If you are going to mention where you need improvement, it is very important to include how you are going to improve. This is similar to asking what is your weakness. If you mention a weakness, show them what steps you are taking to improve in that area. Finally, you must be certain it is ok to expose an area for improvement. I don't recommend doing this on your first review. After the first review, you will have a better idea if it will help to critique yourself.

"I feel I need to be more technical. I realized how important it is to know different computer applications. In order to improve, I have researched some classes I can take, and I even bought a couple of books. In the next 3 months, I am going to concentrate on learning these new tools."

This is a good answer because it shows the manager that you are capable of finding your own faults. It also has a step by step process with a timeline on how you are going to improve.

Timeline is important because it shows that you are not going to procrastinate. If someone says, I'm going to read this book, you don't know when they are going to read it. It is much better when someone says they will read this book within 2 weeks.

Here is one more example.

"An area I would like to improve is in planning. I plan all my work and I complete everything on time, but I feel if I do a better job at planning, I can be more efficient with my time. In order to work on this, I created a checklist of everything I should think about before starting a project. Using this checklist will make me think of potential obstacles that I wouldn't normally think about, verify that I am not forgetting something, and keep me on track to complete ahead of time. I am going to do this and see how much it improves my efficiency for the next 2 projects. Afterwards, I'll report how much it helped or didn't help."