Workplace Expert Jodi Glickman Shares Her Insights In a Rypple Web Seminar

Are you feeling fearful or unsure about how to handle your next performance review? Last week Rypple hosted a Leadership Webinar Series with Jodi Glickman, who shared her strategies for how to make your next performance review the most productive conversation you’ve ever had with your manager.

You can watch a recording of the web seminar and see the slides below.

Jodi is the author of  ”Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It, The Secrets of Getting Ahead,” a book that has been called a masterclass in workplace success.  She has worked with thousands of young professionals to develop the communication skills and strategies they need to move their careers to the next level and beyond.

In the web seminar Jodi focused on how employees can manage up in a performance review and take charge of their career.

Jodi’s Keys for Acing Your Review:

Performance reviews are not meant to make you feel good or bad. The process should be about making you a better employee. Tough conversations are not something to dread. If there are issues, the performance review is the place to weed through mistakes and lessons learned, and address solutions.

To do well, an employee must prepare beforehand and manage the conversation during the review. If you do your homework, you likely won’t be caught off-guard by what’s said about you. And leading the conversation will allow you to steer the conversation. Nobody cares more about managing your career than you do.

Don’t get defensive. Reacting to something with tears or anger is one of the worst things you could do in a review. If something upsets you, remain polite and professional and save your venting for a friend or family member later. An emotional outburst will reflect poorly on you — and likely be all your manager will remember later on (rather than the subject that got you upset).

It’s okay to disagree with your boss. If you think something your manager has said is unfair, it’s okay to say you respectfully disagree. But wait until the following day or week to do so. And when you do, come armed with different perceptions from others with whom you’ve worked. The key is to react in a way that shows you are open and receptive to feedback.

Performance reviews are an investment in your career development. These conversations are the place to find out if you’re on the same page as your manager – and if not, what you can or should be doing differently in order to do your job well and advance your career. The key is to focus on solutions to any real or perceived problems.

Watch the Video

See the slides

About Jodi Glickman

Jodi is an expert in training young people how to be Great on the Job.  She is an entrepreneur, author, speaker and regular blogger for the Harvard Business Review.  She is a faculty member of the Johnson School’s Leadership Program at Cornell and a contributor to Fortune.com and Business Insider.

Jodi is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Southern Chile) turned investment banker (Goldman Sachs) turned communication expert. In 2008, she founded Great on the Job (GOTJ), a consulting firm that specializes in training the next generation of leaders how to succeed at work.