Be Honest With Yourself

• A self evaluation form allows you to evaluate yourself in the same categories and skills that your boss evaluates you in. Be honest when filling out the form. It will help you find areas that you are strong in, but also ones that you are weaker in and need improvement. Being honest with yourself will give you something to discuss with your manager during your review. You are doing yourself a disservice if you rate yourself as perfect in every skill and category, if you know that you struggle in some. Not only will you be unable to determine your own weaknesses, your manager might believe you didn't take the self evaluation form seriously.
  
  

Create An Action Plan

• When you determine there are areas that you need to improve in, come up with a way to improve in those areas. This is called an action plan. By creating an action plan, you can tell your supervisor during your review that you have recognized your weaknesses and have ideas on how to improve in those areas. This will allow you and your manager to work together to determine what the best path will be. By having a plan, you won't just have to accept what your boss has as a plan for you, instead you can offer your own input and gear it toward how you learn best. By having an action plan created before your meeting, your supervisor will also be able to see that you are serious about improving and that you showed initiative.
  
  

Prepare Yourself For Your Review With Your Supervisor

• Completing a self evaluation is done before a formal evaluation is done. When answering the skills and tasks section of your self evaluation, anticipate how your boss will view you at the same time. Write down notes as to why you rated yourself as you did in each category. When you have your formal review with your supervisor, this will give you something to refer to and discuss with her. If you disagree on a certain section of your review with how she evaluated you, you will already have your evidence to support your stance.