An employee evaluation presents an opportunity for you and your supervisor to discuss your performance goals and touch base on your professional career objectives. Most employee evaluations include a component in which you have the opportunity to rate your own opinion of your performance. While it may be tempting to give yourself all high marks, the evaluation process is only effective if you make an honest assessment of yourself.

Be Realistic

Be truthful in your assessment, both with your strengths and your weaknesses. This is a chance to look for ways to improve your performance while simultaneously building on your strengths and successes. If you give yourself a high rating in a category, include a recommendation for yourself of how you can continue to improve even more in that area. Likewise, if you think there are performance areas that need improvement, rank yourself accordingly and jot down suggestions for how you might go about bettering those skills in the future.

Look at External Factors

In many professions, your performance is not necessarily a direct result of your own personal efforts. Chances are, you work in collaboration with colleagues on team projects or rely on others to supplement aspects of your position. In ranking yourself in these areas, make notes of helpful external influences as well as outside factors that need improvement. For example, you may find your secretary is a valuable asset when it comes to keeping you organized and on-task, but you may find an underperforming salesperson under your tutelage to be a deficiency that requires you to put in extra time and effort beyond the scope of your regular responsibilities.

Evaluate Goals

Most employees set specific goals at the start of a new assessment period. In your self-evaluation, track your progress toward stated goals and evaluate how well you've performed. If goals were easy to meet and surpass, you might not have been challenging yourself. If they were difficult and you failed to meet the majority of objectives, reassess how attainable your goals were and what factors contributed to your inability to meet them. This will help you set more effective goals in the future.

Measure Management

Your direct supervisor plays a role in your success or failure in the office. In ranking your own performance, consider the role your boss plays and make notes about helpful behaviors as well as areas that need attention. For example, you may have a boss who is available to troubleshoot, brainstorm and be supportive of your new initiatives. On the other hand, if your boss is disorganized, difficult to communicate with and provides poor feedback, that could negatively impact your performance. Make note of ways in which you can strengthen your relationship with your manager to improve overall office functions.