I remember when an annual performance review was a very big deal.
People stayed with the same company for years back then, so your performance review was a critical event and a way to get answers to important questions:
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What does the company think about me?
What are my career prospects here?
What can I work on, learn and accomplish next year to keep moving forward in this organization?
The working world has changed dramatically since I started working.
People change jobs much more quickly now, and career paths inside organizations are much less reliable.
We Make Our Own Career Paths Now
In fact, in a recent poll I conducted here on LinkedIn, 60% of respondents said they will not get promoted in their current organization.
They’ll need to change jobs in order to move up.
That’s a high percentage!
The dramatic changes in the working world mean that changing jobs every few years is not just a possibility – it’s a necessity.
It’s a far cry from the “olden days” when almost every job came with a career path.
Nowadays we have to make our own career paths – which are likely to lead us through several organizations and perhaps into self-employment on the side or full-time, as well.
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Do Performance Reviews Even Matter?
Your performance review is not the momentous event it used to be.
Many organizations (Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Deloitte and others) have stopped doing performance reviews altogether.
They’ve concluded that performance reviews are a waste of time and energy.
If you have a performance review coming up I want you to have a great one, of course, but I don’t want you to stress about it.
Here’s why.
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Three Reasons Your Performance Review Doesn’t Matter
Your pay increase is only lightly connected to your performance review. Budgets are set far in advance of review dates, and in any case salary increase budgets don’t allow much room for even great performers to get more than the standard 2.5 to 3% pay bump.
A performance review used to give us some assurance that the organization valued our services enough to keep us around, but sadly that’s not true anymore. Layoffs have little to do with individual performance. If your division or department is cut, it won’t matter that you crushed your goals in 2024.
The third reason your performance review doesn’t matter much is that it is literally one person’s opinion of you (or one person’s opinion with a bit of input from others). You are the CEO of your career, so no one person determines what happens to you from here on out.
If your performance review doesn’t matter, what does?
Here’s what matters: you and your plans for your future.
Your Year-End Life Review Matters a Lot
Whether or not you’re having a performance review this month or in early 2025, this is the perfect time for a more important activity – your Year-End Life Review™.
Your Life Review is an assessment of where you are now and where you want to go.
It’s a gift from you to yourself – a chance to stop and take stock of where your life and career are headed and to make course corrections if they are warranted.
Here’s how to conduct your Year-End Life Review. There are three steps:
- Ask yourself the question, “What do I want from the rest of my life?” It’s a big question, and the best question you can ask. Grab your journal and write down your ideas. If you’ve never created a vision for your life before, now is the perfect time to start! It’s never too early or too late to ask the big questions, especially the question, “What do I want?”
- Once you have an idea of your life’s vision, write it down and let it crystallize. Your vision might be, “I want to start my own business or band together with other people to launch a business teaching personal finance to young people. I can’t quite see how to reach my vision at this moment, but that’s okay – I don’t have to see that yet. I just have to let my vision take shape, and gradually the way forward will become clearer.”
- Finally, ask yourself, “How will my life be better when my vision becomes reality?” Get clear on the WHY behind your vision, and as your vision becomes clearer, refine and adjust it as you go.
Now, Celebrate!
As you step away from your Year-End Life Review process, celebrate the step you’ve taken!
You’re likely to have ideas swirling in your head at that point — topics to research, content to consume (podcasts, videos, films or books) or thoughts about where you see yourself years from now.
Those ideas and your vision are fuel sources for you – they’ll inspire you to keep the exploration going!
There may be steps for you to take as early as this month – or you may decide to move more slowly as you let your life’s vision take shape.
This Is Your Chance to Take Charge
Many people, sadly, don’t take charge of their lives or step fully into their power.
They drift along. They decide that it’s too much trouble to change their lives, or that they don’t deserve to have more than they have right now.
Sometimes we forget that the only way to become more powerful is to use the power we’ve got.
You are the CEO of your life and career.
You are the Director and star of your movie.
No one but you gets to make your life decisions.
The flip side is that you have to make the decisions, or no one will.
You have a life story and a journey no one has ever had and no one else ever will.
It’s all yours, like your time, your talent and your positive energy.
What will you do with those gifts in 2025 and beyond?
Here’s to the journey, and the discoveries you’ll make!
Yours,
Liz
If it’s time to take charge, reach me here.