What Your Manager Is Saying About You
Before you submit your performance review, make sure it gives your manager an undeniable case for the raise or promotion you want.
There’s nobody clockin’ all of this for you. People may be paying very close attention to your fails and missteps, but there probably isn’t anybody watching your every move to document all the cool things you’ve done so you can be celebrated.
Documenting those accomplishments is your responsibility as a professional, and it’s some of the most important work you can do throughout the year to prepare for your performance review.
It’s Q4, and even though it’s October, accountants still call October, November, and December year-end. That involves a number of things, including getting ready for the year-end close.
There are things that happen once a year within your ERP or general ledger system that you might have to pull out an SOP or reference guide for. Hopefully, the steps for closing the fiscal year are documented somewhere. I’ve worked in companies where the fiscal year ended in June, September, and March, so it depends on the company. But for those of you working with a calendar fiscal year, this is the season.
You have to prepare extra accruals, close the accounts payable and accounts receivable modules, close the general ledger module for the year, and open the new year. There should be a designated owner for those responsibilities.
Around the holidays, people will be out of the office, and sometimes the person you need information from is gone for two weeks. Be proactive about letting people know when you’ll be out. Make sure the people you need information from can get it to you before they leave, or that there’s a delegate within their team who can help.
If you’re new to your role, or this is your first year-end close with the company, pay attention. Observe what’s going on and ask questions. There are most likely things getting done that aren’t documented. Take it upon yourself to make your own internal notes and process documentation.
Alongside the year-end work, I want to focus on getting ready for the conversations about you, your brand, and your career advancement.
Articulate Your Impact
You need to be able to recap your year in a way that tells a story to your manager and your skip-level manager, who may also see your performance review. Paint them a vivid picture of what you did throughout the year.
Go beyond the typical things in your job description that you’re supposed to do anyway. How were you impactful? What value did you bring to the team, to the processes, and to the organization overall?
A lot of people have a hard time writing their performance reviews because they’re writing them in November or December to recap the last 12 months. You don’t always have those answers at the top of your mind.
By November, you’re asking yourself, “What exactly did I do in March and April? I don’t even remember July, much less last month.”
If you don’t currently take time out of your workweek to highlight your accomplishments and celebrate the wins you had, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Also acknowledge the developmental areas and the fails you need to work on.
When you do this throughout the year, writing your performance review becomes easier because you have something to pull from.
Put the Meeting on the Calendar
Find Out What Your Manager is Saying About You
I’ve said this ad nauseam, and it still blows my mind how many people don’t do it: you should be having ongoing conversations with your manager. Weekly or biweekly is what I encourage.
Some people say, “I meet with my boss once a month,” or “I meet with my manager’s manager once a quarter.” Depending on exposure and the situation, at least you have something on the calendar. But some people don’t meet with their manager at all.
If you’re not having ongoing career discussions with your manager, how does your manager know what you’re doing? Even if they know that big project was successful, do they know the role you played, and are those successes attributed to you?
People say, “I don’t like my manager,” or “Having a one-on-one is a waste of time.” Are you using the time correctly?
I’ve talked about this in other episodes and created a one-on-one discussion starter to bring y’all to the water. These conversations have nothing to do with whether you like your manager.
So you’re booking the one-on-one meeting with your manager, but what do you say? Use this 1-1 meeting conversation starter to get ready for the talk with your manager.
Get Out of Your Feelings at Work
Get out of your feelings at work, because there’s no money, promotion, or celebration there.
A lot of times, when you think decisions are about you and they’re personal, they’re not. Sometimes there’s something deeper going on with the work itself. You’re unsatisfied with the work you do, the work you produce, or the company you work for. Maybe you received constructive criticism, and you haven’t received it, acted on it, and moved on.
If you’re not having these conversations, put 30 minutes on the calendar and send the invite to your manager. Include a decent description so they know how to prepare, along with some agenda items to talk through.
You can also go to your manager if you work in the office, or ping them if you don’t, and say, “Hey, can I put 30 minutes on the calendar to talk about where I’m at?”
It’s rare, in my experience, that a manager will decline that conversation. They may look at it and say, “Nicole is taking initiative and being responsible for her career. I respect that she wants this time on the calendar.”
It may also be an opportunity for them to say, “Yes, I do want to have this conversation and share some things that are on my mind about how she’s performing and where she can develop.”
I’ve seen the domino effect personally in my career. When I initiated these conversations with a manager, they later became the standard. My manager saw that the conversations were productive and effective. They gave us time to establish a relationship, build on one, or repair one. Then the manager wanted to have those conversations with other people on the team.
You could send one calendar invite and become a game changer within your department because you chose to take ownership of your career.
Make Your Performance Review Easy to Write
When you have these conversations throughout the year, it also becomes easier for your manager to write your performance review.
For companies with a formal process, you may receive an email from HR or your people management system telling you it’s time to start. You write your review as the employee, and it goes to your manager, who adds their comments. After your formal review discussion, it may go to your manager’s manager, through HR, and into your employee file, depending on the company.
Think about everyone who may read that review. Are you giving them a clear picture of your contribution?
If your company doesn’t have a formal performance review tool or process, that’s no excuse not to have the conversation anyway. Even if it doesn’t go into an HR system, it can go into your personal career file: how you performed, the feedback you received, the accomplishments you’re celebrating, and the developmental areas you want to focus on.
Ask for the Feedback You Need
Something I’ve learned is that a lot of corporate professionals, accountants, and finance professionals struggle with not knowing where they stand in the department.
They’re asking, “Am I doing well? I don’t know because I’m not getting any feedback.” My question is, did you ask for it?
If you know you need feedback, go out and ask for it. There’s nothing wrong with caring about the work you do and being intentional about the career you’re building.
Whether you’re a staff accountant, a financial analyst, or an accounting manager, don’t ever feel like you’re too junior or too senior to have these conversations. Take the initiative and be ready to receive both the praise and the feedback.
Build a career history for yourself so you can see your progression year over year. When it’s time to leave the company, step into a leadership role, or take on increasing responsibility, you have what I call a corporate rap sheet.
Your accomplishments give you examples to pull from your experience that speak to your alignment with the role you’re after.
Establish Your Own Professional Identity
A lot of the conversations I have with clients in career coaching are about these things. I learned a lot of them by doing, through what I call baptism by fire. If “fuck around and find out” was a career lesson, that’s exactly what I would call it.
I learned to be somebody’s leader or manager instead of just being their boss, to advocate for myself, and to speak up in conversations. I also learned to tell the story of my career, just as I tell the story of the business.
Being able to sell your brand and your expertise is a skill every professional, business owner, freelancer, and gig worker should have.
Too many people go to work and stay busy. You might work an eight-hour day and spend six of those hours in back-to-back meetings. Then you stop and say, “I’ve been in meetings all day, but I haven’t done any work. I still have to get my work done.”
There are other things to learn along the way: negotiating, showing up at work, and stepping out of your predecessor’s shadow.
Sometimes you’re hired into a role to replace someone, and you’re expected to operate exactly the way that person operated, whether it was good, bad, or ugly. You need to establish your own professional identity.
You don’t need a minimum number of years of experience or a certain job title to do this. You can be the most junior person in the department, making the least amount of money, and still show up and do these things.
The people in the corner offices and at the board meetings making decisions learned to think about these things early on. They considered how to get access and exposure to people who could help them in their careers, how they wanted to show up at work, and what they wanted people to know and remember about them.
Some professionals I work with haven’t realized the need for these conversations. Others have started thinking about them but aren’t sure where to go because the company hasn’t said anything.
Ask Your Employer to Invest in Your Development
Annual budgeting is another big thing that happens during this year-end season. It’s unfortunate how many companies have little to nothing in the learning and development line for employees, with some budgeting zero.
A lot of times, the focus is just getting the work done. There has to be some operational catastrophe before the company starts thinking reactively about training employees, sending them to conferences, or helping them develop depth in an area of controllership.
It’s shameful when companies don’t invest in employees. I know what it’s like when a company invests in your professional development, whether you request sponsorship to attend a conference or take a course, or the company comes to you with a learning opportunity.
Don’t be afraid to amplify your voice and let your employer know you want to invest in yourself and learn. They can obtain a return on that investment when you attend a conference or take a course to improve your skill set.
Write Your Performance Review in Your Own Voice
I have clients who signed up for coaching because they want help writing their performance reviews. They’re saying, “I have to write my performance review, and I don’t even know where to start.”
This isn’t the time to have ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI tool write your performance review for you.
You have to get accustomed to speaking up for yourself, advocating for yourself, and celebrating the things you’ve done. And I promise you, your coworker is probably using the same tool. When your manager sees performance reviews with similar language, it’s going to be, “Come on now. Is this all you were able to come up with?”
Before AI, we had to use our brains. I appreciate AI, but I’m still cautious because I don’t want it to diminish critical thinking skills. AI is a tool, but you still need to use your own judgment and be able to articulate who you are as a corporate professional.
Get Your Name in the Conversation
Some people already know they’re done with their company and it’s time to move on. They use Q4 to prepare for the new year, start interviewing, and find the next role. That’s something we can talk about, too.
The calendar is open for year-end career coaching at NikkWinstonCPA.com. The first step is booking an intro session so you can get to know me and my coaching style, and I can learn about you and your career goals. Once we decide to work together, we get to work.
We go over what you’ve done this year, what went well, what didn’t, and the other things that need to go into the story of your career. When your manager and your skip-level manager see your performance review, you want them to understand why you belong in the conversation about high-potential employees, promotions, raises, and leadership opportunities.
Book an intro session at NikkWinstonCPA.com while there’s still time. And if you found this useful, share it with a coworker, a friend, or somebody who needs to understand the importance of amplifying their voice at work.
Career Advice Corporate Professionals Ask For
How do I write a performance review for myself?
Start with your accomplishments, the results of your work, and the responsibilities you’ve taken on during the review period. Explain your contribution rather than copying your job description into the form. Include feedback you’ve acted on, areas you’re developing, and your goals. Your manager should finish reading your self-evaluation with a specific understanding of your impact and the evidence to support it.
What should I include in my year-end performance review?
Include your strongest accomplishments, progress toward your goals, improvements you made, and examples of taking ownership. Address challenges and explain how you responded to them. If you want a raise, promotion, or leadership opportunity, connect that request to the work you’ve demonstrated. Being busy all year doesn’t tell your manager what you accomplished or why you’re ready for more responsibility.
How do I describe my accomplishments in a performance review?
Explain what you did, the role you played, and what improved because of your contribution. Instead of writing “helped with the monthly close,” describe the reconciliation issue you resolved, the process you improved, or the responsibility you assumed. Include numbers when you can verify them. When the accomplishment was a team effort, identify your contribution without taking credit for everybody else’s work.
What are good performance review accomplishments for accountants?
Accounting accomplishments can include reducing recurring reconciliation issues, improving the close process, strengthening controls, documenting procedures, or improving the accuracy and usefulness of financial reporting. Training a colleague or taking ownership of a difficult workstream can also demonstrate impact. Explain the result of your work: fewer corrections, clearer accountability, better information, or less dependence on one person’s knowledge. Don’t assume the reader understands everything that went into making the process run smoothly.
How do I write a performance review if I don’t remember my accomplishments?
Review your calendar, project trackers, completed deliverables, and relevant feedback to reconstruct the year. Look for problems you resolved, responsibilities you took on, and improvements you contributed to. You may discover that you’ve overlooked work because it became part of your routine. Going forward, take time each week to record accomplishments and developmental areas so you’re not trying to remember March in November.
How do I talk about my accomplishments without sounding like I’m bragging?
Describe your work accurately and support it with examples. You don’t need to exaggerate your contribution, but you also don’t need to minimize it to make other people comfortable. Give colleagues credit where it’s due while being specific about your own role. Your performance review is a professional account of your work, and your manager shouldn’t have to investigate what you contributed.
How do I ask for a raise or promotion during my performance review?
State what you’re asking for and connect it to your demonstrated results, increased responsibilities, and readiness for the role you want. Ask about the company’s criteria and decision timeline before review season so you can prepare accordingly. If the answer is no or not yet, ask which requirements remain unmet and when you’ll revisit the conversation. You need enough specificity to act on the feedback.
How do I get my manager to recognize my contributions?
Have ongoing conversations about your work instead of waiting until year-end to explain it. Use your one-on-ones to discuss accomplishments, challenges, feedback, and career goals. When a project succeeds, explain the role you played and the results you contributed to. Your manager may know the team delivered without knowing what you personally did to make that happen.
What should I discuss in a one-on-one meeting with my manager?
Discuss the work you’ve completed, decisions or support you need, feedback on your performance, and the responsibilities you want to grow into. Include career development rather than using every meeting solely for task updates. Send an agenda so your manager can prepare, and revisit earlier feedback to show how you’ve acted on it. These conversations should help you understand where you stand and what’s expected of you.
How do I address weaknesses or mistakes in my self-evaluation?
Acknowledge the issue, explain its effect on the work, and describe what you’ve done to address it. Avoid vague statements such as “I need to communicate better” when you can identify the specific behavior you’re changing. If the improvement is still underway, say so and explain your next steps. You can take responsibility without turning your entire performance review into an apology.
Can I use ChatGPT to write my performance review?
AI can help organize your notes or identify unclear wording, but you still need to supply the accomplishments, evidence, and judgment. Don’t submit language you can’t explain or claims you can’t support. Generic descriptions of being “collaborative” or “results-driven” won’t tell your manager what you did. Protect confidential company information, follow your employer’s AI policy, and make sure the finished review sounds like you.
What if my company doesn’t have a formal performance review process?
Request a career and performance conversation anyway. Prepare a written account of your accomplishments, feedback, developmental areas, and goals, then discuss it with your manager. Keep a record of the conversation and agreed next steps. Your company’s lack of a formal review process doesn’t eliminate your need for feedback or a documented career history you can draw on for future opportunities.
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