As a consultancy firm with offices across the globe, we’re no strangers when it comes to working remotely. Virtual meetings, file transfers, online gatherings and celebrations were all part of our business as usual approach. Yet, during the recent months, we’ve got to reconsider and re-invent our approach multiple times to accommodate for the constant changes brought on by Covid 19.
As we are almost 6 months into the “new norm”, looking back, we can confidently say that what made the difference for our organisation, was the determination of each and every person, to step up and own their performance through good and bad days.
Managing your own performance is a practice applicable irrespective where you are working from (home or the office) and regardless if you’re an employee or a freelancer. Here are a few thoughts and ideas on what you can do immediately to start owning and managing your performance as well:

1. Review & Reflect
   At the beginning of a new important task or project, take a moment to reflect on past experiences to build on the lessons learned. While performing the task or in the middle of the project, take a step back and go through a quick check of what has been achieved so far, how you’ve achieved that, what was missed or delayed and what were the highlights of your work.  And finally, upon completing an important task or project, take the time to review the overall experience and outcomes. It doesn’t have to be a complicated, time consuming process, but rather a quick, reflection and review time slot that you consistently put aside for this specific purpose.
   
   
2. Seek Feedback
   We’ve all heard the now famous phrase “Would like to share with you some feedback” and, generalizing, what comes after this is more of constructive feedback being offered as a result of something going wrong. So, instead of waiting for feedback to be provided, consider seeking it proactively and regularly so that you can further build on your performance. Again, keep it simple and consistent. It can be an informal conversation with your colleagues, manager, peers, subordinates asking them “How can I better support you?” or “What would you like me to do more?”. The answers will provide valuable insights, implicit and explicit, on how others perceive your efforts and performance.
   
   
3. Be honest with yourself
   Managing your own performance starts with determination, commitment and honesty towards yourself. List your achievements periodically, writing them down on an email or a piece of paper. After a couple of days go over the list and critically evaluate what was an actual achievement and success. Take some time to celebrate your success and talk about your little “victories” with your manager. Being able to articulate what you have achieved is not the same as bragging. It’s actually a sign of professional maturity. Equally, take time to list the things that you could have done or approached differently. There are always things we could have done better and being able to pin point them, having them within our awareness, provides us with a way of consistently improving ourselves and our performance.

Traditional performance reviews, taking place 3 times a year, are nowadays a thing of the past. We are constantly changing priorities and learning so many new things, consciously or unconsciously, so managing our own performance is an essential part of our professional life.