I just ran across a great blog entry by John Porcaro, a Microsoft Group Marketing Manager. He has some great ideas about writing your performance review - specifically the self-review. His key points and advice should make anyone who participates in a formal review process want to click on over and get his recommendations.

His article contains the details, but the outline of his advice is:

• Take time to reflect
• Think of your review as a living resume
• Be thorough
• Go with metrics
• Make it about YOU
• Don’t worry too much about missing an agreed-upon deadline
• Don’t forget the “extra credit”
• If there’s something negative to say, bring it up yourself
• Sometimes mistakes can be the best thing
• Realize that half the equation is perception
• Don’t sweat the review
• Ask your manager to edit some of their negative comments
• Don’t put it off until the last minute

Employee reviews can be (and when done well, are) a very useful tool, and present a real and valuable structured opportunity to learn what the next stage of growth is in our careers. It's important to place a level of import on your part of the review process that shows how important your career is to you, especially if you want others to take your career as seriously as you do.