When self-evaluating, you can examine your work and get a better look at what you did and how you can improve in the future.

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory

Abraham Tesser created a well-known self-evaluation maintenance theory in 1988 when he described his Self-Evaluation Model (SEM).

This model has two main assumptions:

• People try to maintain or increase their self-esteem because they want to feel good about themselves.
• People are influenced by their relationships. They will try to choose the types of people they want to be associated with and compare themselves to. Their self-esteem will improve if the people around them are successful, as they will also be associated with them.

These concepts can be helpful in the workplace as it can improve employees' self-esteem.

In both examples above, people who are part of a specific team or the organization feel better about themselves because they can be associated with those successes.

Suppose you are a team leader in a company and would like to apply this principle to your benefit. In that case, you can increase your employee's job satisfaction by promoting some of your team's success. People that are part of your team will be proud of it and will love to be associated with it. It can motivate them to continue their excellent work.

Fig. 1 - Employee self-evaluation

Purpose of Self-Evaluation

The primary purpose of self-evaluation is to improve and get better. It can help you become more self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses, which can help you tackle specific tasks. It's one thing if someone is telling you to improve on a particular area, but it is another if you can see it by yourself, as it can positively impact your performance over the long term.

There are many advantages to practicing self-valuation in an organization:

• People can feel more engaged as they have the opportunity to assess their work, progress, and the impact they have in their organization.
• Employees can improve their emotional intelligence as this exercise improves people's self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses.
• Employees become more accountable for the mistakes they make.
• It can help managers and leaders better understand how employees perceive their work and results.

Employee Self-Evaluation

It has become increasingly popular for organizations to conduct self-evaluation exercises for their employees. Whether you have to complete a self-evaluation for a specific task or your working contribution during a particular period, you can use the following guidelines to help you conduct a good self-evaluation exercise.

Determine your purpose

The first step of your self-evaluation process is determining its purpose and what you would like people to think of yourself after reading it.

Are you trying to show what impact you had on the organization? Are you trying to determine what went well and wrong on a project? Given the situation and available resources, are you trying to prove that you did a great job? Are you trying to justify a decision you took?

Determining the purpose of your self-evaluation is crucial as it will define the content you will write in your self-evaluation.

Gather information & data

The second step of your self-evaluation is to gather data that will allow you to evaluate your performance.

Whatever the type of self-evaluation is, you will need to gather information about your successes and failures during the year, what went well and what didn't. During the self-evaluation process, you will need to highlight why it was a success or a failure. Then, you will have to come up with a concrete example and be ready to explain them.

Refer to your goals

During your self-evaluation process, it is also essential to determine if you have reached your goals. You need to explain why you have accomplished or failed your objective.

Summarize your takeaways

Once you have completed your self-evaluation, you need to summarize your takeaways and what you have learned to ensure that you won't make the same mistakes again.

Self-Evaluation Examples

Let's take a concrete example of a self-evaluation process:

One salesperson has to make a self-evaluation regarding their annual performance.

Determine your purpose

This evaluation aims to show that the salesperson achieved their target but also outperformed their goal.

Gather information & data

The salesperson managed to secure 600.000$ in annual sales, being in the top 3 salespeople in the company.

The salesperson also managed to create promising new business relations with a new potential customer that could bring a new contract worth 200.000$.

Unfortunately, they also failed to finalize a contract worth 100.000$ during the year because their pricing wasn't competitive.

Refer to your goals

The sales target for the year was 500.000$. Therefore the salesperson managed to outperform this target by 20%.

Summarize your takeaways

• The salesperson managed to outperform the yearly sales target by 20%.

• The salesperson managed to create a promising new business partnership.

• They must be careful in pricing as they could lose potential new customers.

A self-evaluation exercise is a great tool that can help people gain self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, but also improve their performance over time.