Performance Review Tips Every Project Manager Should Know

When I had my first performance review as a project manager, I didn’t really prepare for it. I was busy leading a project after all. As far as I was concerned, my tasks, successes, and failures were already clear to my manager and team. 

So when the performance review began, I didn’t have much to say. I used the word ‘we’ a lot, I glossed over my contributions, and I didn’t even talk about the skills I wanted to build. When I got constructive feedback about my leadership methods, I was empty handed without any data to back myself up.

I left my review feeling a little defeated. Of course, as soon as it was over, I remembered all of the different wins and contributions I’d made throughout the year that would have helped me stand out to my manager. 

Don’t do what I did! Instead, keep reading for tips on how to ace your next (or first) performance review as a project manager. 

Before Your Performance Review

Reframe Your Thinking 

When you think about performance reviews, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Raises? Bonuses? Promotions? Career advancement? 

Yes, all of these things can happen as the result of a performance review, but focusing on them will just make you more nervous in anticipation of the review.

If you have a performance review coming up, try to reframe it: Performance reviews are an opportunity to identify and reflect on the project management skills you’ve learned and strengthened. It’s also an opportunity to talk about the challenges and difficulties of your role (perhaps you need a different project management tool or a new project certification).

Is the project managing you?

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Understand Your Company’s Review Format

If this is your first performance review at your company, it’s important to understand what to expect. Every organization has its own approach. Some are informal, asking you to simply talk about your wins and challenges from the past year. Others are more formal and may even include a survey or template to guide the conversation. To clarify your organization’s approach, ask your manager:

• How will the conversation be organized? Is there a template the company uses to guide performance reviews? 
• Will the conversation be general to all employees, or specific for the project manager role? 
• If there is a self-review component, how will that information be used in the official performance review? 

You may also be working in an organization where skills are associated with different types of roles and levels in project management–and acquiring the skills for the next level can justify a promotion. Knowing the skills framework used by your organization will help you use the same vocabulary and lay out a roadmap of where you still need to develop.

Prepare Your Talking Points

You need to come to your performance review armed with facts:

• The number of people you lead
• The number of projects managed and delivered on time
• The reasons for delays or issues faced and the solutions
• The risks you managed
• The business value you provided
• Project budgets
• Customer impact
• Changes made

And don’t forget all of those additional activities project managers often find themselves contributing to as part of their role: onboarding, training, budget presentations, and conflict management. These activities encompass invaluable skills that you need to highlight and quantify in your performance review.

Ideally, you will have been populating an activity tracker (like a Google Doc or spreadsheet) throughout the year with this information. Of course, that’s easier said than done when you’re balancing a million other priorities. If you waited until the last minute to pull together this information, just remember to set aside a day or two to organize everything. 

One important part of this exercise is to gather feedback from your project team members and the stakeholders you work with. Your company may have a formal feedback process that will provide you with input. If not, there’s nothing stopping you from organizing an anonymous survey to ask people directly about your strengths and areas for improvement. 

During Your Performance Review

Go Beyond Project Delivery

During your review, when you’re asked about your “wins,” remember not to focus just on project delivery. The way you collaborate, communicate, and motivate your team are all important aspects that you should highlight.

I have worked with project managers who were competent but did not collaborate properly. They did not explain the vision or goals but presented things with no context and expected team members to deliver. You can be an excellent technical expert but not a great project manager. In your review, you need to make it clear that you’re both. 

Focus on “I” Not “we”

As project leaders, we’re nothing without our teams. The outcomes you achieve are the result of the collaboration of the team, but your performance review is about you. You can’t let your own contributions get lost in the collaboration. 

When talking about your team’s wins, don’t forget to answer the following questions: 

1. How did you help the project move forward? 
2. How did you help solve problems? 
3. How did you help your team members grow?

Don’t Dismiss Non-project Tasks

During your performance review, it can be easy to forget about the meaningful tasks you did throughout the year that weren’t part of your job description or performance goals. For example, you might have used your project management skills to help organize a successful event. Or maybe you spent time unofficially mentoring a newer project manager at your company. Or you presented a webinar about risk management in a project management community. These actions may not be part of your job description, but they are still representative of your skills and contributions. Don’t forget to mention them! 

After Your Performance Review

Keep The Conversation Going 

Performance reviews should not stop at the end of the discussion. Ideally you should have regular check-ins with your manager to discuss your performance and potential opportunities for growth. These often don’t happen due to lack of time, organizational culture, or the priority of projects. 

It’s okay to ask your manager for more of these conversations if they’re not planned. And if they’re resistant, don’t let it stop you from making an appointment with yourself to go through your wins, challenges, and progress on the objectives assigned at your last performance review. This is also a great way to make sure you don’t forget about your successes throughout the year in preparation for your official performance review.

Remember: this isn’t about nurturing your ego—it’s about nurturing your self-confidence and your career.

What's Next?

Performance reviews are important moments in your career as a project leader. It’s a moment where you learn about yourself—they deserve preparation and attention.

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