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The Self Directed Review Process
Hank Weber, Jackson Small Business Support Center
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APPLICATION
Fresh out of engineering school and into my first job with a Fortune 100 corporation I was confronted with the question of how do I know what job I am supposed to be doing and then how do I make sure that my boss knows that I did a good job.
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I also was concerned with what is my next job step here and how do I get that job? Sound familiar. We have all been there, done that. Have you done this?
My boss was running a good Project Engineering department. He had a dozen engineers just like me. I decided that I needed to manage my manager with respect to my performance. Thirty days before my first review I gave my boss a simple two page outline of what I had accomplished, what I had learned and what I expected to accomplish in the coming year.
That next year he assigned me two of the department's most critical projects and had me conduct a department training session on the Critical Path Method of project scheduling. After 20 months with the company I was promoted to an Area Engineer position within the plant. To the best of my knowledge no one had previously moved out of the Project Group in less than three years and then usually moved to an "assistant" job in the plant.
I was convinced that my performance review approach worked and continued to use and refine it in my next job. Then when I became a manager for the first time (running a mid-sized engineering computer center) I immediately started to use this annual review and planning process downward in the organization as well as upward.
I met with the six direct reports that worked for me in the engineering company and told them that I would be meeting individually with each of them in thirty days to review what they had been doing and to plan what they would be doing this coming year. To prepare for this meeting I asked each of them to write out an outline of what they had accomplished in their past twelve months with the department and what they expected to accomplish in the next twelve months. During every one of my nine years in this job similar reviews were done with more and more people by me and by those who reported to me.
I still use this process to report to my bosses (the Board of Directors and the Stockholders) and to initiate self direction and motivation with those who work with and for me. Basically once a year each person prepares a written outline of what they've accomplished since their last review, what problems they've experienced, what they've learned and what they expect to accomplish in the next twelve months as well as what support and resources they think they will need to be successful.
They do not submit the outline to me before we meet (unless they choose to do so). They are responsible for scheduling and conducting our review meeting from their written outline (usually 1-2 hours). We adjourn and meet again in two weeks at which time I conduct the meeting which is an evaluation of their performance and a mutual determination / negotiation of what their performance objectives are for the next year. This becomes the basis for their next twelve month review which they will again initiate, schedule and conduct.
This has created a very positive proactive review and planning process. The employee evaluates their own performance before I do my evaluation. They are frequently more requiring and direct than I would be. They also set their own goals and after agreement become self accountable for their own performance. Most of the time there are interim benchmarks agreed upon and we will meet periodically to measure results and make adjustments.
The net result is that I usually get the performance I expect . . . with very little effort and hassle. The employees usually get the rewards they expect based upon their self managed and self measured performance.
Simple . . . effective . . . and it works. With this method even a weak manager can "manage" employees toward successful performance. More importantly for our Organizational Behavior purposes each of us can use some form of this method to improve our job content and manage our managers toward realizing what strong performers we are . . . and can become.
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