It’s the end of another year and time to do your performance evaluation. If you were on the performance evaluation ball, you should have everything sorted, documented, and ready to go.
However, if you were doggy paddling to stay afloat all year, then chances are, you’ve got nothing.
I’ll be the first to admit that I doggy paddled my tail off. There are a lot of tips (including my own) out there that are great – if you have time. Well, to be perfectly honest, sometimes I simply don’t have the time to focus on myself and write my progress.
Also, writing a performance evaluation for yourself is not easy, especially as an admin, because we don’t have measurable outcomes.
So, if you haven’t set goals for yourself this year, and it’s time for your performance evaluation, I would recommend you keep reading.
I’m going to show you how to set goals for an administrative assistant or administrative support professional when you’re staring at a blank screen.
Make a (you guessed it) List of Your Work
I know it sounds simple, and that’s because it is! Try this. Take out a blank sheet of paper and your favorite pen and turn off your monitors.
Now, write where you are currently with all of your assignments at this moment. Write all the things that are fresh in your mind and make your list. Don’t overthink it, just write everything that comes to mind.
Make sure you include the outcomes and tasks that you’re really proud of. Write all the responsibilities and tasks you’re working on that take up most of your time. Include all the major challenges you faced throughout the year. Just fill up the page(s) with everything you think is relevant and is unique to this year.Here are some starter questions to get the gears turning:
- What are you currently doing?
- What are your recent accomplishments?
- What have you been working on this year that you’re proud of?
- What challenges have you faced this year, and how did they affect your experience?
Group Your Work to Set Goals
Now that you have a list of your badassery. Let’s sort them into relevant groups.
Go through your list, and if there are items that were maybe part of the same big project/event/challenge, group them. Having multiple bullet points to illustrate one project can look like you’re “milking it.” Brevity and concise wording is your friend here.
Grouping your list will give you the opportunity to condense all your points into a one sentence or paragraph missing none of the important elements.
Don’t be afraid to put your additional points in a bulleted list. You don’t have to get rid of your contribution, you just want to make sure you’re not hurting yourself with too many words.
How Your Goals were Born
Now that you’ve grouped your list, you need to give the groups a name. These will now be your goals that you’ve been working towards all year—though you didn’t write them down.
They are true and real objectives you’ve been working towards all year that you can speak to and take ownership of. It’s not a lie, and you’re not flattering yourself because you’ve been or are currently working to achieve those goals now.
All the grouped items will help you “tell the story” of your goal journey and how much progress you’ve made.
For each goal, make sure you show how you got to where you are in order to achieve the goal. Though most performance evaluations do a crap job at capturing our journey, you can show your process, critical thinking, proactive problem solving initiative.
If your company uses the STAR moments, or if you use them for interviews, this is a great opportunity to squirrel away examples of your awesomeness.
TL; DR (Too long; didn’t read)
In conclusion, if you didn’t set goals at the beginning of the year and/or didn’t keep up with your progress throughout the year, work backwards.
- Write everything you’re working on, remember major tasks/project/events you completed, and major challenges you had to face.
- Group all your items to help you “tell the story” of a bigger picture.
- Recall how these bigger group items started and describe how you got to where you are in the process now.
This process will help you remember what you’ve done throughout the year in a clear and concise way.
