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You would think successful professionals always know where they stood with their managers. Surprisingly, people are often uncertain as to how their manager and company feel about them regarding their performance, particularly in a very competitive professional environment.
Most well-adjusted professionals experience self-doubt at some point. Many on a regular basis. With high achievers, self-doubt can fester and evolve into unproductive feelings about the company, making them reassess whether to stay or leave what might actually be a great job where they are highly valued.
Successful people with high standards are usually quite hard on themselves. They can obsess and dwell on minor things, which can lead to feeling demotivated. This is where managers can step in and create balance between constructive input and criticism.
Feedback for Millennials
The millennial generation is well known for seeking frequent feedback updates, especially after a large project or initiative. For many managers this is a dramatic shift from what they have been accustomed to providing. This may seem excessive to some managers, but historically, many managers have not done a great job of providing timely feedback to their direct reports.
If you were to add up all the conversations you have had with your manager about your performance in a year, how much time would that be? This same question was posed to a group of employees of mixed generations. The average response was approximately 40 minutes, including the annual performance evaluation. This is not nearly enough time if managers want their employees to be more productive and innovative.
Frustrated employees leave companies because they feel they are not valued or appreciated. This is very easy to avoid. People need to know where they stand. This type of feedback can be easily reconciled by integrating performance feedback into existing one-on-one meetings.
Just in case your manager is reticent with feedback, the following are clues you are doing a good job:
25 Clues You’re Good at Your Job
1. People seek you out for your insights and advice in your area of expertise.
2. Your colleagues want to brainstorm with you.
3. Co-workers and leaders want to showcase you and your experience at events like town hall meetings, divisional updates, external industry conferences.
4. Other departments and businesses volunteer to pay for your travel so you can participate in events or give presentations.
5. Dates of events and meetings are moved to accommodate your schedule to guarantee your participation.
6. Your annual budget request tends to get approved with few changes or challenges.
7. Your personal brand is very good (your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room).
8. People approve of you speaking on their behalf.
9. You make your colleagues part of your success story.
10. Budget decisions are made based your input.
11. You elevate the quality of work produced by your project team.
12. People create opportunities to work with you.
Related: 12 Tips for Retaining Your Best and Brightest
13. You are part of the process when your company is assessing risk of doing or not doing something (mergers/acquisitions, capital investments, strategic hires)
14. Your colleagues come to you in confidence to discuss sensitive matters.
15. You receive a steady amount of unsolicited positive feedback.
16. You are the go-to person when people are selecting project team members.
17. You are well prepared and come to meetings with solutions and recommendations to problems.
18. You have a voracious appetite for learning and developing new skills.
19. You make others look good and feel like they are at their best when working with you.
20. You are self-motivated and focused.
21. You are frequently getting introduced to senior people by your peers and manager.
22. You ask for what you need and often get it.
23. You are generous with your knowledge and your skills and are happy to teach, coach and train others.
24. Senior leaders are invested in your success.
25. During meetings you bring fresh perspectives and challenge people’s basic assumptions requiring them to think differently.