Looking back to leap forward: how to run a Seasonal Review
Recognise the great things you've done and take charge of your future. Plus a free, downloadable template to help you get started.
I was blown away by the response to my piece last week on how hard it can be to recognise our achievements - thank you to everyone who shared the post or sent a message. I realised I still had a lot to say on this topic and, more importantly, had an approach to share that others may find helpful.
I ended up writing so much that I’m splitting the piece into two parts - today’s is on the why and the what, and includes a Seasonal Review pdf template which you can use straight away. Next week I’ll share some more pointers on how to put the template into action.
If there’s interest, I’d also be happy to run a ninety-minute workshop to provide some space and guidance for filling out the template, together. If this is something that would interest you, let me know via the poll below, or in the comments, and we’ll make it happen 👏
👩🔬 This is the first time I’ve experimented with sharing my knowledge in such a practical way, and I’d love your feedback on it. Do you find this kind of content helpful? Are there other areas you struggle with you’d like me to write pointers on? Let me know via the comments.
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Review time is about to kick off at Tyk, one of two months in which our calendars get even more squeezed to within an inch of their life than the usual.
I love having this extended time with my team, celebrating what they’re proud of, learning about what makes them tick, and, yes, priming myself for feedback on how I can support them better. But when it comes to making it happen, it’s not all plain-sailing.
Not only do you have the review sessions to fit in alongside your Business As Usual, but all the pre- and post-admin required: filling in the forms about your team member, crafting a personalised action plan after the session, and then doing it all again for our own personal review. And that’s not including all the reflection time needed. It’s not helped by the fact I also like to set two per team member: one for general discussion and one for goal-setting.
It would be easy for us, as a fast-growing scale-up working in a tough market to reduce the time we spend as a company on Reviews. God knows everyone feels the time-pressure of them, across the board. We could even reduce down from twice a year (March and November) to one Review period.
The reason we don’t? Because we categorically know that holding Reviews is the right thing to do, for our team but also selfishly for Tyk. Though ostensibly we slow down for a month, this reflection period always (always) speeds up our growth, leaving our teams feeling listened to, supported, and with a co-created action plan for their next six months.
Reviews may always feel like a chore, but they’re useful to everyone involved - they give us space to reflect on our achievements and forward-plan our next steps. Reflecting on the response to the piece last week, I realised that I overlooked a critical tool for reflecting on my own accomplishments: the Seasonal Review.
The Seasonal Review is an exercise I do at least once a year, usually in December, with a revisit in September. It’s separate to my Tyk review and, in its simplest form is a way of applying the components of a typical company ‘annual review’ to our own, sprawling lives.
Today and next week I will be sharing how to run your own Seasonal Review, so you can learn from the processes I lean on, and leap forward towards your life and career goals.
What is a Seasonal Review?
A Seasonal Review is what it sounds like: a period of time set aside in your calendar to evaluate your last ‘season’, and consider the one ahead. I use season because it’s different for everyone: maybe it’s annual, maybe it’s monthly, or quarterly? The most important thing is that it gets done!
A Seasonal Review can take any format you like (though to speed things up I’ll share a template you can download to use yourself, below). The most important thing is that the format encourages reflection on:
What went right last year?
What went wrong last year?
What energises you?
What depletes your energy?
What are you curious about for the year ahead?
What do you want more of in your life?
What motivates you?
What are your stretch goals?
A Seasonal Review is first and foremost for you and you only, but you can use the findings in various different ways.
Why should I do it?
Depending on your circumstances you may be thinking ‘why bother?’ Maybe you’re at a company who already bakes in a regular review period, like Tyk does. Or maybe it feels like a period of reflection is a luxury you can’t afford, if you’re a freelancer who needs to focus on finding the next job right now, or a Mum or Dad taking time off to focus on the most demanding boss of all: a two year old.
Whatever your circumstances, and whether you are working for someone else, yourself, or taking time out of the workforce, I really recommend you make time for this exercise, for different reasons.
If you’re working for a company
If you’re working for a company (who may already do reviews), doing this exercise will leave you ready to face the real conversation at work.
Just like you’d ideally never do a job interview at your dream job without a few practices, it’s not ideal to turn up to a review with your line manager not having done any thinking about how to approach it. And not because it ‘looks bad’, but because you drastically limit your ability to advocate for yourself and your needs, whether you’re after a promotion, or support with chasing a new career direction.
But don’t just use this exercise to give you confidence in your work review. An important part of the Seasonal Review is to assess how your work-life is currently fitting into your overall life-life. Is it supporting the wider goals you have? Is it bringing you energy and fulfilment or leaving you exhausted when it’s time to embrace your other projects? Completing a Seasonal Review will help to give you a sense of how much balance you have across components of your life.
If you’re working for yourself
Building your own business can be rewarding and energising, but it can also be hard to keep ploughing on. Whilst many freelancers or self-employed may not miss the structure of traditional companies nor overbearing bosses, they can miss (even if they don’t realise it) the regular feedback they get from working with a team. They also can feel the absence of someone out their advocating for them and their needs that comes with a good line manager.
Freelancing can be a lonely place, and with the stress of building something by yourself the months can whizz by. I’ve lost count of my freelance friends who have confessed to me they feel stagnant, or who are worrying about their achievements compared to their peers. I’ve always advised they do their own review, at least once a year, comparing what they achieved this year compared to their goals.
Maybe it’s been a hard year, but they’re working on projects that are more meaningful to them? It’s often a hard slog, but is it a hard slog that’s taken you in the direction you wanted to go? A Seasonal Review is critical for helping the self-employed recognise the strides they’ve made, and figuring out where urgent change is needed to the course they’re on.
If you’re taking time out of the workforce
Whatever the reason you’re taking time out of the traditional workforce, it can also be a lonely place. It’s easy to get sucked into the capitalist notion that we are what we produce for cash.
Even if you’re not feeling those thoughts (maybe you feel in your bones that you are exactly where you need to be for this stage of your life), a Seasonal Review is useful exercise for determining why that is so you can keep a good thing going! If you’re out of the workforce involuntarily it’s a great exercise to note down achievements that you can bring into your job hunt (volunteering, creative pursuits, care-giving).
And finally, if you’ve taken time out to look after others younger or older than you, it can remind you of what joy and fulfilment you get from this whilst teasing future possibilities that align with your hopes and dreams (‘what direction might I like to go in for the next chapter?’)
Convinced? Let’s get started.
Your very own Seasonal Review: A free download to help get you started
I wasn’t kidding when I said ‘let’s get started’. I believe in this exercise so much that I’ve gone ahead and created a template for you to download and run with. No excuses!
My Scrambled Eggs Seasonal Review template covers the key questions I believe you should answer each time you’re reviewing the season past and the season ahead. Reflection questions are designated with a moon, and future-forward questions are represented by a rising sun.
All the questions are based on ones I use myself when doing my own Seasonal Review, and are formulated thanks to heaps of work, time and investment in refining this process. And a lot of trial and error!
How to use the template: a quickstart guide
Using the template is as easy as downloading it and filling it in! You can open the document in a PDF viewer and add your answers from there, but I still like to have a printed copy to doodle on as I tackle each question.
And though the template gives you boxes to write your answers in, don’t feel limited by them. You can use the template as a starting point from which to explore, doodling along the way, or use it to write up your key discoveries after a morning spent reviewing and brainstorming. This is your review to run however you think works best.
Likewise, how you frame the responses you write down will - and should - also vary depending on the focus in your life right now. I’ll generally do this exercise in December looking at my life as a whole (with work being just one part), but I will also run through similar questions when I prep for my work reviews in March and November. I also like to revisit the previous December’s review in September, as we near the end of the year.
When I use the review questions for work, I focus the ‘world’ of my season in what I can achieve at the workplace, even if the impact on my life will be wider (e.g. My life review might say I want more work-life balance, so my work review will need to factor that into my career goals). Similarly, if I’m looking to get a promotion I will make the impact and achievement sections very specific to my work-life (e.g. % revenue generated, 2 new clients onboarded, etc) which can help move the needle on any career discussions.
You can really stretch this template to work for a variety of situations, and of course add questions or concepts that help you in your own planning. One element I like to add on for my New Year edition is a ‘word of the year’, where I choose a theme to come back to throughout the year. Last year’s was ‘expansion’, this year was ‘deepen’.
And don’t forget: where, when and even how you tackle this review session can make all the difference. For that reason, we’ll be dedicating next week’s post to that topic. If you’re not already signed up, drop your email to be alerted once it’s out.
Additional resources
I’m lucky enough to have benefitted from the support of many mentors and coaches over the years. Their advice, wisdom and (sometimes hard!) questions have played a huge role in guiding my journey and leading me to create these processes and rituals in my life. If you’re also looking for some external support I wholeheartedly recommend their practices, articles and social media channels.
Dr Yasmine Haivodici [website]
Kristin Gracie, The Renaissance Woman Project [website], [instagram].
The U.C.U programme [mentoring programme, part of Tyk career development]
Do you already bake time into your year for evaluation and goal-setting? I’d love to know what your process is, or any questions that help you find lightbulb moments. Let me know via the comments below.
this is so immensely useful and inspirational, I love it