Career GPS by Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell PhD

Author:Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, PhD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW SURVIVAL GUIDE

I asked two of my most trusted advisors and colleagues to provide some practical strategies for getting the most out of the review process. Dr. Stella Nkomo, professor of management at the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership and coauthor of my first book, Our Separate Ways, and Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, offer this advice.

Lay the groundwork. Most women (most men, too) skip the vital ingredient for getting a thorough and fair review: laying the groundwork. It’s surprising how many employees have no idea that this is necessary and even less of a clue of how to do it. Here’s the secret: at least a year before your first review—generally when you’re first hired—you must find out what’s expected of you, how success is measured, what your goals are, and what resources you’ll have to accomplish them. You must get this clearly spelled out and agreed upon. This is your performance plan. It’s also crucial that you find out how your boss defines excellence. Don’t assume you know! And don’t assume your manager is going to lay this out for you. You may have to draft your plan and then get him or her to approve it.

For instance, if you’re responsible for a sales function, you need to know what your benchmark is. What’s expected in terms of numbers for the next quarters? If you’re in R & D, what’s expected of you in the area of innovation? You, your supervisor, and the other members of the team must be clear about the targets, the time frame, and the metrics—how performance is measured.

Then, when your review rolls around, it’ll be there in black and white. No drama, just the facts: This is what we agreed that I would do, this is how I planned to do it, this is what I did, and here are the results. Either you succeeded and got results or you didn’t.

Of course, make sure you are performing! If you’re more junior, you need to be clear that you’re not doing anything to get in the way of either your team’s or your manager’s success. You must be meeting your deadlines, gathering the correct data, doing analysis in a crisp, clear way, bringing new ideas to the team, and communicating them clearly and coherently. Always consider ways to learn, grow, and stretch. Keep in mind where you want your career to go and the key assignments that will move you ahead.

If you’re more senior, you should be setting the tone for your group and creating a vision for your team. Think big picture.

Be clear that the goals you set for yourself are valued by the organization. This is important to think about as you lay the groundwork.

In the past, the annual review compared what you did with the duties spelled out in your job description. But the era of the job description is over. The new business environment is dynamic, competitive, and volatile, which makes a job description too static.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.