Be Upfront About Your Goals

In this lesson, we emphasize the importance of sharing our performance goals openly with our EM so they can effectively advocate for us during performance reviews, which are human-driven, subjective, and highly dependent on manager alignment.

• We highlight that performance ratings are not generated by an objective system (i.e. they’re decided by people), so managers need clear insight into what rating we’re aiming for to advocate properly.
• We stress that “no negative feedback” does not mean we’re on track for a good rating or promotion; assuming this is one of the most common and costly mistakes ICs make.
• We reinforce that 1:1s are the central place to share our target rating or promotion timeline, whether we’re aiming for “meets,” “exceeds,” or a promotion, so we can then build a plan with our EM.
• We note that even if our goal is simply to maintain solid performance (e.g., a 3/5), we should still say so explicitly to avoid slipping into a low rating unexpectedly.
• We share a story illustrating how unchecked assumptions about performance can lead to disappointment—and how early, honest conversations could provide clarity and opportunities to improve.