As another year draws to a close, most of the people in an IT organization are busy filling out appraisals forms with the data points supporting all the key tasks worked upon. Appraiser and appraise are the most common buzzwords. Obviously, this single day determines your future of work in your professional life and plays a crucial role in various decisions based on the appraisal feedback.
Let's see how a typical conversation happens in an IT industry during the appraisal discussion.
Mr. B (Project Manager of A): Good Morning Mr. A. I hope you had a nice New Year bash. As you might know, the appraisal evaluation has been completed for you.
Mr. A: Good Morning Mr. B. Thank you for letting me know. Kindly disclose my ratings.
Mr. B: You have done an excellent technical work this year considering the amount of the deliverables and strict deadlines. However, I can only give you a B rating.
Mr. A: I have been expecting the top most rating A from you. I am slightly disappointed with my ratings.
Mr. B: I can understand your concern. Though you are very strong in technical aspects, there are certain areas that you are lagging in.
Now how many of our readers have been in the same situation of Mr. A before? Yeah, I have personally gone through this as well. Being in the same situation and having gone through this phase of life, I had come up with a few points that you may find useful.
- Work, Work, Work
The first and foremost aspect is work. Until and unless you deliver work in a timely manner, we can't expect good ratings from our managers. All the following points will become obsolete, if the work aspect becomes zero. The key to any appraisal ratings is the amount of good work being done.
- Go Extra Mile
The next important thing to keep in mind is to go above and beyond what is expected of you. Let me explain in its simplest terms.
Example: Assume that you are a developer. You are working on the deliverables with clear requirements. You can add more value to the project (go the extra mile) by doing automation where manual intervention is required.
Always go that Extra Mile and add that extra value to your deliverables and make your deliverables stand apart from the rest of them.
- Slowly Built Reputation
As rightly said below, Reputation is something that can't be built overnight. It takes a lot of time to build it.
"Good reputation is more... but as Rome was not built in a day, reputation cannot be built in a day either." - Bible.
"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it." - Benjamin Franklin.
Always try to build a good reputation, whenever you are confronted with the job. Each and every single day of today's tasks provide an opportunity to build a reputation for your name. So work wisely. It's not good to take a simple Excel sheet work very lightly.
- Collaborate with Team Members
Always collaborate with team Members and mingle with them nicely. Be a better team person who is ready to do and offer any kind of help in the time of crisis.
Building a good personal rapport is a must and eases lots of tension in bad times. Go out for a team lunch at least once in a week and try to learn what is happening in their personal lives.
- Timely Feedback
Not many managers like to hear your achievements only at the appraisal season. Provide periodic updates to them. Just keep them posted about your work and ask for a genuine feedback once in 3 months. This would provide you enough time to correct yourself and come back stronger for the rest of the period. Seek timely feedback and work on the improvement areas if any.
- Seek their Expertise and Implement your own ideas in it
Trust me, this one is really important. Managers would always want their voices to be heard. Your managers must have gone through all the challenges that you are currently facing. So it's wise to ask their suggestions. Discuss with them the challenges and get the possible outcome scenarios to act upon. This gives the impression that you value your manager inputs seriously.
Let's revisit the scenario again.
Mr. B (Project Manager of A): Good Morning Mr. A. I hope you had a nice New Year bash. As you might know, the appraisal evaluation has been completed for you.
Mr. A: Good Morning Mr. B. Thank you for letting me know. Kindly disclose my ratings.
Mr. B: You have done an amazing job and you have exceeded all the expectations. I have given you the top most rating A. So keep up the good work!!
Mr. A: Thank you. (Smiling all the way to another New Year bash.).
A special note to thank @Mahesh Chand for inspiring me to write my first non-technical article. You are truly an inspirational Leader. And a Million Thanks to C# Corner for letting us express our thoughts.