Effective Living Tips

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