Annual Performance Review

Are you a succulent?

Succulents have the ability to thrive with relatively minimal care, survive unfavorable periods, and retain sustenance (water) to enable growth under tough conditions. The Annual Performance Review process provides the opportunity to demonstrate your growth, tenacity and transformation over the past year.

Throughout the Succulent series of Yarns about Life, I describe “water‑saving” tools with benefits that pay-off. Your Month in Review and Your Book have been quietly storing evidence of your growth. The annual review is where you weave those coils into a visible shape. Like Succulent, your story is not static; even after hard seasons, you are still capable of unfolding into a more resilient form.

Why This Matters

Annual performance reviews are often treated as a formality, but they are one of the few places where your story becomes part of the permanent record. Without an impactful voice, your story can shrink to a single number and a quick comment.

When you write a thoughtful narrative:

• You show how you navigated real‑world challenges, not just ideal conditions.

• You connect the dots between your daily work and long‑term results.

• You document performance factors that can be used on resumes and job interviews.

• You give future hiring managers and leaders a clear picture of who you are becoming, not just who you were this year.

Shine a Light on Your Performance

Do you embrace the opportunity to shine a light on your contributions each year and craft your personal story into the permanent record? It seems like a no‑brainer—an opportunity that people should jump at. This annual opportunity should be embraced, not minimized or rushed.

I have encouraged my direct reporting leaders to live this philosophy and pass it down to their leaders. Sadly, not everyone has been mentored to realize the value (not just monetarily) of formulating a strong personal story of performance. I have experienced leaders who have worked over 10 years in organizations who were never mentored to build strong stories of annual performance. Drafting annual stories of development and transformation should be a major priority for you and the people who report to you. Your direct reports deserve your energy and focus to help mentor the skills necessary to tell their stories.

Although metric goals don’t lie, there are always key factors that help paint a permanent record of performance such as the successes, challenges or unforeseen events faced during the year (such as staff or leadership vacancies, power outages, weather events, etc.) This is not a time for boasts or excuses, but for understanding factors with long‑range impacts that presented or addressed substantial impediments and the solutions implemented. Successes, challenges and failures should help demonstrate your growth.

Let's Review a Sample Goal

Goal:

Meet or exceed budgeted Total Housekeeping Labor Productivity of .73

What not to do: “Achieved 0.64”

I have observed leaders simply fill in a number and move on, typing in the actual productivity number (or other metric result) with no story or explanation.

What to do:

Mid‑Year Comments – On‑Target: 0.64 Productivity. As of June 30th, we have used 134,030 hours of labor on a budget of 152,924 versus last year of 160,743 hours of overall hourly labor, which comes out to be a Productivity of 0.64. Our year‑to‑date OT has been reduced by 43.1% YOY with an overall rooms savings of 53.1%, or $51,880. In the first six months, we have changed our onboarding training to be more hands‑on with the inspectors, so the inspectors can turn the rooms at a faster rate with limited efforts of fixing cleanliness issues. Our training manager has also adjusted our onboarding to be more hands‑on during the first two weeks and Deep Cleaning training.

Comparing the two responses—note that they both exceed the goal— but ask yourself:

• If you were a hiring manager, which applicant would you prefer to screen first?

• If you were the direct supervisor of this person, which performance review text would you prefer to use to evaluate the leader’s skill and growth?

• What do the two responses communicate?

It’s a Simple Concept

You are the best person to tell your story. Know your metric goals and work your results each day. Track daily, weekly, monthly, and year‑to‑date results. If you are able, “save up your water" like a succulent for dry, arid times, make plans to do so. Make notes, articulate results, track histories and measure successes and failures. Document Month in Reviews and event plans. Examine and analyze data points to gain insights. Use insights to make the next plan better. Then be ready to articulate your story, your growth, and your results in your performance review cycles.

A Story of Results

As the General Manager of the Senior Community, one of my outstanding leaders produced the most thorough annual review I had ever encountered. It was detailed and well‑written. I could not suggest any edits to improve the content. She understood the assignment and the point of my mentorship. She was rated superior in her performance.

Two months later, I was asked to nominate a leader for a state-wide annual award sponsored by Leading Age, a senior living industry advocate organization. My thoughts automatically went to this leader. On the nomination form, I edited her own words from her annual performance review to describe why she deserved this recognition above all others in the state of Michigan. She won the award.

Call to Action: Tell the Story of Your Year

If you are a leader, consider this your invitation:

• Start with your Month in Review documents. Look back over the year’s monthly snapshots. What patterns, challenges, and wins stand out?

• Open Your Book. Pull out a few projects, data points, and compliments that best show your growth and impact.

• For each key goal, go beyond the number. Write a short paragraph like the example: the context, the actions you took, the results, and what you learned.

You don’t need pages and pages. You just need enough detail to make your story real.

In demanding, “arid” work environments, this practice doesn’t have to be perfect or elaborate. Even a modest, honest annual story—rooted in your Month in Review and Your Book—is enough “water” to help your value, your growth, and your resilience stay visible.

Like Succulent, your career is built layer by layer, through transformation and growth. Each Month in Review, each page in Your Book, and each thoughtful annual review comment is another coil. Together, they reveal that even in tough seasons, you were still growing, still valid, and still beautiful in your continued transformation.