Secrets to Taking Command of Your Own Performance Review Part II
This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
In the recent interview with Steve Wynkoop (founder of SSWUG.org) we covered some tips to taking more control of our own performance evaluation process (don’t miss another professional newsletter tip—signup for the free newsletter here). This article covers the topic in more detail.
Last interview and article, we quickly mentioned the Personal Business Commitment tool as a great way to communicate your goals and commitments to your manager. But what makes up a Personal Business Commitment plan? Who creates it? Who approves it? How does it fit in the performance rating process?
Let’s take these questions individually.
What makes up a Personal Business Commitment plan?
The PBC contains a list of high-level business goals (typically handed down from the executive and management ladder). The goals could be similar to:
1) Increase sales by 50% by year end
2) Retain 100% current clients and increase 10% of new client
3) Release at least 3 new high-quality, in-demand products/service by year end
4) Reduce incoming Customer Complaints by 50%
5) Resolve 100% of critical and high-level complaints with 72 hours of issue.
6) Resolve backlog of customer complaints by 75%
Once you have your manager’s business commitment goals, you can draft your personal business goals to support them.
Also create an IDP (Individual Development Plan) to accompany your PBC. This plan will outline how you intend to stay up-to-date on the new technology and critical business skills. Include any intentions for external professional coaching, internal mentoring programs, job-sharing opportunities, conference attendance, etc. Make sure your IDP ties in with your PBC and your manager’s PBC goals.
The intent is to have a blueprint for the year. If you know where you are heading, it’s much easier to get there.
My upcoming “Taking Command of Your Performance Review” Workshop will go into detail on this topic. It’s a three-hour workshop (75 minutes of presentation content and 90 minutes of actual hand-on coaching of the provided worksheets). At the end of the workshop, you will have a customized PBC and IDP started.
For more information on this critical workshop, see https://www.lauraleerose.com/take-command-of-your-performance-reviews/
Who creates it?
In the idea world, the PBC is a two-way street. Your manager would share his/her PBC goals with you (which he/she created from their manager’s PBC and so forth up the ladder). Then you would create your PBC and commit to your SMART goals that will support your manager in his/her goals. Your Business Commitments are just that; commitments to the business to make the business prosperous and successful. (See my articles on always ‘thinking like the owner’ for more tips on this; or subscribe to the weekly newsletter here)
If your manager hasn’t created his/her PBC goals, initiate a one-on-one discussion. Request a meeting in which the sole purpose is to walk out with a set of PBC goals in which tie your PBC.
Who approves it?
Both you and your manager collaborate and approve it. It requires both signatures. Often times, the manager would then have his/her manager sign-off on it as well. It is critical that you have it documented and signed, because a change of manager often occurs. If this documented and signed, you can have something to refer to with the new manager.
How does it fit in the performance rating process?
Once this is created and approved, it becomes a living document. Every time a directive or project is changed, review your PBC to see if the document is still accurate. If your management chain is altered, review your PBC with your new manager to see if the document is still accurate. If you title, roles and responsibilities change, review your PBC to see if the document is still accurate.
Take the initiative to schedule quarterly performance progress reviews with your manager. Use your PBC as the agenda for those critical meetings and request frequent one-on-one meetings in the interim. The more performance-based meetings you conduct with your manager, the less anxiety the yearly review will
Conclusions:
Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare for your performance review. Consider everything that you do in the work environment as input into your performance evaluation process. Keep an achievement folder to continually collect your accomplishments (until waiting until the last minute to remember them). Read the follow-up articles in this series for more information. Or better yet; attend the workshop at https://www.lauraleerose.com/take-command-of-your-performance-reviews/