Lifescripts, 3rd Edition

30Defending Your Own Performance from Criticism

STRATEGY

The key to getting the most from a positive performance review, or minimizing the damage from a negative one, is to subtly take charge of the conversation by preempting the reviewer. If you expect a positive review, immediately launch into the new challenges you'd like to take on. If you expect a negative review, immediately describe your plan to improve. The idea is to get off the negative issues discussion as quickly as possible and turn this meeting into a positive and constructive outline of your plan. If you don't succeed in taking control, push for a subsequent meeting and try again.

TACTICS

• Attitude: Look on this as a chance to take charge of your future, rather than a postmortem on your past.
• Preparation: Conduct a thorough self‐analysis to determine whether your review will be primarily positive or negative. Then, develop a plan to either take advantage of the positive review or correct past mistakes and shortcomings.
• Timing: While you'll have little control over when this meeting takes place, be ready to postpone it should anything problematic occur during the conversation. For example, if you're in your supervisor's office discussing your performance and they get a call that the company's largest customer has gone bankrupt, immediately suggest an adjournment.
• Behavior: When receiving constructive criticism or compliments, it's important to acknowledge them with more than just physical gestures. Rather than ...