What makes up a Personal Business Commitment plan? Who creates it? Who approves it? How does it fit in the performance rating process?
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.
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.
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)
What does a PBC look like?
It can be as simple as stating what you plan to do to support your manager in his/her goals. Clear state your business intentions in SMART language (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound). Plan ahead as you write your goals. Identify some Reasonable Forcing Functions and accountability partners to help you accomplish these goals. For more information on Reasonable Forcing Functions and accountability partners, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
Example could be:
- ¡ Be an effective leader in the organization by promoting the goals of XXX
- Grow the XXX Program from its infancy stage and gain recognition from executives
- Deliver quality programs in an on-time, and in effective manner which validates the design and market suitability.
- Manage and lead others in their efforts toward the PBC goals
- Continue to drive a more effective use of our tools in-house.
- Have a positive influence on revenue associated with XX products
It’s also important that you keep track of your own progress. Don’t depend upon your manager to remember everything that you are doing or are accomplishing. Don’t even depend upon your memory at the time of your performance review. Keep a running Accomplishment Folder throughout the year. Keep your Professional Press Kit and resume up to date with your transferable skills, technical certifications, publications, patents, etc. For more business coaching on these things, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series or contact mailto:LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info
Keep an open communication with your manager. Initiate quarterly performance review meetings with your managers, mentors and coaches. Facilitate frequent status one-on-one meetings with your manager. The more frequent your performance-based meetings are, the less daunting they will become. You and your manager’s goals are the same: To Achieve Your Business Commitments. And since your PBCs support your manager’s PBCs; your success is also his success.
What is an IDP?
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/
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