18 | Write Your Own Performance Review Before Your Boss Does

Most people sit and wait to be evaluated. They walk into their review hoping their manager remembers the right things and then spend the whole conversation reacting instead of leading. This episode changes that. I walk you through how to use AI to build a complete performance review system — from capturing your wins throughout the year to drafting a self-review that positions you for the rating you actually deserve. You'll learn how to build a quarterly capture habit that takes thirty minutes and gives you twelve months of organized, impact-framed accomplishments by review season. I show you how to turn a raw list of things you did into a narrative your manager can retell in calibration meetings, how to use AI to spot patterns and themes in your work that you can't see yourself including growth areas you name first so they don't surprise you in the room. You'll get the exact prompt to draft a complete self-review using your company's actual template, plus a working mom add-on that frames parental leave as context, never a caveat. And I share how to prepare questions that steer the review conversation toward your strongest contributions and your future trajectory. Plus, in this week's Ask AI segment, I take the question "I do great work but I'm terrible at talking about it" and reframe self-promotion as impact documentation with a prompt that shows you the gap between how you describe your work and how it reads when framed with confidence. What's mentioned in this episode: 🎯 Free Download: The Performance Review Prompt Kit — every prompt from this episode, fill-in worksheets, a before-and-after tracker, and a six-week review season timeline: lakeshaholloway.com/career 📝 Take the AI Confidence Quiz: aiconfidenceblueprint.com/workingmomquiz 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Parent AI Readiness Scorecard: aiconfidenceblueprint.com/scorecard If this episode hit home, share it with one working mom who's been undervalued at review time. And leave a review — it helps other moms find the show.