Performance Reviews: Running With feedback

performance reviews can be a bit intimidating, but they can also be great learning experiences, particularly when you get critical feedback. For today’s open thread, I thought we’d discuss: What’s the best feedback you’ve ever received in a performance review? I don’t necessarily mean the best compliment (but ladies, please share those too!), but rather the best note that helped you learn and grow in your job or career. Was it a direct message (“you must do X to get to Y”), or a general personality observation? how did you take the feedback initially, and what did you do with it? (If you’re far enough away from it — what do you wish you’d done?)

For my own $.02, one of the things that my favorite editors told me, long ago, was that I was very introspective, and I seemed to be constantly assessing how I was doing. It hadn’t occurred to me before that point that this was an unusual trait or anything worth mentioning — didn’t everybody do that? It was helpful feedback in that it stopped me from tripping over myself too much (although I’ve always suffered from Imposter Syndrome!) and even became something that I touted in later interviews.
How about you, ladies? What performance review feedback has been the most helpful in your career thus far? What changed the way you looked at yourself or your job? (On a related note, do you have any tips or tricks for how to “get more” from your performance review, such as how to elicit better feedback, or to lay the groundwork for a promotion or better opportunities?
Further reading:
How Can I get critical Feeback? [Ask a Manager]
Assess Your Skills, Weaknesses in a performance review [AAM via U.S. News]
10 tips to get more from Your performance review [Salary.com]
The case against performance reviews [The Atlantic Monthly]
Go For the Gold In Your performance review [Monster]
The corporate Kabuki of performance reviews [The Washington Post]

Pictured: Shutterstock/aslysun.