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How To Navigate The Mid-Year Review Meltdown

I've been getting anxious calls and emails from clients for the last couple of weeks, stressing out about what their reviews will say and what they will mean.

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It’s June, and a lot of associates are coming up on their mid-year reviews. I’ve been getting anxious calls and emails from clients for the last couple of weeks, stressing out about what their reviews will say and what they will mean.

Here’s a pro tip: Your review only means *what you make it mean.*

I know, I know. You’ve got a list of reasons that your review actually means a lot of very important and potentially terrible things! Bear with me.

It is true that your review may have implications for your work at your firm. If you aren’t meeting your billables, if there are complaints about your work, if the partners don’t think you’re responsive – all of that can impact what people at your firm think about you. For sure.

But here’s what you’re not realizing: All of that is just math. It’s just facts. It’s scary because of the catastrophizing thoughts you have about it.

Let’s take an example:

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If you didn’t meet your billables, you didn’t meet your billables. That’s a circumstance. It just exists in the world. There is a billables target, you billed fewer hours. That’s just math.

The reason you feel freaked out about that is because of your thoughts. Because of what you make it mean. Do any of these thoughts seem familiar?

They are going to fire me.

They are going to make me go part-time.

They are going to tell me that I’m not cutting it.

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If I can’t even make my billables how am I going to succeed?

I’m a failure.

I’m not a good lawyer.

Everyone else is making their billables, they must be better lawyers than me.

Everyone else is making their billables, the partners must like them more than me.

I’ll never make partner.

I won’t be able to get another job if I can’t make my hours.

Now I won’t get my bonus. What’s the point of even trying.

Any of those thoughts are going to create a feeling of anxiety and fear in you. And you’re probably having more than one of them!

The truth is, if you didn’t meet your billables, you didn’t meet your billables. It’s not the end of the world. And telling yourself that it is, and freaking yourself out, actually makes you LESS able to figure out strategies to solve the problem.

  • Maybe you need to figure out a way to get more efficient so you can use your time better and bill more of it, or have less of it discounted by the firm when you’re taking too long on a project.
  • Maybe you need to work on your confidence about asking for work or figure out how to get assignments from other partners or other practice groups.
  • Maybe you need to figure out a project that would benefit the firm that would count towards your time.

There are multiple solutions – these are just a few. I help clients improve their performance in these areas all the time, so I know it can be done. But when you’re telling yourself that you are going to get fired and you are a failure, you’re way to anxious to figure out any kind of solution.

Even feedback about how other people in the firm view you is just a neutral circumstance. It’s just those people’s thoughts.

One of the partners on your cases may think, for instance, that all emails should be answered in less than an hour. At any time of day or night. And if you actually sleep like a normal mammal, maybe part of your feedback will be that you’re not responsive.

Stressing out about that feedback is pointless. You need to sleep. This partner doesn’t, apparently. But that doesn’t mean that your job is in danger. Most mammals need to sleep at night, including all the other associates this partner has worked with. The partner very well may be displeased. But that doesn’t mean you have to believe their displeasure is proof that you’re a failure or can’t succeed. If everyone has to sleep, then sleeping isn’t going to get you fired, whether the partner is happy about it or not. It may just be like having a rock in your shoe that you can’t get out – it’s annoying but it’s not fatal and it doesn’t mean you can’t get where you’re going.  

Even significant and more reasonable criticisms are only upsetting because of what you make them mean. Let’s say you get feedback that you have a reputation for being difficult to work with. The best way to improve your reputation would be if you could calmly figure out a strategy for doing so and what specific aspects of your work style you could change. But you can’t do that when you’re freaking out – and if you tell yourself that you’re just a failure, you won’t be motivated to try.

Ultimately, the truth is, your review consists of two things: facts, and other people’s thoughts. Hours, money – those are facts. Feedback about your abilities or attitude – those are just other people’s thoughts that they are offering to you. You don’t have to believe they are true, and you definitely don’t have to make them mean that you are a failure and are going to end up living in a van under a bridge.

Whether it’s facts or other people’s thoughts, the solution is the same: Pick a thought that helps you feel calm and empowered to believe. That’s not just so you can feel better – it’s also so you can have clear vision to strategize about how to improve your performance and succeed. (And if you think you could use some help to figure that thought out, I offer one free mini coaching session each week. First come, first serve!)

Kara Loewentheil is a former litigator and academic who now runs a boutique life coaching practice for law students and lawyers. Intimately acquainted with the unique challenges lawyers face in their professional careers and personal lives, Kara teaches her clients cognitive-based techniques for dealing with stress, anxiety, and lawyer brain so that they can build the lives and careers they want. She is also the host of the only podcast that teaches lawyers concrete solutions to their unique lawyer problems, The Lawyer Stress Solution, available on iTunes. To download a free guide to taming your anxious lawyer brain, go to www.thelawyerstresssolution.com/guide.

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