This is the time of the year when we are about halfway through most organizations’ fiscal year. That makes it a good time to reflect on your performance and accomplishments thus far—and how they are viewed by your manager—while there is still time to make mid-course corrections.

Your Goals

Let’s begin with the alignment between your manager’s expectations of you and your goals for the year.  How clear are you on WHAT your manager expects you to deliver by the end of your fiscal year—and HOW?  Are all your expected deliverables part of your performance goals for the year? Are you clear what represents both acceptable and unacceptable behaviors to accomplish your goals?

Know what you manager expects from you. Everything critical should be included in your goals. Update your goals with each new assignment and confirm with your boss. Renegotiate, as necessary, to remove less important projects.

Alignment with Your Manager’s Goals

Make sure your goals are aligned with and support your manager’s goals and the goals of your department. Remember: At least 75% of your goals should in some way help make your boss successful—and will help ensure both the alignment and relevance of your work.

Use this link for more information on treating your boss as a customer: Your Boss Is Your #1 Customer

Outstanding Performance

Reconfirm with your boss what represents outstanding performance. Aim for more rather than less specificity and ask for examples to help clarify what your boss considers on target, above target, and significantly above target results. Gaining agreement in advance and reconfirming throughout the year will significantly enhance the likelihood of your receiving a strong, positive performance rating.

·  Your performance needs to speak for itself

·  To look as though you are ready for a position at the next level, you will need to outperform your peers

·  That means performing exceptionally well and at least 20% better than everyone else. Assess your performance by using this link Performance Self-Assessment

Market Your Work

It is not enough to do exceptional work. The right people need to know about your great work and performance. Find ways to market your work with key people in your department, division, and/or function.

At this Mid-Year Point. What does you manager expect you to have delivered by this point in the year? What did you promise? What have you accomplished? Are your goals updated to reflect your manager’s current expectations of you?

Use this link for more information on outstanding performance Outstanding Performance is Your Ticket to the Game

Mid-Year Self-Appraisal

I am a big believer in the self-appraisal—both at mid-year and at the end of the year. By the end of the year, most managers will have forgotten about your accomplishment in the early part of the year. Write a mid-year self-appraisal that highlights your accomplishments and results and share it with your manager. At the end of the year, present both the mid-year and end-of-year self-appraisals to remind your manager of your accomplishments throughout the year.