Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category

Weekly Performance Reviews vs Annual Performance Reviews

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

What’s more effective to creating better performing among employees?  Annual Performance Reviews?  Or Weekly Performance Reviews?

Well, lets see.  If I have to wait one year before I find out how well I’m doing from my boss, and I happen to be doing a crappy job at work, I’d rather not have to wait a full year to find out that I’m not doing well.  I’d rather find out after a week. 

If I get a weekly performance review, at least I can find out after the first week to make changes to do a better job for the other 51 weeks of the year.

So what do you do if your company only has annual performance reviews (ie you have to wait a full year before you find out if you are doing a good job or a bad job?  Well, here is what I do:

1.  I book recurring weekly appointments with myself  on Microsoft Outlook.  Once this reminder alerts me, I stop what I’m doing, get up and walk over to my boss’ office and wait for him to have a brief “informal” meeting leveraging the “open door” policy.

2.  When i get my boss’ attention, I ask him how things are going?  And then I ask him simply if there is anything I can do to improve what I’m doing to make sure I meet.  I will say something like, “Hey Rob, I’m working on such and such…..  Do you think there’s anything I can do to make sure I’m focusing on the right things.  Is there anything more I can do to make sure I’m working on the key objectives that you need”?

This is my sure fire way of making sure I’m working on the right things at the right time for my boss.  If there are any inconsistencies, at least I can find out within the week and make adjustments if I need it.

Happy working! 

Photo by epistemographer

How To: How To Get into the Zone

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Huge Difference Between Busy and Productive

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

I happened to read about a blog by Brad Bollenbach at http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/12/16/busy-vs-productive/

Its an interesting perspective.  Here’s a breakdown on his perspective.

Busy

Productive

Rolls their own  Uses someone else’s 
Makes it “elegant” and “extensible”  Makes it work 
Responds to your email within a few minutes  Responds to your email within a few days 
Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Ready. Fire. Aim. 
Makes the boss happy Makes the client happy 
Seeks consensus  Encourages creative self-expression 
Writes a detailed specification Implements a prototype
Looks like they’re busy Looks like they’re slacking off 
Finishes it this evening   Finishes it tomorrow 
What else can we add?  What else can we remove?
How should we fix this?  Do we need to fix this? 
Sees the toolchain as a competitive advantage  Sees the user-kickassness as a competitive advantage 
Let’s get everyone’s feedback on this  DO IT 

I really like each and every point he makes.  It is so common for us to overcomplicate things whether its at work or at home.  At work, while working as an architect, I find it always so seductive to build the “perfect” system.  In my earlier years, I would happily pull all nighters just to make the bloody thing work beautifully.  Years later, I now realize I can get the same effect by just focusing a few short hours on the task at hand to get it functional.  The ironic thing is that spending more time doesn’t necessarily mean that I come up with a better system then if I were to fix myself to a limited amount of time.