Write Your Own Review

Regular readers know I am not a fan of the performance appraisal. Be that as it may, here's an idea:

Take some time to review yourself. I know some of you probably have to do a self-review for the annual process, but that's not what I mean. This is something you should do just for yourself.

I believe that our strengths and weaknesses are known. They are certainly known by others, the question is whether we have good enough self-awareness to know our strengths and weaknesses. The raw data is there, but do we recognize it?

Keeping with the notion that we should focus on and build on strengths, that is the first and most important aspect of this review -

A. What are your unique strengths?
B. How much of the time do you use your strengths at work and in what situations?

As far as weaknesses go, I think we need to know what they are. We need to know how we drive people crazy at work (we all drive some people crazy some of the time). And then we need to manage this and drive fewer people crazy and less often. These weaknesses are what I call your derailing factors - they have the potential to derail your career. BTW, derailing factors are often strengths applied to the wrong situations or too much or taken too far.

• Assertiveness becomes bossiness
• Analytical becomes rigid and paralysis by analysis
• Gregarious becomes chatter box
• Cooperative becomes reactive or weak
• Creative becomes disruptive or unfocused

You will get a position because of your strengths and you will lose your job because of derailing factors unmanaged (or your strengths put to the wrong work).

I created a reputation survey for High Impact Middle Management. You can download a copy here (scroll to the bottom of the page). Fill this out on yourself and then ask a trusted peer, or your manager, to do the same. How tuned is your self-awareness?