Performance Reviews - What Really Matters

When I was a manger of technologists at Intel, Motorola, and in my own company, each year I would summarize the performance areas that got attention in our annual performance ranking and rating sessions. Here is a list (not in any order) of some of the items that mattered:

- project work that exceeded expectations in output and/or scope
- strong team leader or key contributor to department wide projects or task forces
- effectively managed assigned projects/tasks
- major contributor to one or more strategic projects that had business impact
- valued contributor to strategic forums
- high quality deliverables
- operational excellence, i.e., meets commitments on time or ahead of schedule; deliverables delight customers
- excellent manager of employees; increased team's bench strength, cohesion and output
- mentoring, teaching and/or training others
- saw a problem and owned it until it was solved
- managed expectations effectively - no surprises
- personal agenda was focused on the organization and not the individual
- became an expert in another area outside their normal expertise
- was frequently sought out by others because of their expertise AND their teamwork behaviors
- communicated effectively with managers (kept them in the loop) and with rest of the organization
- cleans up an organizational mess or is willing to take on a hard job or extra workload
- demonstrates a proactive attitude: not waiting to do what needs to be done, even if outside their comfort zone; is willing to take the risks to pull the organization forward
- strong personal network; forged stronger ties; and works effectively across business groups
role models company values

If you are a manager, the next time someone asks you about performance expectations, whip out this short list for the start of a very fruitful discussion. If you are being managed, and who isn't, review this list and compare it to your own performance practices. It is a good start towards the golden “Outstanding” rating (i.e., firing on all cylinders & exceeding expectations on them all, too).