Even if you have a manager thatdoesn't is really invested or
doesn't really feel like theycare as much, or whatever that
might be.
That's a circumstance that canget taken care of, but the way
it gets taken care of is by youshowing up fully to say, hey,
(12:58):
this is important to me, theseare my goals.
If you're not the one to helpme with this, let's find someone
who is.
But it's your performance andcheck-in meeting.
You must command that process.
All right, these are some of theexciting things that I'm
looking forward to in my brandnew mid-career GPS community.
(13:21):
I don't even know if that'swhat's going to be the name of
it is, but we're still figuringthat all out.
But things are coming togetherand they're coming together
really quickly.
So if you want to be the firstto hear about how to get
community membership, supportfor like-minded, highly driven,
highly motivated mid-careerrising leaders like yourself who
(13:42):
are either in a state of careertransition or they're looking
to level up within theirorganization or they're looking
to find a job, simply that theycan find one that they love.
This community is your place,and so the way to get on that
wait list again is go to mywebsite at johnneralcom
(14:03):
J-O-H-N-N-E-R-A-Lcom, sign upfor the wait list.
You will get information soonand I'm excited to get this
thing launched in the nextcouple of weeks.
So until then, my friends,remember this you will build
your mid-career GPS one mile orone step at a time, and how you
show up matters.
Make it a great rest of yourday.
(14:29):
Thank you for listening to theMid-Career GPS Podcast.
Make sure to follow on yourfavorite listening platform and,
if you have a moment, I'd loveto hear your comments on Apple
Podcasts.
Visit johnnerrellcom for moreinformation about how I can help
you build your mid-career GPSor how I can help you and your
organization with your nextworkshop or public speaking
(14:50):
event.
Don't forget to connect with meon LinkedIn and follow me on
social at John Darrell Coaching.
I look forward to being backwith you next week.
Until then, take care andremember how we show up matters,
thank you.
Hey there, a couple of episodes ago, I shared with
you that my theme for 2025 issimplicity, and what I want for
you is to find ways to make thismid-career journey simpler,
easier and more effective.
That's why, in today's episode,I want to talk with you about
those dreaded check-in or annualperformance review meetings.
(00:24):
About those dreaded check-in orannual performance review
meetings.
I know that transforming thisentire process to make it
simpler is all about takinggreater command or control of
those meetings.
I did it when I was leadingteams and managing staff, and I
did it to help me manage up moreeffectively with my leadership.
So in this episode, I'm goingto share with you how to
(00:47):
transform your next check-inmeeting, make it simpler and get
more stuff done.
Are you intrigued?
Well, let's get started.
Hello, my friends, this is theMid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm
(01:14):
your host, John Neral.
I help mid-career professionalslike you find a job they love,
or love the job they have, usingmy proven four-step formula.
This year more than ever, ifhaving career support and a
community of people to supportyou and your career goals is one
of the things you put on yourbucket list for 2025, I'm here
(01:34):
to help you with that, if you'veever wanted to be a part of
such a community.
I would love to have you jointhe wait list and be the first
to hear about my brand newmid-career community when it
launches.
The easiest thing to do is govisit my website at
https://johnneral.
com.
You can also check the shownotes and right there on the
(01:57):
homepage there's going to be abox for you to click a button to
join the waitlist.
I will add you to that emaillist and you will be the first
to hear about updates on thiscommunity and when it launches.
So all you have to do again goto my website, https://johnneral
.
com, or check the show notes formore details and I'll see you
inside.
(02:19):
Okay, here we are.
It's the middle to end ofJanuary, and if you have not
started planning for your annualperformance review, more than
likely you're going to need toget started.
And for a lot of mid-careerprofessionals, especially in
organizations where these arenot highly valued or regarded,
(02:42):
these kind of meetings can feelvery much like a check the box,
and I want to challenge youtoday to simply offer you.
It doesn't have to be that way.
If you truly own, you are 100%responsible for your career.
These are golden opportunitiesfor you to take advantage of
(03:03):
FaceTime conversations andpartnership around whether or
not your manager, supervisor,leader whomever that may be is
really invested in your careersuccess within that organization
.
So let's work backwards.
Every organization needs tohave a compliance procedure
(03:28):
around performance reviews.
These include setting goals,setting timelines and what
compliance for meeting thosegoals look like From there.
Once that's established, youand your manager should create a
plan for what those regularcheck-in meetings should look
like to support those goals fromwhat you've agreed upon in the
(03:52):
annual performance meeting.
But you and I both know whathappens.
People get busy, projects getoverwhelming, projects get
overwhelming.
People fall into bad habits,meetings get canceled, one or
both parties lose interest inthe entire process.
And now you start hearingthings like oh, I know it's been
(04:14):
a while since we checked in, Iknow we've really been busy, and
all of a sudden you may befeeling like this process sucks
and it's not important and yourboss or supervisor or manager
doesn't care.
How do you change that?
Well, the thing that I want youto keep in mind here is that
you're the one that gets tochange that.
(04:34):
Not everybody is fortunate,throughout their entire career,
to have a phenomenal manager.
Sometimes we got to do a littlebit of work on this, have a
phenomenal manager.
Sometimes we got to do a littlebit of work on this.
So, if you're taking controlhere, what I want you to know is
that it is your job orresponsibility to keep your
performance goals top of mind.
(04:56):
If you want a new project, ifyou want to increase your
visibility, you want to be in aparticular meeting, you want to
get promoted, those are thethings that are important to you
.
What you need is thepartnership from your management
or leadership that they agree.
Those are important as well.
It is not the soleresponsibility of your
(05:20):
supervisor or manager to overseeyour performance plan.
Right, you know you are aneffective employee.
You're a high performer, highpotential.
Don't expect or don't fall intothe trap that management's just
going to take care of youbecause they are busy like
everybody else.
And if you're sitting there andyou're saying, but John, that's
(05:43):
their job, I'm not going todeny that.
But we know, especially if youare a high-performing,
high-potentialed, mid-career,professional, mid-level, looking
to rise within the organization, you may be taken for granted
and that's why you've got totake command of this process.
(06:05):
Your performance is yourpriority and when you build that
partnership with yoursupervisor, that they're on
board and in agreement withsupporting you with those goals.
It makes achieving those goalsmuch simpler.
So, as you think about whatyou've talked about in terms of
(06:26):
your annual performance review,what I want to offer you today
is to create three buckets.
Bucket number one are the goalsthat have the highest priority.
And if you're sitting here andsaying, look, my highest
priority is, I need to getpromoted, I need to be moved to
senior manager, director,whatever that is, that's not the
(06:49):
goal.
That's the outcome of the goal.
What I want you to think aboutare what are the things you need
to be doing to demonstratethose competencies that allow
you to achieve that goal?
So bucket number one's thehighest priority.
Bucket number two is medium.
Bucket three is your lowestpriority.
(07:09):
Now, when you go to everycheck-in meeting, what I want
you to do is to always focus onthose items that have the
highest priority.
Here are some questions you canask yourself.
Why are they of the utmostimportance?
What's the timeline?
(07:29):
Here are some questions you canask yourself.
Why are they of the utmostimportance?
What's the timeline?
What challenges are you facing?
Who needs to support and whoneeds to support you, what do
you need?
And then, lastly, where doesyour supervisor need to be
(07:50):
involved or informed?
Let me say that one again whendoes your supervisor need to be
involved or informed?
I've seen people overlook thisparticular question, especially
when they're trying to increasetheir visibility within an
organization.
Especially when they're tryingto increase their visibility
within an organization, theywill forget to say things like
(08:10):
oh, I was attending this meeting, I went to this department, we
had this conversation, I waspulled in for this.
And if the supervisor may notreally know all those things
that are going on, because weknow, communication gets lost.
That's why having these threebuckets aligned to your goals
what's the highest priority,medium and lowest priority
(08:33):
allows you to take command ofthat agenda in the check-in
meeting and say look, here's theprogress, here's what I'm
working toward.
Once you've looked at thehighest priority, you can then
move to the medium ones.
When you think about thosemedium priority goals, how much
attention is it getting?
(08:54):
Where are the roadblocks?
What do you need?
And then, if time, during thatcheck-in meeting, you can go and
address the ones that are ofthe lowest priority.
You can go and address the onesthat are of the lowest priority
, but here's the pitfall, and ifyou're multitasking or whatever
, come back to me for a secondhere, because I really want you
(09:17):
to focus in on this.
The pitfall is that oftentimeswe as human beings do not like
to be uncomfortable.
We will gravitate toward thethings that are most comfortable
for us, and so where I see thishappen in check-in meetings,
especially when I was doing thiswith my teams was that they
(09:38):
would talk about the things theyfelt most confident about, or
that they did because theywanted to come into the meeting
and showcase how well they weredoing with something when, in
all actuality, it was keepingthem stagnant.
And when I would push or pressor inquire about hey well, what
about this particular?
Well, I haven't gotten to it,why not?
(09:58):
Well, I've been really busywith stuff.
What does busy mean?
What's taken up your time?
Do we need to allocateresources differently?
How important is this to you?
Right, and the more I starteddoing this with my teams over
the years, where I also saw thetransformation for me, was it
let me have very differentconversations with my leadership
(10:21):
that when I would sit and gofor my performance review or I
would go in for a check-inmeeting, that I came ready and
prepared, with an agenda, withaction items, with talking
points, so much so that it wasmy check-in meeting.
That's the thing.
(10:42):
This is your check-in meeting.
You should be the oneessentially running it.
Your supervisor is there tosimply facilitate the process.
But so oftentimes when I workwith people and I talk to
mid-career professionals, wherethey're frustrated, they're
being overlooked, they're notgetting promoted, they're
missing out on opportunities,when I ask them this question,
(11:07):
they don't have a great answerbecause they're depending too
much on their supervisor to takecare of them.
That's why, in this entireprocess, you have to be mindful
about what you are giving.
Yeah, think about what you'reavoiding.
(11:32):
Oftentimes there's the answerto the solution to whatever
challenge or problem you'refacing.
What do you need?
What do you need right now toensure or give you the greatest
chance of success in achievingwhatever goals you have set
within that performance meeting,that check-in meeting?
(11:55):
I want to be clear this is verydifferent than a performance
improvement plan.
If you are put on a PIP, aperformance improvement plan is
something which your supervisormust oversee and maintain,
because there are very strictagreements and guidelines within
the PIP to determine whetheryou come off the PIP or you exit
(12:16):
the organization Completelydifferent topic in that regard.
All right.
So to recap, the takeaways Iwant you to have for this
episode are this Whether it beyour annual performance review
or your normally regularlyscheduled check-in meeting honor
that process.
(12:37):
You honor that process.
Even if you have a manager thatdoesn't is really invested or
doesn't really feel like theycare as much, or whatever that
might be.
That's a circumstance that canget taken care of, but the way
it gets taken care of is by youshowing up fully to say, hey,
(12:58):
this is important to me, theseare my goals.
If you're not the one to helpme with this, let's find someone
who is.
But it's your performance andcheck-in meeting.
You must command that process.
All right, these are some of theexciting things that I'm
looking forward to in my brandnew mid-career GPS community.
(13:21):
I don't even know if that'swhat's going to be the name of
it is, but we're still figuringthat all out.
But things are coming togetherand they're coming together
really quickly.
So if you want to be the firstto hear about how to get
community membership, supportfor like-minded, highly driven,
highly motivated mid-careerrising leaders like yourself who
(13:42):
are either in a state of careertransition or they're looking
to level up within theirorganization or they're looking
to find a job, simply that theycan find one that they love.
This community is your place,and so the way to get on that
wait list again is go to mywebsite at johnneralcom
(14:03):
J-O-H-N-N-E-R-A-Lcom, sign upfor the wait list.
You will get information soonand I'm excited to get this
thing launched in the nextcouple of weeks.
So until then, my friends,remember this you will build
your mid-career GPS one mile orone step at a time, and how you
show up matters.
Make it a great rest of yourday.
(14:29):
Thank you for listening to theMid-Career GPS Podcast.
Make sure to follow on yourfavorite listening platform and,
if you have a moment, I'd loveto hear your comments on Apple
Podcasts.
Visit johnnerrellcom for moreinformation about how I can help
you build your mid-career GPSor how I can help you and your
organization with your nextworkshop or public speaking
(14:50):
event.
Don't forget to connect with meon LinkedIn and follow me on
social at John Darrell Coaching.
I look forward to being backwith you next week.
Until then, take care andremember how we show up matters,
thank you.
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