One thing I love most about the InPower Community and other forums where I take part as an expert is answering people’s questions. One of the most popular topics on people’s minds is how to prepare for a performance review, followed closely by queries about how to prepare for a job interview. Since these topics are so popular, I thought I’d summarize my key advice in this adapted Q&A. I also added a bonus tip on how to spot bias in the hiring process. Hope you find these tips helpful!
Preparing for a Performance Review
Q: How do I prepare for a performance review coming up? I expect that I will receive positive and constructive feedback from my boss. How should I filter the constructive or negative feedback?
A: First, know that by preparing yourself for “constructive” feedback in your performance review, you’re doing the right thing. Some managers are good at helping us see our opportunities to improve and others are not. You make it easier on yourself by getting ready for it either way. There are a few things you can do to help yourself prepare and have a constructive conversation. The first is, do your own evaluation of yourself! Be sure to identify what you believe are your major accomplishments to date, your lessons learned and specific areas you want to work on and develop. If you open the conversation with these things, you’ll give your boss the opportunity to validate what you already know and to help you expand your view of yourself at the same time. They may see accomplishments you didn’t! They may help you see strengths you hadn’t seen! They will probably also give you some insights into other ways you can grow…
Second, give yourself permission not to respond to anything specific in the evaluation discussion. Take notes and postpone your reaction to everything, especially the negative, until you’ve thought and absorb what you heard. You want to do this for two reasons, (1) you don’t want to become (or sound) defensive, and more importantly, (2) the best way for you to grow from this information is for you to consider it and decide consciously how you feel about it. Your boss’s opinion, after all, is only an opinion. It’s an important opinion. It’s an important perspective you should give weight to, but you may decide how much you agree with it and how you want to use it in guiding your own growth and development. Give yourself the gift of sleeping on it and making that decision before responding. But DO decide how you feel about it. DO decide how you will use this information to grow. And DO circle back with your boss after you’ve fully taken it in. Share with them your goals (in your own words) and what you plan to do about it. Ask for support if you need it.
Third, expect specific issues that will be hard for you receive negative feedback on. Imagine that you get negative feedback and feel triggered. How can you deal with that trigger ahead of time? What’s the worst that can happen if this comes up? What’s the best? What could it teach you? Visualize it ahead of time and keep asking yourself “”what would I do next?”” to step through how you’d handle it appropriately. It won’t happen the way you imagine it, but by going through this process, you can defuse the situations you’re most likely to mishandle. (It’s like figuring out in advance where the most combustible material is in the forest and clearing it out before bringing in the firecrackers… to use a poor analogy.) Learning to manage and defuse your triggers is a good skill to develop for all kinds of reasons and relationships and feedback sessions are a great place to start! Here are some resources that might help you:
Preparing for a Job Interview
Q: What are tips or best practices to prepare for an interview?
A: Congratulations for getting an interview! Interviews are always worth doing, even when you’re not sure you want the job (though don’t lead people on if you know you don’t).
The best way to prep for a job is to make sure you have the best understanding possible for the job requirements of the position you’re interested in. You’ll get this information from the recruiter who helps you set up the appointment and/or the hiring manager if you can get to them. Maybe you know others at the company who can fill you in on organizational changes that might be relevant too. List out the top 3-5 job requirements (e.g., collect customer requirements) and then write out your relevant experience and accomplishments next to each requirement. Armed with this list you can practice speaking your accomplishments out loud so when the opportunity comes up in the interview, you’re ready.
Just as you do in preparing for a performance review, you’ll also want to be very fluent talking about your most relevant previous career accomplishments. Though many of my clients find this topic daunting at the outset, once they go through the simple steps to outline their achievements, it gives them a greater sense of confidence in the job search.
Finally, pre-prepare a list of questions you have about the job, the company and the opportunity. The interview is your best chance to learn more that will help you make a smart decision. I wrote two blog posts about Interviewing for a job you don’t want and How to interview for a job and negotiate your job offer that provide additional information on interview preparations.
How Can You Spot Bias in the Hiring Process?
Q: How can you spot bias in hiring?
A: It’s important to recognize that there is always bias in interviews because all humans have internalized a wide variety of biases. This does not mean that interviewers or the process is sexist, racist or otherwise unfairly discriminating against you. In fact, bias can benefit you sometimes, too. If you’re not familiar with unconscious bias, it’s worth learning more and learning how to identify and mitigate your own biases. Check out this short video on the subject.
Unfortunately, unless discrimination is obvious during your interview process, you usually won’t be able to see any actual bias in hiring. This is because the impact of unfair bias occurs “on the back end” when interviewers compare notes and make hiring decisions. This means that for internal hires you might be more able to get relevant information that would tell you that bias might is a factor. But for external interviews, unless you know someone with good information about how the hiring process internally, you will never truly know.
That said, here are a few indicators of a less-biased process. If the interview process you’re experiencing doesn’t have these factors in place, you are right to believe there may be bias involved:
- you meet with multiple individuals over the course of your interview process
- you are told there is no single decision-maker
- you participate in panel interviews
- they tell you they have a blind resume review process (where names and genders are removed from the resumes)
- you meet others on your team and see that there is extensive diversity of gender, race and personality type
What should you do if these factors are not in place? How can you interview to mitigate the impact of bias? It’s tough and there’s technically little you can do unless you experience outright discrimination (in which case, talk to an employment attorney before you complain formally). However, you can ask about the company and/or teams’ commitment to diversity, which will tell them you care about this and stimulate their own desires to be unbiased and fair. You can also talk about your own accomplishments through the lens of how you personally added diversity to a team and helped the team deliver greater success. In other words, try to turn your own interests in diversity and working alongside people who manage their biases to your advantage. If these conversations make them uncomfortable or defensive, it may not be a team you want to work with, anyway.
Have a performance review, a job interview or bias situation you need to navigate? Join the InPower Coaching Community for support, advice and more!
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