Second Cup: You can win the year in October

0:03Speaker 1:Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that you can win the year in October. People tend to best remember what happened recently, so you can use that insight to your advantage. I know a lot of organizations do annual reviews toward the end of the calendar year. You sit down with your manager or you sit down with your direct reports and talk about people's successes and opportunities for growth or whatever your euphemism happens to be. Theoretically, an annual review is supposed to be just that, annual. What happened in February matters as much as what happened in October. But let's be real.

1:03Speaker 1:How much of February do you remember come November? Unless you kept meticulous notes and go back and really relive those experiences, the answer is probably not much. Whereas the project you just finished is fresh in your mind, it is naturally going to feel bigger than whatever happened in the past. So if that is the case, If you would like to shine in this year's annual review, you need a big win to happen shortly before the review. If you get reviewed in November or December, that means you can win the year in October. So think about how you would like to be seen. What story can you tell about yourself and your contributions? What could you do over the next few weeks to reinforce the story that you would like to tell about yourself? Maybe you landed a huge new client in February. To reinforce the story that you are someone who lands new work, you can talk about that and all the additional work this client has brought in since then, but then also show what you have done in October to reach out to similarly large potential clients. the big game hunter story now has multiple points of evidence. She didn't just kill a

2:31Speaker 1:mastodon in February that we have been eating ever since. She is the kind of person who will kill another mastodon, too. Or maybe you've got a track record of having very little turnover on your team. Perhaps you also lost a team member in September, which totally happens. Rather than risk that being the story, In October, you do some new initiative to help your people shape their careers within your organization. Now they've all got the story of how proactive you are.

3:05Speaker 1:And that is the story that they will tell to your evaluator. You can win the year in October on the personal front, too. Maybe you set a New Year's resolution to get in better shape. Maybe, for whatever reason, that didn't happen. But if you start working out with a trainer twice a week in October, you are still going to remember this as the year you took a major step for your physical health. It doesn't really matter that it didn't happen until Q4. So think about how you would like to portray this year. What would make it feel successful in the eyes of your employer and in your own eyes, too? My guess is that you could do something in October to reinforce the story that it was a good year. And when you do, since it happened close to the time that we tend to reflect on the year, this will be what you remember.

4:10Speaker 1:Everything else just seems far in the past. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening. And here's to making the most of Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.