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Evaluate Everything You Do
In relative terms, your life is but a snapshot in time. As you go through life, it is filled with things you did, people you met, places you visited, all sorts of experiences good and bad. You owe it to yourself personally and professionally to gain insight and knowledge from what you’ve done and seen.
The problem is that in many cases people of responsibility tend to collect information or data but take little time to analyze what they have before them. That is often the case because we think we don’t have the time, we don’t take the time, or we simply don’t care. What a shame.
We invest in research and develop plans as a result of the fact-finding we have done. We even communicate what we intend to do to implement those plans. We tend to get so busy moving on to the next event that we don’t take the time to assess what we are doing or how we have done it. Therefore, it is no surprise that we don’t always get things right.
I find that the evaluation process may be the most important step of all in the things we do. Gathering information about what we’re doing and how we are doing it can lead to an analysis of that material that in turn can improve a product, a service, a program, or even a good name.
Although the responsibility for evaluations falls to program managers, we all should be in the hunt to determine how we are doing. Monitoring what you are doing or have done is the data collection phase. Evaluating that data is the analysis phase. Quality improvement is the desired outcome phase.
I grew up in the military, an institution that evaluates everything. It starts in basic training, when soldiers’ living spaces and equipment are inspected daily. There are also weekly, monthly, and annual inspections of nearly everyone and everything. Why? First of all, to get it right. Second of all, to teach service members that if they fail, they are accountable. Thus, you prepare for every evaluation in a way that does not allow for failure. The evaluation process is ingrained in people.
Running an executive-level training program has obvious challenges. I know because I’ve run one. The expectations of the senior leaders attending are high, as are the expectations of the distinguished guest speakers who come before them in the classroom. Putting these senior leaders in the classroom is the easy part. Keeping them interested, focused, and satisfied is much harder.
Getting it right is something I have worked hard at by evaluating course components in a variety of ways as the director and program manager. Everything from a weekly written evaluation of subjects and speakers to soliciting verbal feedback at any time. Simple things such as the temperature of the room, whether the last speaker hit the mark, the quality of the meals we are providing at the hotel, and the pace of instruction. Such feedback is critical not just at the end of the course of instruction but at every point along the way so that adjustments can be made as necessary. Criticism is welcome, changes are made, and satisfaction is guaranteed.
As an advisor to a number of senior officials over the course of my career, I evaluated everything they said or did. Some of it I kept to myself to offer improvements the next time or over time. Often I provided feedback as soon as the event was over: everything from how they did to how it could have been done better. That takes a bit of courage if the feedback isn’t positive, but any boss who’s worth his or her salt will appreciate honest advice on how to do it better.
Self-evaluation is the same. If I have an assistant with me when I give a speech or a class, the first question I ask when I’m done is, “How did I do?” I want the answer to be honest, good or bad. More often than not, an assistant can do a better job than I can at reading the body language of audience attendees, sensing their attentiveness or lack of attentiveness, and even evaluating the quality of their questions as I concentrate on the answers. Another true gauge is the comments overheard after the talk. The goal is to raise the bar, to get it right, to make it better the next time.
Managers can and should conduct internal evaluations about everything for which they have responsibility. They should also seek it from stakeholders. Those stakeholders can range from a board of directors to the general public and from suppliers to customers. Online surveys, Internet chat rooms, telephone inquiries, and personal conversations are all helpful. Feedback is critical; information is invaluable. Improvements are essential and must be carried out.
One form of evaluation that many dread is the personal performance appraisal. Whether you are the one who writes the evaluation or the one who is being evaluated, it’s not always fun, but it surely is important. How can improvements be made if we don’t know what we are doing wrong? How can standards be met if we don’t know how we are falling short?
Perhaps the most important evaluation of all is the personal, face-to-face kind. It is the one feared the most yet the one needed the most. If you are the writer of a personal evaluation, it needs to be an honest assessment. If you are the recipient, you need to accept that not everyone gets the top grade. But whatever block you are in, whatever supporting detail is written, it needs to be discussed in person with you as the individual in question.
As the evaluator, judge everything from the critical to the mundane. Seek input and provide feedback. The way a person spends his or her time, for example, is critically important. Tell that person how and why it needs to be done more productively if such is the case. If the way a person is behaving with coworkers needs to be improved, tell the person what adjustments he or she needs to make. If something as simple as a person’s telephone etiquette isn’t helpful to the company, tell that person how to do it differently.
If you are the supervisor, don’t wait until the next evaluation to tell an employee how he or she has improved or not. Reinforcement of right and correction of wrong constitute important feedback. There is great relevance to these performance ratings, which can determine raises, bonuses, promotions, and benefits for those involved.
Whatever you evaluate, whenever you conduct the evaluation, you can store it or you can share it. I vote for sharing it and in most cases sharing it at least in general terms with the boss. That person wants it, needs it, and deserves it. Good or bad, that person has a right to know the health of the organization. As President Ronald Reagan advised in his farewell address to the nation in 1988, “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
Think of an evaluation as preventive medicine. Like an annual physical when the doctor prescribes something stronger than an aspirin because he or she finds the patient suffering from a malady, the evaluation can serve as an antibiotic. If the prognosis is good, the boss needs to know that, too. Positive feedback can lead to decisions that reinforce what is being done well.
The boss is the ultimate decision maker, and you are the provider of the information that allows him or her to do that job best. The boss’s success as a leader and a manager depends on how he or she builds, educates, coaches, and evaluates his or her people. You can and should help the boss as a conscience who honestly and objectively evaluates all that you hear and see in your workplace world. It is your duty.