We’ll come clean—the fact that you’re even reading this blog means you’re probably performing at a pretty high caliber. Self-awareness and a desire to grow are key in getting the most out of your career, but analyzing your own performance can be difficult. We’ve broken down the top ways to grade your own performance at work.
1. Look at yourself objectively
People tend to fall into the trap of critiquing themselves more harshly than they would critique others. If you do this, please stop! You deserve better! There’s nothing wrong with striving to improve, but overly harsh criticisms are rarely the way to do it (especially if it’s coming from within).
If it helps, pretend you’re one of your coworkers. What do you think they’d say if asked to review you?
Ask yourself:
- Do you set realistic deadlines (then actually meet them)?
- Do you participate in collaborative projects?
- Has anyone ever come to you for feedback or help?
- Does your manager seldom check in on how you’re doing?
- Do you seek out ways to challenge yourself?
You don’t need to answer “yes” to all these to be considered a “good” employee, but knowing that some or all of these things are true for you is a good indicator that you’re on the right track!
2. Keep track of your own KPIs
We’re not talking about how tracking company goals—we’re talking about tracking your personal goals within the company. Think of the top 3-5 tasks or projects that are most important to your day-to-day. This can be anything from clearing your to-do list to tracking new leads related to your accountabilities.
Whatever metric you feel measures your productivity at work best, that’s what you should measure!
3. Audit the parts of your job you enjoy the most (and the least)
As a whole, people tend to perform better when they’re doing things they enjoy. If you enjoy a certain task or project, odds are you’ll put your heart into it, resulting in high-performing results.
So, what about the parts of your job that aren’t your favorite? Spoiler alert: Feeling less-than-thrilled about a certain part of your job doesn’t mean you’re a bad employee. It just means your strengths are elsewhere! Consider delegating what you’re not enjoying or what you’re not succeeding at. If that’s not possible, maybe it’s time to recalibrate; head back up to item number one on this list and take an objective look at how you’re doing.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for direct feedback
The easiest way to find out how you’re doing at work? Ask. This is the ideal kind of conversation to bring to your next one-on-one meeting. While touch bases shouldn’t be equivalent to a performance review, there’s still value in opening up the conversation! If you need help getting started, here are a few jumping-off points:
- How am I doing?
- What can I do better?
- What steps can I take to get there?
Everyone is different, and therefore, success looks different on everyone. Having an individual conversation about what success looks like for you is a great step in solidifying what it means to be great at your job.