Every year—or half-year for some people—managers and supervisors write performance appraisals to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the staff who work for them. (Performance appraisals are written about them, too, by someone further up in the organization.) In this article we will describe a unique personal evaluation technique that can become a catalyst at performance review time.

Write a Progress Report

Many of us, as part of our work, have to write regular progress or status reports describing how a project or task is progressing. We suggest using this progress report technique to describe what you, personally, have accomplished during a specific period.

Set Aside 45 Minutes

On the last working day of every month, open up a new word-processing file, or take out a sheet of lined paper, and jot down particular accomplishments that occurred during the month, plus other factors that either enhanced or constrained your work. And include ideas you may have concerning future training or a conference you might attend, that would either improve your performance or help you to become an even more effective staff member.

The plan is to capture this information while it's fresh in your mind.

Create a Template

The ideal way to do this is to create a template for entering information each month. The template should have brief headings, each followed by a space for typing in information. We suggest headings like these:

Your goal should be to record details about the key events that transpired during the month. Rather than describe what was expected of you, identify what you accomplished in an unusual way or particularly effectively.

As the template shows, divide your information into three compartments:

1. What you accomplished, separating your information into the work you planned to do and work that was unexpected.

2. Problems that arose and how you coped with them. Divide this information into three subcompartments:

• What impact the problem had on your work.
• What steps you took to overcome or avert the problem.
• What effect these steps had.

3. What you plan to achieve during the next month and, if practicable, the balance of the year.

Summarize the Key Points

When performance evaluation time approaches, read through your personal reports for the past year and, from them, extract key factors to show your manager or supervisor during the performance review interview. Write them as a summary report, using the same topic headings you used for the monthly reports. You will be surprised at the positive impact this has, when your manager sees that you have prepared for the interview and have been doing some self-evaluation.

© 2005, RGI Learning Lisa Moretto is the President of RGI Learning, Inc. For 14 years she has helped engineers improve their oral and written communication skills. Visit www.rgilearning.com or call (585) 461-3617 to learn about RGI's courses.

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