CYP: Performance Assessment and Identity Summary
Back in June, the CYPs (Christian Young Professionals) held a panel of ExxonMobil professionals to gather some Christian perspective on the Assessment process and how we, as Christians, should view it in the context of our identity. Below is a summary of the things that were discussed during the event - a series of great things for all of us to each keep in mind.
As Christians, our identity is being children of God, made in His image
Our identity is certain, even when we fail to live up to our identity daily
Before we knew Christ, our identity likely came from believing in the things that others have said are true about us (smart, strong, successful, etc.)
Many of us are Type A/performance driven and have experienced a lot of success in life, it may be easy to define our identity based upon our past performance. Yet at some point, we won't be successful, and we need to anchor on our identity in God to continue growing when we face failure
Being rooted in our value starts by spending daily and consistent time with God
It can be helpful to start off the day being rooted in God’s word (reading, worship, prayer, or quiet time) and pause in the middle of day to recenter ourselves on God
It is critical to remember our identity throughout our work, especially in the Performance Assessment Cycle. Our Performance Assessment Result doesn’t define our value. Our value comes from our identity as God's children
In God’s Kingdom, we have value because we are God's children; in a meritocracy we must prove our value
This tension between how God's kingdom and the workplace operates can make it difficult to remind ourselves of our identity and our identity can be muddied when we have labels put upon us via performance results
We no longer have to fear failure or rejection when we are confident in our value as God's children
God's love allows us to work confidently and bring our whole selves to work, removing fear and anxiety and replacing them with confident trust in our Father. When we do fail at work, God comforts us through His grace and supplies us with strength to continue and try again
We believe that God values our work and is in control of our work - His sovereignty extends over all of ExxonMobil and all the world
God calls us to do the best with the vocation that He has given us while leaving the outcome in His hands. This allows us to not fret about the highs & lows, and gives us confidence when we face challenging situations
Proverbs 13:4 - we're accountable to God for the way that we work. If we work in a lazy way then we don't represent Christ well
This isn't working diligently to climb the ladder for our own glory, but to work hard for God's glory
When facing hardship at work, remember that your work is for God and offer up your work in hardship as worship to God, loving God through your work
This diligent work through hardship can be a form of costly worship if it is done for God with thankfulness
Part of honoring God with our work means participating in the Performance Assessment process to the best of our ability
Listing your accomplishments is not bragging, but rather provides information so that supervisors can represent us accurately and fairly
Being humble doesn't mean downplaying the work that we've done - it means accurately representing our work with gratitude and thankfulness
Feedback is a gift that God uses to help us grow and mature as employees and as followers of Jesus
As Christians, we must be the first to acknowledge that we aren't perfect and to embrace the fact that we need to grow
We should humbly receive constructive feedback with thankfulness
There is never an appropriate time to be defensive when receiving feedback
Not all feedback is accurate or actionable, you can process feedback with God in prayer and with community to filter through feedback and determine what to act upon
God uses the performance assessment process in many ways to help us grow to be more like Jesus
We can learn to lean on God during our failures/challenges
We can learn to trust God to use events in our career to accomplish His will
We grow in faith that God will bring about the right opportunities in His timing, even when we don't agree with/understand the timing
We have the opportunity to encourage, love, and share our faith with others who receive challenging assessment results/feedback
As Christians, we can feel tension between how to "drive our own careers" while also trusting that our career is in God's hands
Keep trusting God's leading throughout your career and leverage the CCEM network to provide wisdom/guidance to you as you make career decisions