Would You Hire You? Time To Show Your Boss Why You’re STILL Right For Your Job

Now that we’re well into the 4th quarter, you’ve started working on your plans for next year, your budget and staffing requirements. Naturally, you’ll also be spending time on your year-end reports of this year’s results and evaluations of individual performance.

Keep in mind that your boss is looking at her year-end reports and plans for next year too, and she might have asked you to put together a summary of your own personal accomplishments.

If you were an outside contractor bidding on a project for your company, you’d be sure to include all the reasons why you’re the right person for the job. Your summary of this year’s work in your current position should have the same objective.

Too often managers’ summaries of their personal contributions are way too weak and tepid, usually due to one or a combination of the following:

• Conflation and confusion of team vs. individual accomplishments. “Completed Apex installation” is not an individual accomplishment.”Better = “Wrote all systems specs for Apex installation.”
• Failure to show the significance in achieving the higher-level business result. (Think: “So what?” “Who cares?”) It’s not supposed to look like a flat to-do list in the past tense. Include details like: “Programmers were able to understand the specs easily, enabling them to write the code with few questions in three weeks, which was a material factor in delivery of finished product one month ahead of schedule.”
• Failure to tie individual accomplishments to management competencies. A recitation of an action, even with its business result attached, still isn’t complete. Picture the performance appraisal form and its competencies. What does the individual documented action show about your skills at Decision Making, Conflict Resolution, Interpersonal Relationships, Written and Verbal Communication, etc? Try: “These specs demonstrated Written Communication that described the intent and purpose of the application and its variables, providing a clear roadmap for the programmers with minimal requests for clarification.”
• Misunderstanding of the dual-purpose and nature of the request. When your boss asks for your list of accomplishments, he or she wants to know not only what you did to contribute to the success of the company that justifies your salary checkstub and qualifies you for a bonus, but also what you can be counted on to contribute next year that justifies including you in the company’s head-count.

Most people understand the first part — that they should provide some detail to help their boss prepare a performance review — but they totally miss the “job application” part, the aspect that shows your ability, willingness and readiness to deliver on next year’s objectives. Once more with our example: “The ambitious scope and time-frame of the Betco project slated for next year will require the same kind of attention to detail and get-it-right-the-first-time competency I’ve demonstrated on the Apex job this year.”

You’re getting down to the wire for year-end, and you’ll spend a lot of time on the budget and the accomplishments of your team members. But you’ve worked hard and deserve to be rewarded for your own accomplishments. Maybe even more importantly, you don’t want to be left behind when your boss is looking for key players for next year’s work. Spend some time thinking and drafting your summary of this year’s work and showing why you’re the right person for your position.