Have regular scheduled check-ins

Whether they’re weekly, fortnightly or monthly catch-ups, having a regular chance to check-in with your manager will allow you to keep on track of big picture tasks. You may chat to your manager every day, or when issues arise, but having an hour calved out to chat through other things that you might not bring up otherwise, is not only good for you, but also for your manager to provide feedback and ultimately help you succeed. ​

Continuous feedback

Feedback is not only helpful, but can keep us on track when working on projects, or help us improve the tasks we’re performing. Being able to get feedback in real-time on our skills or behaviour means we can implement it straight away, and not months after it was noticed. Don’t just wait for feedback – ask! Let your manager and colleagues know you’re always open to feedback.

Set goals

Having goals or objectives to work towards and complete is truly helpful in any job. Depending on your role, your goals may be project based, or target based, or both. Either way, goals help us have direction and work autonomously. And because you’ll hopefully be having regular scheduled catch ups, if you achieve a goal early, you can set new ones, or tweak existing goals if they’re no longer applicable or you’ve hit a roadblock. ​

More frequent check-ins may help us grow in our skills and develop in our roles. They give us the opportunity for more guidance and the space to ask questions. However, there’s still a place for the annual performance review, and if you have one coming up, it’s important you properly prepare for your performance review, even if you are having regular check-ins.