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Whew! We’ve made it! To the midpoint of the year, I mean. This is a good time to check in on yourself to see how you’re doing with the goals in your performance plan and any personal improvements you set when making resolutions six months ago. In this newsletter, we want to give you some strategies for a mid-year professional check-in including evaluating where you’ve been, letting the right people know of your achievements, and setting yourself up for a successful second half of the year.

 

Conduct your own mid-year performance check-in

Set aside time to brainstorm the milestones you’ve met this year. Consider writing a formatted list to help you visualize where you’ve achieved the most milestones and what areas need more focus for the remainder of the year.  Here is a sample:  

 

Connect your achievements to your goals

Look at the formal goals you set for this year in your annual performance plan. What were the measurable components of the plan you set? How do the achievements you’ve made this year line up with those objectives? Follow these steps:

1. Review your goals: Assess which has been achieved, what is still in progress, and which might require adjustment. Consider how they align with your current job priorities.
2. Specifically address progress: If you haven’t already, break your goals down into smaller bites so that you can attach achievements to them. See if you can correlate a milestone to each goal in your plan.
3. Identify obstacles: Is there anything getting in your way? Consider time restraints, lack of resources, and know that recognizing them will help you determine what other support might be needed and ask for it.

Now that you have a full picture, tell your supervisor about your progress

If your organization does not have a formalized process for a mid-year performance review put a meeting on your supervisor’s calendar to do it on your own. This is your opportunity to let your manager know how well you’re doing, ask if you’re on the right track, and garner advice for positioning yourself for success in the second half of the year. When speaking to your manager you might:

• make a list of your specific contributions over the past 6 months.
• highlight any training or mentoring you’ve had.
• offer a specific anecdote for how you handled a challenging situation.

 

Ask for feedback

Ask for feedback on your current progress and what you could do better moving forward. Let your manager know how motivating their guidance is for you. Are there areas where they’ve seen specific improvement? What about areas that could still use a little work? Essentially, “Do I need to change anything to achieve my goal?”  

 

Decide what you want to do next

Pick a few wins that you’d like to be able to say you made by the end of 2023:

• What skills would you like to have by the time of your next review?
• What new responsibilities do you want to take on?
• Do you have a sense of where you’d like to be three years from now?
• Do you need to shift your goals? If so, what needs shifting?

Ask a mentor:

• How do you stay on top of your career goals throughout the year?
• Do you meet with your manager midway through the year?
• Do you initiate conversations with key leaders to let them know of your goal progress and recent wins?