- Leandro Herrero - https://leandroherrero.com -

10 Performance Appraisal questions of yourself with yourself : the examined life of the manager.

Socrates was then one who came up with the ‘unexamined life is not worth living’. (And then he chose to die instead of being exiled). Since then, the phrase has been synonymous of reflection and self-knowledge. Let’s get a tiny philosophical in management, and prepare a set of questions for the end of the year self-performance-management, which is a 45 degrees feed back. I’ll explain. Organizations have 360 degrees feed back systems, but what you really need is a good 45 degree one. 45 degrees is the angle you need to look yourself at a mirror. Yes, buy a mirror, have a set of questions. Here are some:

  1. Is my market value the same as in the beginning of the year, lower, higher? What can I say in my CV that I have gained (not the same as I have done)?
  2. What new relationships do I have? What kind? Close? Not close? Have I established links outside my tribes: functional? Trade? Sector, industry?
  3. What old ideas have I retired, and what new ones have arrived? Did I have any ‘aha’ moments?
  4. Have I kept a good handle of my environment? Markets? My profession? The trends? Do I really know what is going on around me and can have a sensible opinion?
  5. On the people I manage or lead, are they better off because of me? Better professionals? Better people? Better managers? Better at something? Because of me? Would these have happened without me?
  6. What’s the legacy of the year? Projects or not, business or not, what is new that I will leave behind?
  7. What can I tell my children, or somebody else’s children, or any children, that I’ve done (requirement, looking straight at their eyes)
  8. What is the best thing I have not done?
  9. Where have I been an actor? Where a bystander? Where a passive piece in the system?
  10. Can I identify the impact I have made, personally, not the company, not the teams, me, on my work, on my social environment? Can I list ‘these are my direct impacts’?.

You know what? when you start launching questions such as these, more and more come out

The 11 question is very important: what is the question that is missing in the previous 10 that I should pose?

I’d be pleased to hear about your number 11.