Mid-Year Review- Reflect, Align, Plan
Companies vary in how they approach mid-year reviews. Whether your employer has a formal process or not, taking the initiative to self-reflect and meet with your manager is important for creating intentionality around how you will spend the remainder of the year. If you know a meeting with your manager to discuss your goals is on the horizon, self-reflection will help you organize your thoughts for your meeting and equip you with a strong summary of your progress and your needs for the remainder of the year. Below are some steps you can take to help you as you reflect and prepare for the months ahead.
Take stock of your progress. I do this by creating a paper-based or electronic document and dividing it into sections by the month. Then I open up my calendar and my planner and start writing down the following for each month.
Key meetings or collaborations
Completed deliverables or other assignments
Examples of addition contributions made to the team or company
Actions taken or support given supervisees or individual colleagues
Examples of going above and beyond the job
Examples of new types of work undertaken or completed that demonstrate an emerging or improving skill
Don’t let this list limit what you highlight for each month. You may have additional categories depending on the type of work you do that you can add to this list. What is important about this step is that you are very concise but specific in describing your highlights.
Review your goals. After organizing the highlights of the year to date by month, look at them side by side with your performance goals and map each highlight to the relevant goal (or goals) noting how these highlights contributed to the goal. These highlights serve as examples that support your progress toward the goal you set at the beginning of the year. Find a way to document your mapping that works for you. It may be as simple as adding these examples into your company’s performance management system.
Reflect on your progress. Once you’ve mapped the highlights to each of your goals, use the following questions to reflect on your progress.
How did you meet expectations and achieve progress?
How did you exceed expectations going above and beyond your goals?
How has your progress impacted your team, project, or company?
What do you need to continue or improve?
What help or resources do you need to continue to progress and be successful between now and the end of the year?
Check your goals. The mid-year review can also be used to notice the quality of your goals (how well were they written) and the systems you are using to capture the work you are doing throughout the year. Now that you are using goals to track your progress, are they capturing what you are doing in a way that reflects your effort and can be measured? If not, what can you learn from this? What systems do you need to improve so that it is easy for you to take stock of your work?
Align with your manager. Whether your company mandates a mid-year review or you need to initiate a conversation with your manager, getting feedback at this point in the year is an important part of recognizing your progress, getting clarity on what is expected for the remainder of the year, and an opportunity to ask for the support you need to succeed. The objective of this conversation is for you and your manager to align around a shared vision and plan of action that will guide you for the rest of the year.
Make a plan. Now that you are clear on your progress and have feedback from your manager, you should have the information you need to focus your energy and effort so that you can complete or exceed your goals by the end of the year. For tips on making each day count towards what you want to achieve check out this post.
This process works for both professional and personal goals. If you identified personal goals or resolutions for yourself in the beginning of the year, now is the time to check in!