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How honest should you be on self evaluations?
May 12, 2010 – 9:43 amNo matter how good a worker you are, how many ideas you’ve come up with, how many presentations you’ve aced, when it comes down to your performance review, don’t you get just a little bit nervous when you meet with your boss? Maybe she’ll say, sure, you came up with an idea, but was it really that good of an idea? And then she’ll say that you should work on that, and that now you have something to strive for in your next evaluation.
Which, in layman’s terms, means, “Sorry, buddy. No raise for you.”
This is when self evaluations seem like a godsend. Unless you have crippling self esteem issues, or are maybe a little too honest, you can let your boss know just how awesome you are, how amazing your contributions were, and how crazy hard you work.
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Of course, this could backfire on you as well.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the Goldman Sachs executives’ performance reviews were subpoenaed. By Congress. And apparently Congress took a lot of joy in reading these self assessments out loud.
“It should not be a surprise to anyone that the 2007 year is the one that I am most proud of to date,” Goldman managing director Michael Swenson wrote in his self-evaluation.
Hmmm.
The performance reviews were overly boastful. And, on one hand, of course employees are going to brag about their accomplishments on their performance reviews. They want raises. On the other hand, shouldn’t these bankers be just a little bit ashamed about helping cause one of the greatest economic recessions since our grandparents had to make turnip and rock soup to survive? On the other hand, these are bankers we’re talking about here. Would we really expect anything else? (No offense to any bankers…but, I mean, come on!)
So, back to these self assessments. How can HR suss out the real self evaluations from the bragging? How can we get to the meat of the evaluation?
I’m not against self assessments when it comes to performance reviews. After all, who knows the quality and quantity you produce better than yourself? No matter how “Big Brother” a manager is, he can’t know all.
But I think it’s important to truly take an honest look at the work you do. Nobody is perfect (despite what my mom tells me), and there’s always room for improvement. So, sure, brag about your work accomplishments. Certainly, no one else is going to do that for you. But, give yourself some real feedback. What can you work on?
After all, if your performance review is perfect this year, how will you prove that you deserve a raise next year?
What is your opinion on self assessments? Do you think employees give honest feedback? Do you give areas to work on when you write your own?
5 Responses to “How honest should you be on self evaluations?”
Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
By medical assistant on May 12, 2010
Hi – interesting post.
My initial thought is that we may be misusing the self-evaluation when we tie it so closely to our performance evaluation. You could almost say that when I do a really thoughtful self-evaluation, I have just made a lazy manager very happy, because they now only have to react, rather than observe and analyze.
Self-evaluation, as coaches, counselors, teachers and trainers might view it, is a strong tool for an individual in terms of change management and growth. When a manager uses your honest self-evaluation to evaluate your performance, they are not doing what an effective manager does, which is to objectively evaluate and coach your performance for improvement.
My experience has been that most employees are not good at doing self-evaluations, due either to fear of what they say coming back to haunt them, lack of self-awareness regarding their own behavior, or simply not seeing any value from the exercise.
A good performance improvement system, in my opinion, separates the person’s self-appraisal from the manager’s analysis of performance. While both activities should be based on the same standards and goals, they are not equivalent.
I’m going to think some more on this and may add another comment later.
John
By John E. Smith on May 13, 2010
Hi John,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that self evaluations are sometimes given by lazy managers; however, I think it’s important for employees to really take a look at their own performance as well. Of course, you’re right in that this can sometimes be an ineffective tool if employees lack self awareness.
I look forward to hearing your other thoughts on the subject.
Best,
Jessica
By Jessica Livingston on May 13, 2010
Great article, first off…
I think that to John’s point; it may be that many employees are not really all that self-aware. What I have seen of any self-apprasials I have been involved in (and I was a manager for many years asking my employees to take part in this) is that the employees had a tendency to under-rate themselves. What I did make very clear to them is that they needed to use specific examples of work they wrote about in their self-appraisal – just as I did. We would typically then go through the whole process together and openly discuss what each of us rated. I think there is value in self-reflection and in my case, I felt it kept me on my toes because I would also need to be aware of what work my employees were doing to evaluate them fairly. It really depends I suppose on the way the appraisals are being done.
By Kellie on May 13, 2010
Excelent topic. As a manager I really like using the self evaluation to see where I need to spend more time/training with my employees. On the flip side, I do an honest and in-depth self eval yearly. It takes a lot of time and does absolutely nothing for my raise or plans for the future. My manager parrot’s back what I wrote and adds nothing new to my performance review. (He of course wants my self-eval a week before my review is scheduled.) I have the exact type of reactive manager John refers to above. Because of this, while I value the self-evals of my team, I feel it is a complete waste of time for myself.
By Jenna on May 13, 2010