@knight does quarterly reviews of his annual goals, which I think is an awesome idea. I do one big review at the end of the year, but now he’s making me think I should do this more often.

There’s a parallel here with an emerging trend in HR practices, where annual performance reviews are on the way out, as employees expect clear and consistent feedback more often than once a year. It also increases employee engagement, and improves personal and career growth. It’s definitely something that’s become expected of employers in the recent years, as more employees develop a growth mindset for their careers.

If we should get feedback and appraisals more often, not just once a year, so that we can develop professionally, why not do the same as well to grow personally?

So, borrowing from these HR practices, a few changes I’d going to make:

Put it in the calendar, now

✅Done - Schedule time in my calendar (now) for quarterly reviews of my yearly goals.

Get a mentor or career coach

There’s always a supervisor or a manager going through your performance review. I wonder if I can start having someone in sort of a mentor role, or maybe seeking out a career coach, for me to discuss and bounce off my quarterly goal reviews.

Course-correct

Adjust and course-correct after each quarterly review. Perhaps even not feel precious about the yearly target, and edit/drop/replace them as the year progresses.

Performance rewards

At work, there’s always performance bonuses if you perform over and beyond your work targets. But I’d never thought about rewarding myself if I do hit my goals. I always thought hitting the goal is reward in itself…but why should that be? I worked hard, and I achieved it, so why not?! So, I will set a reward for each of my goals, so that it sweetens the deal, and celebrating it (with others, perhaps my coach and those who helped me along the way) would add more significance to the goals.