as appraisal fodder I am complete crap. I'd under-rate my performance by a wide margin, have no ambition - actually less than no ambition in that I'd resist job titles and resigned within weeks of being made Senior Associate and once more when offered the 'A' word.
On the other hand, I always enjoyed appraisals. They shone an uncomfortable light on the way I went about my job 'Leonardo says you make him cry every day - can you cut it down to once a week?' and 'would you please not kick the furniture quite so hard' (actually it was 'stop kicking the f**king furniture you c**t') being among the more tellling contibutions from my bosses. They offered a kind of perspective - occasionally humbling, but no worse for that. And I got to ask whatever questions I wanted - principally about whether or not the firm was going bust, and why we were wasting our time on jobs that were losing money. They were a neccessary way of clearing the air.
In the end the whole thing is simple. Are you making them money? Could somebody else make them more money? If you're not making them money what can you do to change that? These aren't questions they should be asking you - you should be asking them. If you're putting in the effort and they're not making money then they must have got it wrong. If you need to move with the times to make them more money and they're not explicit in where they want you to go, then they've got it wrong. If you want to move with the times to make them more money and they're not allowing you to do that, then they've got it wrong. A good appraisal is not a two way street - it's at the nexus between the immanent critique and terrorism. Go for it!