November 8, 2024 / Esther Choy

No one loves annual performance reviews. While they are necessary to make sure employees and employers are staying on track and striving for growth, the process is time consuming and nerve racking for both the managers and the employees. So how can you make the process more enjoyable for both you and your manager — while also putting your best foot forward? The answer: prepare for a performance review with these three storytelling tips. Stories help you stand out from the crowd. In a stack of employee achievements, a manager is more likely to remember that one employee who presented their accomplishments using a story.

Plus, stories highlight both your accomplishments and your character. People forget facts, but they never forget a good story. So it’s a great time to tell a story that highlights one of your defining qualities that is important for your manager to know about.

Implement these storytelling tips in order prepare leadership stories and ace your performance review.

Practice empathy for the manager who conducts your performance review

The first storytelling tip is all about knowing who your audience is. What are they concerned with? What do they need to know? To understand your manager and make their lives easier, answer the following questions:

  • What’s it like to conduct a performance review? Conducting reviews is often tiring. Managers often experience three kinds of biases:
  1. Recency bias (evaluating only the past month or two, rather than the full year).
  2. Leniency bias (giving everyone high marks, regardless of whether it’s merited).
  3. Confirmation bias (seeking only information that confirms the manager’s preconceived ideas about that person).
  • Outside the performance review, what are the most pressing challenges facing your manager?
  • What three things do you want your manager to know about you and your work over the past year? Name them using no more than 30 words.

Answering these questions may not directly change the content of your own performance review. However, the process will help you understand your manager’s perspective. As you sit down and prepare notes and stories for your performance review, you will be able to see these stories not just from your own perspective, but also from your manager’s point of view.

Storytelling tip to your inboxMine the past year for stories to share at your performance review

The second storytelling tip is about collecting stories. With the three things you named above in mind, review your calendar over the last year to take stock of your accomplishments. Mark down anything notable. For example, think about times when you:

  • Contributed to your company or team in ways that went beyond the call of duty
  • Created something new that added value
  • Did the right thing without being asked
  • Invested in your professional development
  • Learned a new skill or gained industry insight

Then consider the impact of your accomplishments:

  • How did these contributions impact your team?
  • Think about it in terms of cause and effect. The cause or input is what you did/learned/invested/shared with your team. The effect is the output. The observable — qualitative or quantitative — results

If there are many of these examples, there’s no need to recount each event. Instead, group them under themes or categories.

Structure your stories for performance reviews

The third storytelling tip is about structuring brief, brilliant stories. During a performance evaluation, you may not get a lot of time to tell these stories, so it’s important to have them ready to go when the moment arises. You don’t want to recount the whole year for your manager, you just want to share a few succinct stories that highlight your accomplishments and your character. The IRS storytelling model will help you to shape your accomplishments into a memorable story. There are three components to a good story:

  • I – Intriguing beginning
  • R – Riveting middle
  • S – Satisfying end

With the IRS model, you can craft a story with only three or four sentences. Here is a real-world example:

Gaji Balakaneshan, the president of Midwestern BioAg, shares this story on his LinkedIn page:

I – “I use my ignorance to make things better.”

  • This is intriguing because you want to know how ignorance makes things better.

R – “By asking about when fertilizer is applied to corn, we uncovered a $200M opportunity.”

  • Here he gives specific details about the situation he wants you to know about.

S – “Curiosity about R&D project funding led to a company-wide change in resource allocation.”

  • The end is satisfying because it shows the impact his simple question had on the company.

A banner describing Story Lab, a complimentary service to workshop stories with a facilitator for more storytelling tip

Not only does this story show how Balakaneshan helped discover a huge business opportunity, it also tells you something about his character. The story shows he’s not afraid to ask what may seem like stupid questions. He doesn’t take the status quo for granted, and, therefore, he’s capable of providing cutting-edge insight.

While we can’t all claim to have uncovered a $200M opportunity this year, we can all use these storytelling tips to highlight both our accomplishments and character. While this might feel like bragging, it’s actually helping your manager do their job. They want to know how amazing you are and what you are bringing to the team. So this year, prepare for performance reviews by developing and practicing your own leadership story with us at Story Lab. What storytelling tips helped you the most this year?

Esther Choy

Esther Choy founded Leadership Story Lab in 2010 to help others leverage the art of storytelling to create extraordinary opportunities.
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"This is an amazing and insightful post! I hadn’t thought of that so you broadened my perspective. I always appreciate your insight!" - Dan B.

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