The following is part of a series about surviving your first performance review at your entry-level job (or internship, if they do performance reviews). You’ll learn what to expect, what your supervisor expects from you, how to prepare, what to do during the review and how to thrive after a negative review.
You now know what to expect during your first performance review, but what does your supervisor expect from you? As mentioned in the previous article, performance reviews are two-way communication.
1. Open to feedback and eagerness to improve. “It’s a supervisor’s dream to work with employees who are open to feedback and eager to improve. Conversely, supervisors get very frustrated working with employees who get defensive and who don’t own any of their flaws. In our book, we call this type of defensive employee a “Sealed PITA” – sealed off to feedback. Remember that nobody is perfect…we all have areas we need to improve upon,” said Dr. Robert Orndorff, co-author of “The PITA Principle.”
2. Don’t debate, but do ask questions. “Supervisors expect someone to listen positively without arguments or debates. However, they do want an active dialogue with questions to clarify and seek understanding,” said Richard Oyen, human resources director at SumTotal Systems.
3. You’re still (relatively) new. “Supervisors should expect that entry-level employees are still finding their way around, adjusting to a new culture, and possibly, to a new way of doing things. They are probably not autonomous and require more hand-holding than other employees. Thus, they will make mistakes. The mistakes, though, are not necessarily a sign of incompetence but rather a symptom of learning,” said Laurent Duperval, president of Duperval Consulting.
4. Awareness of goals and your performance against them. “I cannot tell you, as a human resources director for a retail chain, how many times employees would come into my office on the day before their review and ask me to pull their files so they could refresh what their goals were. Such a situation represents a failure on the part of management and the employee,” said Barbara Poole, founder of EmployAid.com.
5. Listen, but also participate. “Supervisors expect someone who takes an active role in the conversation by being ready to acknowledge what went well and what could have gone better,” said Sharon Armstrong, president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates and co-author of “Stress-free Performance Appraisals.”
| <-- Part 1: What to expect | Part 3: Preparing for the review --> |
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