Thought Leadership
Self-Advocacy in Corporate America

By Chelsea Grayson, Managing Director at Pivot >

Measuring and articulating your value as an employee requires a bit of a performance.

Everyone has decision-makers over them who impact their career path and compensation. This is true for even the CEO and board of directors.

The CEO answers to the board, whose highest priority is to hire and fire the CEO and determine the CEO’s compensation. And the board answers to the shareholders, who get a say on board fees and composition. No matter how senior you get, you will always need to advocate for yourself to prove your value and achieve the status and compensation that you deserve.

The reality of corporate America is that most managers are narcissists in some way — or at the very least, self-centered. One almost has to be in order to achieve success in leadership positions. So it takes a very clear, undeniable message to get through to your manager. A message that makes it clear that you are a benefit to them, and that makes it impossible for them to deny you that raise, bonus or promotion.

Also, let it be said, human resources is not there to advocate for you. They are there to support the organization and further the organization’s success. They only become interested in you if you can similarly facilitate that success, or if you appear to be standing in the way of that success.

Even when you go to HR with a complaint, they are not your advocate. They might fix the issue for you, but only because doing so aligns with, or at least does not interfere with, the company’s business. HR’s chief activity is loss prevention.

Therefore, you can’t wait for your company’s training and development process to lift you up, or bank on your manager’s ability to remember all that you have done (or even to notice all that you have done), or depend on your manager’s ability to decode your aspirations and why you deserve to progress.

Taking Your Career Into Your Own Hands

You must engage in self-advocacy to align the company’s mission with your aspirations, which are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

On the one hand, you need to present yourself the same way the company is required to present itself to its shareholders. Treat yourself as if you are a company attempting to get new financing, or to increase its stock price in the market. What are the things a company would need to do in that case? What would it need to show? How would it value itself in the marketplace in order to convince investors to invest or to pay a higher price for its stock?

On the other hand, the decision-maker you are addressing is running a company (or part of a company) that has to perform and reflect performance in the same ways. And that decision maker has to worry about how you fit into that equation.

Valuation Methods

Let’s step back for a moment and do a little refresher course on how companies get valued — generally speaking — whether by a potential investor or a potential acquirer in the market. Companies employ a 360 degree approach to get a comprehensive valuation, and you should value yourself in the same way when articulating that value to your manager.

First, start with the basics. Your company has a description — likely right there on its web site. What do the shareholders expect this company to do, based on its description?

For example, Nike shareholders expect Nike to make sneakers and fashion-oriented sportswear, to sell those products online and in brick and mortar stores, and to sponsor relevant events. The first question you’ll ask as a Nike shareholder is: Is Nike conducting business as we expected them to conduct when we purchased this stock?

Now apply the same analysis to yourself. You took a position with a job description. Go take a look at that job description. Can you tick off each requirement and the list of “would be good to haves” and say you’ve done each of them? Remind your manager how much weight was placed on your shoulders, and why you were hired or promoted into that position in the first place. Have you done more than just what was listed in the job description? Nike ventured into social causes by partnering with people like Colin Kaepernick, which brought more eyes to the brand. Have you gone above and beyond your job description in a way that positively impacted the organization, so you can show them they got more than they bargained for when they hired you, and ought to pay you for it?

Show your job description as it currently exists, and then write a new one, showing all you actually do that is necessary to achieve your success in that position. You are not easily replaced, because you go above and beyond.

Next, think about your contributions to the bottom line. Most companies must publish a set of financial statements, consisting of a profit and loss statement (P&L), a balance sheet and a cash flow statement. Together, these establish a black and white, if one dimensional, method to determine a company’s value. To flesh out this picture, the evaluator of a company — basically, the market — also considers softer factors like historical growth patterns, future growth opportunities and barriers to entry for competitors. (This last factor causes some companies to have a very high valuation, even though they have not yet turned a profit.)

The P&L is the most relevant here, because it reflects direct revenue generation and net income. It reflects a company’s ability to generate sales, manage expenses and create profits.

A P&L is always based on a specific period of time — whether a quarter or a year or a month or some other period. That’s the first similarity to a performance evaluation, which also judges performance for a certain period of time — usually a year, but sometimes a quarter or a six month period, depending on how your company does reviews or determines whether bonuses are warranted.

The relevant categories that can be found on the P&L include:

  • Revenue (or Sales)
  • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) or Cost of Sales — this reflects the direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company. COGS includes the cost of the materials and labor (i.e., payroll) directly used to create the goods. It excludes indirect expenses, such as distribution costs and sales force costs.
  • Selling, General & Administrative (SG&A) Expenses — this includes sales commissions, advertising, promotional materials, marketing, rent, utilities, supplies and computers.
  • Marketing and Advertising
  • Technology/Research & Development
  • Net Income — this is what’s left after all of the above expenses are taken care of, i.e., The Result!

The takeaway: when you analyze a P&L, you look at revenue generation and margin and you compare year-over-year numbers.

One of the main jobs of any leader, whether it’s the CEO or the head of a group at any level, is to analyze the P&L of their company and/or their group or division, in order to make recommendations about the financial strength of the company or group, and the attractiveness of investing more money in it (via an increased budget). Leaders must present their P&Ls to the people who have decision making power over them, like 1) the board, which then factors that into the analysis of the next year’s annual budget, whether the CEO gets her bonus, or what her next year’s compensation will be or 2) the shareholders, who determine market value in the share price.

If you approach your own review as if you are presenting a P&L, and demonstrate how you improve the P&L that your managers ultimately must present to their managers, this will be a vocabulary that they understand and feels immediately useful to them. Again, most leaders are self-centered (me included!) and interested in their own survival, so showing them how you are useful to them is a top priority.

First, address direct revenue generation. That is probably what your key performance indicators (KPIs) or targets are centered around in any case, so you should be prepared to do this pretty easily. What dollars did you bring in, did they hit the targets, and how do they compare to the last period?

What if you aren’t a traditional revenue generator? You might be in marketing or you might be a creative, making it difficult to quantify how your contributions lead to revenue. You should still trace your actions as much as possible to show indirect revenue generation. Trace each relationship developed and nurtured. Did that lead to revenue generation somehow, even if after a long time has passed?

The key here is to be creative. Think about all the dollars you have brought in, even those you helped bring in by helping out another division or team.

For instance, when I was the General Counsel of American Apparel, I ran the legal department — definitely not a revenue generator. But I was able to show we indirectly generated revenue by quickly and flexibly facilitating deals that the business side was negotiating. And we actually generated revenue because we decided to join some class actions against American Express, collecting a part of the judgment and negotiating a return on some of the money that our workers compensation insurance carrier was holding in escrow.

Next, determine the margins and communicate those. What did it cost to bring in these dollars? Did the revenue you generated turn into a profit for the company? This analysis will involve things like payroll expense, how many people it required to pull in a particular client and to get the project done for that client, and whether there were other costs associated with those activities (like travel or gifts or technology builds). Did you have to provide a discount or a promotional period, or something for free? Collections costs fit into this conversation as well. Did you close a deal, but later when it came time to get paid, did you have to write off some of the fees owed because of a client dispute?

This analysis often provides a much needed reality check. I thought it was a really big deal when I generated a couple of million dollars in client business in my first year as a partner at my law firm, until I sat down and looked at the math. I calculated how much they were paying me that year, how much they were paying my associates who worked the deals, the cost of administrative support and office supplies, travel expenses. It really didn’t amount to much gravy at all after that analysis, but this process stopped me from over-inflating my own value and helped me manage my own expectations.

In this conversation you should also show how you helped reduce costs, such as facilitating the collection of all fees owed. The cost-control conversation is especially relevant if you’re not a revenue generator, because your contributions are harder to quantify. Unless you can clearly show you went above and beyond and generated revenue, it’s all about how you decreased costs and controlled expenses.

At American Apparel, I ran the legal department, which is generally considered to be a cost generator because it has employees who cost money and don’t sell anything. Legal departments also hire outside counsel and other advisors. But I cut expenses dramatically by reducing the list of outside law firms we used and aggressively negotiating their fees.

The takeaway: be creative. Think of absolutely any way you saved the company money. Did you do more than your job requires, so that they didn’t have to hire another person? That’s a cost savings that fits into SG&A! (Don’t remember what SG&A is? Go back up to the list of categories that comprise a P&L and refresh your memory!)

Finally, draw a comparison between relevant periods (but only if it benefits you). Show how your revenue generation (and expense control) improved this year over last year, or any one period to the next.

Beyond the P&L

But your value — or lack of value — goes well beyond a simple P&L statement. To properly assess the financial strength of a business, the attractiveness of investing in it or acquiring it entirely, analysts always go beyond the profit and loss statement to get a full picture of a company’s financial health.

That’s how you deserve to get valued as well, and you should characterize it as such. Where do you fit into the overall value of the organization and what is your individual overall valuation? This is especially relevant if you’re not a revenue generator and your contributions are harder to quantify.

Here are some valid, traditional metrics that you can judge yourself by, aside from direct or indirect revenue generation or the ability to control or cut expenses and costs:

  • Growth potential (ability to generate future, different revenues)
  • Trend analysis: are metrics improving or deteriorating because of your contributions?
  • Barriers to entry: what it would cost to build a similar business? Meaning, what would it cost for your employer to hire, train and develop your replacement?
  • Do I collaborate? Am I a good team member?
  • Competitive analysis: how do I compare to similarly situated colleagues?
  • Who is here because of me? How have I contributed to recruiting efforts?
Articulating Your Value: The Brag Memo

Once you have determined your value, now is the time to articulate it to the decision maker, to get a raise, a bonus or a promotion.

This articulation is theater, and it is a one person show. You are not only the sole actor on stage, you are also the producer, the director and the lighting and sound technician. You are responsible for shining a bright spotlight on yourself and performing so that the audience gives you a standing ovation.

In this theater production, the script is what I call a brag memo, and the performance is the discussion you’ll have during your performance review.

The brag memo (sometimes called the kudos memo) is a one or two page document (no longer!) that sets out all your contributions to the organization in the relevant period. Most of your work does not speak for itself; without this theater production, only the work that your manager is watching out for, or things the manager happens to recall at the moment they are writing your review will make it to your evaluation.

Don’t let anyone tell you not to write a brag memo. In the first part of my career, I was a lawyer. The firm offered us the chance to submit a brag memo in connection with our annual performance reviews. Many of the senior associates told me that no one actually did this, and that the firm looked down on the practice, even though it offered the opportunity. Nevertheless, I diligently created a brag memo every year until I made partner (at a point when many of those other associates had been eliminated or had tapped out). Once I made partner, I learned that the practice was actually quite well-received by the compensation committee, because it made their jobs that much easier.

First, jot down notes all year long — otherwise, you will forget all the little accomplishments that happen in between the big events. For example, appreciation emails from a difficult client or well-received documents like memos, pleadings or decks.

In framing the memo itself, create categories like revenue generation, indirect revenue generation, margin improvement/cost savings, administrative wins (did you run a practice group or a committee — leadership positions that required extra work and commitment?), culture building/affinity group membership or leadership, speaking engagements where you increased the company’s profile and represented it well on stage, charity or pro bono efforts under the company’s banner (which built up the company’s profile), compliments you received, whom you spoke with at business development or networking events (remember, that too is work!), skillset/skills that you are building (whether through internal or external training/courses) and how those skills can transition to another position (and did you get a certification?).

Ahead of your evaluation, submit the brag memo to HR with a request that it be incorporated into your review and that a copy be placed in your personnel file. This ensures that they can never say, “we had no idea you did all of that!” Then bring a hard copy to your evaluation, in case they “forget” it.

Showtime!

When you get to the actual (in-person or virtual) evaluation, remember: this is theater. So, be sure to let things go in the natural order. The reviewer will want to “set the stage,” by giving you her thoughts and assessment first. Take notes. Write down questions you don’t want to forget to ask.

Then, it’s your turn. Consider yourself the main act. For this part, rehearse ahead of time — a lot. Gain muscle memory so you don’t stumble or get nervous. Know how to get back on track if interrupted by a heckler (er, your boss!).

Rehearse phrases like, “Because I did this, the company experienced the following benefits and now I want to discuss next steps.” You won’t go through your entire brag memo, but definitely pick up on points that you don’t feel the evaluator touched upon.

Finally, take your bow. Finish your comments, if you can, with a sentence starting with, “I am indispensable to this organization, because …” Do your numbers top the leaderboard? Do you have relationships across the board internally and/or externally that can’t be replicated? Do you have a unique way of doing things that others can’t replicate?

Finally, some general takeaways:

  • Master the art of taking a compliment during the process. Don’t brush these off or credit anyone else. After all, performers love a spotlight and you are a performer.
  • Delivery matters! Exude palpable passion. You don’t have to be dramatic or emotional, but be alive, alert, enthusiastic yet also calm and logical. When I received performance evaluations as a young lawyer, they always asked, “what do you want to achieve in your career?” And I always began my answer with, “First of all, I want to make partner at this firm and retire here with a fully vested pension.”
  • Remember this is not a confrontation; rather, this is a conversation. Don’t be hostile or defensive.
  • Don’t let the evaluation be over until you are done (within reason). Be heard.
  • Never feel pressured to respond to a curveball question posed by the evaluator until you are ready. Take a breath. Take a day. Dive back in when you can be measured and logical. Even if you are given a deadline — trust me, you can say, “I will need a day longer than that” and the likely response will be “ok.”

I would love to hear from you if you have additional or different thoughts on this topic. My purpose with this piece (and future pieces) is to help you feel emboldened to speak up in every room (even a boardroom), advocate for yourself and participate actively in the management of your career.

Measuring and articulating your value as an employee requires a bit of a performance.

Everyone has decision-makers over them who impact their career path and compensation. This is true for even the CEO and board of directors.

The CEO answers to the board, whose highest priority is to hire and fire the CEO and determine the CEO’s compensation. And the board answers to the shareholders, who get a say on board fees and composition. No matter how senior you get, you will always need to advocate for yourself to prove your value and achieve the status and compensation that you deserve.

The reality of corporate America is that most managers are narcissists in some way — or at the very least, self-centered. One almost has to be in order to achieve success in leadership positions. So it takes a very clear, undeniable message to get through to your manager. A message that makes it clear that you are a benefit to them, and that makes it impossible for them to deny you that raise, bonus or promotion.

Also, let it be said, human resources is not there to advocate for you. They are there to support the organization and further the organization’s success. They only become interested in you if you can similarly facilitate that success, or if you appear to be standing in the way of that success.

Even when you go to HR with a complaint, they are not your advocate. They might fix the issue for you, but only because doing so aligns with, or at least does not interfere with, the company’s business. HR’s chief activity is loss prevention.

Therefore, you can’t wait for your company’s training and development process to lift you up, or bank on your manager’s ability to remember all that you have done (or even to notice all that you have done), or depend on your manager’s ability to decode your aspirations and why you deserve to progress.

Taking Your Career Into Your Own Hands

You must engage in self-advocacy to align the company’s mission with your aspirations, which are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

On the one hand, you need to present yourself the same way the company is required to present itself to its shareholders. Treat yourself as if you are a company attempting to get new financing, or to increase its stock price in the market. What are the things a company would need to do in that case? What would it need to show? How would it value itself in the marketplace in order to convince investors to invest or to pay a higher price for its stock?

On the other hand, the decision-maker you are addressing is running a company (or part of a company) that has to perform and reflect performance in the same ways. And that decision maker has to worry about how you fit into that equation.

Valuation Methods

Let’s step back for a moment and do a little refresher course on how companies get valued — generally speaking — whether by a potential investor or a potential acquirer in the market. Companies employ a 360 degree approach to get a comprehensive valuation, and you should value yourself in the same way when articulating that value to your manager.

First, start with the basics. Your company has a description — likely right there on its web site. What do the shareholders expect this company to do, based on its description?

For example, Nike shareholders expect Nike to make sneakers and fashion-oriented sportswear, to sell those products online and in brick and mortar stores, and to sponsor relevant events. The first question you’ll ask as a Nike shareholder is: Is Nike conducting business as we expected them to conduct when we purchased this stock?

Now apply the same analysis to yourself. You took a position with a job description. Go take a look at that job description. Can you tick off each requirement and the list of “would be good to haves” and say you’ve done each of them? Remind your manager how much weight was placed on your shoulders, and why you were hired or promoted into that position in the first place. Have you done more than just what was listed in the job description? Nike ventured into social causes by partnering with people like Colin Kaepernick, which brought more eyes to the brand. Have you gone above and beyond your job description in a way that positively impacted the organization, so you can show them they got more than they bargained for when they hired you, and ought to pay you for it?

Show your job description as it currently exists, and then write a new one, showing all you actually do that is necessary to achieve your success in that position. You are not easily replaced, because you go above and beyond.

Next, think about your contributions to the bottom line. Most companies must publish a set of financial statements, consisting of a profit and loss statement (P&L), a balance sheet and a cash flow statement. Together, these establish a black and white, if one dimensional, method to determine a company’s value. To flesh out this picture, the evaluator of a company — basically, the market — also considers softer factors like historical growth patterns, future growth opportunities and barriers to entry for competitors. (This last factor causes some companies to have a very high valuation, even though they have not yet turned a profit.)

The P&L is the most relevant here, because it reflects direct revenue generation and net income. It reflects a company’s ability to generate sales, manage expenses and create profits.

A P&L is always based on a specific period of time — whether a quarter or a year or a month or some other period. That’s the first similarity to a performance evaluation, which also judges performance for a certain period of time — usually a year, but sometimes a quarter or a six month period, depending on how your company does reviews or determines whether bonuses are warranted.

The relevant categories that can be found on the P&L include:

  • Revenue (or Sales)
  • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) or Cost of Sales — this reflects the direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company. COGS includes the cost of the materials and labor (i.e., payroll) directly used to create the goods. It excludes indirect expenses, such as distribution costs and sales force costs.
  • Selling, General & Administrative (SG&A) Expenses — this includes sales commissions, advertising, promotional materials, marketing, rent, utilities, supplies and computers.
  • Marketing and Advertising
  • Technology/Research & Development
  • Net Income — this is what’s left after all of the above expenses are taken care of, i.e., The Result!

The takeaway: when you analyze a P&L, you look at revenue generation and margin and you compare year-over-year numbers.

One of the main jobs of any leader, whether it’s the CEO or the head of a group at any level, is to analyze the P&L of their company and/or their group or division, in order to make recommendations about the financial strength of the company or group, and the attractiveness of investing more money in it (via an increased budget). Leaders must present their P&Ls to the people who have decision making power over them, like 1) the board, which then factors that into the analysis of the next year’s annual budget, whether the CEO gets her bonus, or what her next year’s compensation will be or 2) the shareholders, who determine market value in the share price.

If you approach your own review as if you are presenting a P&L, and demonstrate how you improve the P&L that your managers ultimately must present to their managers, this will be a vocabulary that they understand and feels immediately useful to them. Again, most leaders are self-centered (me included!) and interested in their own survival, so showing them how you are useful to them is a top priority.

First, address direct revenue generation. That is probably what your key performance indicators (KPIs) or targets are centered around in any case, so you should be prepared to do this pretty easily. What dollars did you bring in, did they hit the targets, and how do they compare to the last period?

What if you aren’t a traditional revenue generator? You might be in marketing or you might be a creative, making it difficult to quantify how your contributions lead to revenue. You should still trace your actions as much as possible to show indirect revenue generation. Trace each relationship developed and nurtured. Did that lead to revenue generation somehow, even if after a long time has passed?

The key here is to be creative. Think about all the dollars you have brought in, even those you helped bring in by helping out another division or team.

For instance, when I was the General Counsel of American Apparel, I ran the legal department — definitely not a revenue generator. But I was able to show we indirectly generated revenue by quickly and flexibly facilitating deals that the business side was negotiating. And we actually generated revenue because we decided to join some class actions against American Express, collecting a part of the judgment and negotiating a return on some of the money that our workers compensation insurance carrier was holding in escrow.

Next, determine the margins and communicate those. What did it cost to bring in these dollars? Did the revenue you generated turn into a profit for the company? This analysis will involve things like payroll expense, how many people it required to pull in a particular client and to get the project done for that client, and whether there were other costs associated with those activities (like travel or gifts or technology builds). Did you have to provide a discount or a promotional period, or something for free? Collections costs fit into this conversation as well. Did you close a deal, but later when it came time to get paid, did you have to write off some of the fees owed because of a client dispute?

This analysis often provides a much needed reality check. I thought it was a really big deal when I generated a couple of million dollars in client business in my first year as a partner at my law firm, until I sat down and looked at the math. I calculated how much they were paying me that year, how much they were paying my associates who worked the deals, the cost of administrative support and office supplies, travel expenses. It really didn’t amount to much gravy at all after that analysis, but this process stopped me from over-inflating my own value and helped me manage my own expectations.

In this conversation you should also show how you helped reduce costs, such as facilitating the collection of all fees owed. The cost-control conversation is especially relevant if you’re not a revenue generator, because your contributions are harder to quantify. Unless you can clearly show you went above and beyond and generated revenue, it’s all about how you decreased costs and controlled expenses.

At American Apparel, I ran the legal department, which is generally considered to be a cost generator because it has employees who cost money and don’t sell anything. Legal departments also hire outside counsel and other advisors. But I cut expenses dramatically by reducing the list of outside law firms we used and aggressively negotiating their fees.

The takeaway: be creative. Think of absolutely any way you saved the company money. Did you do more than your job requires, so that they didn’t have to hire another person? That’s a cost savings that fits into SG&A! (Don’t remember what SG&A is? Go back up to the list of categories that comprise a P&L and refresh your memory!)

Finally, draw a comparison between relevant periods (but only if it benefits you). Show how your revenue generation (and expense control) improved this year over last year, or any one period to the next.

Beyond the P&L

But your value — or lack of value — goes well beyond a simple P&L statement. To properly assess the financial strength of a business, the attractiveness of investing in it or acquiring it entirely, analysts always go beyond the profit and loss statement to get a full picture of a company’s financial health.

That’s how you deserve to get valued as well, and you should characterize it as such. Where do you fit into the overall value of the organization and what is your individual overall valuation? This is especially relevant if you’re not a revenue generator and your contributions are harder to quantify.

Here are some valid, traditional metrics that you can judge yourself by, aside from direct or indirect revenue generation or the ability to control or cut expenses and costs:

  • Growth potential (ability to generate future, different revenues)
  • Trend analysis: are metrics improving or deteriorating because of your contributions?
  • Barriers to entry: what it would cost to build a similar business? Meaning, what would it cost for your employer to hire, train and develop your replacement?
  • Do I collaborate? Am I a good team member?
  • Competitive analysis: how do I compare to similarly situated colleagues?
  • Who is here because of me? How have I contributed to recruiting efforts?
Articulating Your Value: The Brag Memo

Once you have determined your value, now is the time to articulate it to the decision maker, to get a raise, a bonus or a promotion.

This articulation is theater, and it is a one person show. You are not only the sole actor on stage, you are also the producer, the director and the lighting and sound technician. You are responsible for shining a bright spotlight on yourself and performing so that the audience gives you a standing ovation.

In this theater production, the script is what I call a brag memo, and the performance is the discussion you’ll have during your performance review.

The brag memo (sometimes called the kudos memo) is a one or two page document (no longer!) that sets out all your contributions to the organization in the relevant period. Most of your work does not speak for itself; without this theater production, only the work that your manager is watching out for, or things the manager happens to recall at the moment they are writing your review will make it to your evaluation.

Don’t let anyone tell you not to write a brag memo. In the first part of my career, I was a lawyer. The firm offered us the chance to submit a brag memo in connection with our annual performance reviews. Many of the senior associates told me that no one actually did this, and that the firm looked down on the practice, even though it offered the opportunity. Nevertheless, I diligently created a brag memo every year until I made partner (at a point when many of those other associates had been eliminated or had tapped out). Once I made partner, I learned that the practice was actually quite well-received by the compensation committee, because it made their jobs that much easier.

First, jot down notes all year long — otherwise, you will forget all the little accomplishments that happen in between the big events. For example, appreciation emails from a difficult client or well-received documents like memos, pleadings or decks.

In framing the memo itself, create categories like revenue generation, indirect revenue generation, margin improvement/cost savings, administrative wins (did you run a practice group or a committee — leadership positions that required extra work and commitment?), culture building/affinity group membership or leadership, speaking engagements where you increased the company’s profile and represented it well on stage, charity or pro bono efforts under the company’s banner (which built up the company’s profile), compliments you received, whom you spoke with at business development or networking events (remember, that too is work!), skillset/skills that you are building (whether through internal or external training/courses) and how those skills can transition to another position (and did you get a certification?).

Ahead of your evaluation, submit the brag memo to HR with a request that it be incorporated into your review and that a copy be placed in your personnel file. This ensures that they can never say, “we had no idea you did all of that!” Then bring a hard copy to your evaluation, in case they “forget” it.

Showtime!

When you get to the actual (in-person or virtual) evaluation, remember: this is theater. So, be sure to let things go in the natural order. The reviewer will want to “set the stage,” by giving you her thoughts and assessment first. Take notes. Write down questions you don’t want to forget to ask.

Then, it’s your turn. Consider yourself the main act. For this part, rehearse ahead of time — a lot. Gain muscle memory so you don’t stumble or get nervous. Know how to get back on track if interrupted by a heckler (er, your boss!).

Rehearse phrases like, “Because I did this, the company experienced the following benefits and now I want to discuss next steps.” You won’t go through your entire brag memo, but definitely pick up on points that you don’t feel the evaluator touched upon.

Finally, take your bow. Finish your comments, if you can, with a sentence starting with, “I am indispensable to this organization, because …” Do your numbers top the leaderboard? Do you have relationships across the board internally and/or externally that can’t be replicated? Do you have a unique way of doing things that others can’t replicate?

Finally, some general takeaways:

  • Master the art of taking a compliment during the process. Don’t brush these off or credit anyone else. After all, performers love a spotlight and you are a performer.
  • Delivery matters! Exude palpable passion. You don’t have to be dramatic or emotional, but be alive, alert, enthusiastic yet also calm and logical. When I received performance evaluations as a young lawyer, they always asked, “what do you want to achieve in your career?” And I always began my answer with, “First of all, I want to make partner at this firm and retire here with a fully vested pension.”
  • Remember this is not a confrontation; rather, this is a conversation. Don’t be hostile or defensive.
  • Don’t let the evaluation be over until you are done (within reason). Be heard.
  • Never feel pressured to respond to a curveball question posed by the evaluator until you are ready. Take a breath. Take a day. Dive back in when you can be measured and logical. Even if you are given a deadline — trust me, you can say, “I will need a day longer than that” and the likely response will be “ok.”

I would love to hear from you if you have additional or different thoughts on this topic. My purpose with this piece (and future pieces) is to help you feel emboldened to speak up in every room (even a boardroom), advocate for yourself and participate actively in the management of your career.

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