Professional development series
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.
It’s natural to shy away from evaluations, judgment, risk of rejection and confrontations. A performance evaluation or performance review meeting with your manager certainly falls into this category. Most of us postpone or even avoid such conversations until it is too late. When we feel we are doing well, we don’t think we need to discuss it. When we feel we are not doing well, we avoid it. In both cases, we’re postponing the cure. The cure, of course, is to take command of your own performance and the management of your own career.
How do we take more ownership of our performance evaluation process? It’s my manager’s responsibility to review me, isn’t it?
This is an easy out. Although it is true that your manager evaluates you, your career and performance isn’t really your manager’s responsibility. Your manager has 10-12 people to manager (as well as his/herself). You are not his/her only concern. You, however, can devote the majority of your time on your professional career and development. You are the only one that can effectively influence your own performance.
Step 1: Take ownership of your own career.
Clearly articulate what you want in your career; what you would like to work on; the type of people you would like to team with; even the atmosphere and working environment. Once you can clearly and concisely articulate it, you can effectively convey it to others in your business network (See my articles on business networking in the professional environment for more tips on this; or subscribe to the weekly newsletter here)
Step 2) Understand how performance ratings are created.
There are at least two parts to the performance ratings. Part one is your individual contributions to the business goals. Most companies are in business to make money. Even when business mission statements announce client satisfaction and quality products as their primary goals; the underlining reason for retaining clients with quality products is so that customers will purchase more products (and/or refer others to purchase more products and services); which will create more sales and prosperity for the company.
Part two is how you compare to other employees in your same rank or band. Most organizations compare their employees (of the same rank or band) across departments. This is because most companies have a policy regarding how many people can get an Exceptional Rating, an Above Average Rating, an Average Rating, a Below Average and even a Needs Improvement Rating. For instance, they may have a percentage policy like 5%, 10%, 45%, 35%, 5% (respectively). This would require all the employees of a certain band or ranking to be compared, ordered and sorted. Once everyone is in sorted order, most companies will draw the line at the appropriate percentage. To do this, managers of the same level meet to discuss their employees and rank them in order. Therefore, the more managers in that room that knows you (in a positive light) the better. This is where your business networking strategies come into play. (See my articles on business networking in the professional environment for more tips on this; or subscribe to the weekly newsletter here)
Step 3: Declare your Personal Business Commitments upfront.
If you and your manager agree (up front) what is expected for an Average Rating, an Above Average, and Exceptional Rating, it’s much easier to achieve. This agreement is often called the PBC or Personal Business Commitment. It is what the metric in which the performance evaluation is cultivated. 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 writes the PBC? Does my manager or do I?
In the idea world, the PBC is a two-way street. Your manager would share his/her PBC goals with you. 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)
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/
If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/
The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1) Time management
2) Career maintenance
3) Business networking
4) Work life balance strategies
If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info