Author: Mary Ila Ward

6 Tips for Driving Results through Performance Evaluation Structure
We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately related to performance evaluations. Specifically, these questions center on how to structure evaluation forms in a way that supports priorities of the organization and drives individual and, therefore, organizational performance.

Of course, it’s really not about the form at all. It’s about knowing what drives the performance of your organization, translating that to individual metrics, then equipping leaders with the ability to focus on constant performance feedback.

1. Make it values based. Center your evaluation form around the values of your company not individual characteristics like “dependable”, “initiative”, “communication” etc. If you don’t have company values, facilitate a workshop with your leadership team to define your values (and mission).

Values should translate into what creates your competitive advantage as a company, therefore, they are a way to communicate to employees through their performance evaluation how and if they are demonstrating the values that contribute to sustainable competitive advantage for the organization.

In fact, every talent management process or form (your selection process, onboarding, training, compensation, etc.) should link back to your organizational values.

2. Avoid overlap of dimensions. Make sure each dimension measures only one thing. Structuring your form around values instead of individual characteristics should help with this.

3. Less is better. Having said #2, in terms of dimensions and in terms of the scale, less is more. Make it as simple as possible while still ensuring you are measuring everything that could impact job performance which impacts competitive advantage.

4. Use a 3 point scale:
1. Doesn’t meet expectations
2. Meets expectations
3. Exceeds expectations
5. Require ratings be back up with behavioral based examples. This helps to avoid subjectivity. Every rating should be supported with at least one behavior based example. Consider training raters on how to write good behavioral based examples and then get your team together to calibrate each other on what constitutes which rating on the scale. In other words, make sure that if manager A sees employee A behave in one way, and manager B sees employee B behave that same way, employee A and employee B both are rated the same.

6. Make it clear what a score results in. For example, if a person exceeds expectations overall it leads to x% of a raise, or x amount of dollars in the form of a bonus. In reality, you need to think through this recommendation and be prepared to back it up from a budgetary standpoint before even implementing the other recommendations.

Plain and simple! Having large scales leaves room for different raters to interpret things differently and brings more subjectivity into the process.

How well are your performance evaluations working?
February 5, 2015

Career Spotlight: Urban Planner

Do you love planning? Are you a good communicator who has a passion for designing? Are interested in geography? If so, then a career as an Urban Planner may be perfect for you.

On the other hand, if you don’t enjoy working directly with the public or developing strategies and thinking creatively, becoming an urban planner may not be a good fit for you.

Urban and regional planners develop plans and programs for the use of land. Their plans help create communities, accommodate population growth, and revitalize physical facilities in towns, cities, counties, and metropolitan areas.Read more at Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Check out American Planning Association to find out more about urban planning.

What do you need to be an Urban Planner?

Education:

A minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree (typically in civil engineering) is required to become an urban planner and most planners have a Master’s Degree.

If you are a high school student and would like to become an urban planner, consider taking geography, pre-engineering and economics in high school.

Urban planning may be an option for Engineers and Project Managers interested in a career change. Find out more at Education Portal.

Skills:

Urban Planners know about:

Complex Problem Solving
Speaking and Active Listening
Critical Thinking
CAD Software
Judgment & Decision Making
Social Perceptiveness

Is the field growing?

ONET reports that careers in Urban Planning are expected to increase by 10% over the next 10 years.

What is the pay like?

What’s the Holland Code* for an Urban Planner?

Interest code: IEA – Investigative, Enterprising, Artistic

Investigative — Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Enterprising — Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Artistic — Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Source: http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-3051.00

If you are interested in learning more about becoming an Urban Planner, check out ONET.

Would you want to be an Urban Planner? Why or why not?

*Holland Codes are a way to classify a person based on their skills and interests as well as jobs based on the nature of the work. If you have an interest in knowing what your Holland Code is in order to match yourself to careers to pursue, you can read more about our assessment process.

February 3, 2015

Passion + Productivity = Give Back (Fitness)

As January comes to a close, many of us are saddled with the potential reality that our new years resolutions, many of them fitness and health related, are falling by the wayside.

Susan Ozier, a Health and Fitness Coach, knows how many of us feel when it comes to this reality and is using her personal experience to fuel passion and productivity to give back to others in a way that helps them achieve their goals.

She is passionate about helping other women learn how to eat healthy and in turn feed their family healthy foods because when a person gets healthy it affects every aspect of their lives. They have energy and confidence they didn’t previously have and that transfers into their family life, their job, and even their friendships. Susan loves to see how, through her help, mothers are able to regain energy to play with their kids and then become an example to their children of what a healthy lifestyle looks like.

Here is Susan’s story:

Last winter, I felt like I had not hit my groove as a mom of two kids under three and still had about 10 lbs of baby weight to lose. I wasn’t happy with the way I was feeling about myself and decided to make some “real” New Years’ resolutions. For the first time, I decided to write them down with specific goals and accomplishments I wanted to achieve in 2014. I went on a date with my husband and shared them all with him so he could help hold me accountable to the spiritual, financial, marital/parental, and physical goals I made. For the first time, my physical goals weren’t dictated by a number on the scale. Instead, I wanted to feel comfortable in my clothes and confident in a swimsuit by that summer with a focus on being healthy, not just being skinny.

I started researching and looking into different diets, nutrition plans, and workouts, using my background knowledge and experiences from my exercise science and nursing degrees to help inform my new plan. I did a lot of research on clean eating and weight lifting which were both new ideas for me at the time. I had previously stuck to more traditional diets that deprive particular food groups and added massive amounts of cardio for exercise because I wrongly believed I would bulk up if I lifted weights. I lost weight quickly at first as I dove into this new nutrition plan of eating mostly clean foods and kicking my Diet Mountain Dew habit. Heavier weights than I was used to along with high intensity interval training totally transformed my body even when the number on the scale quit moving I was seeing progress in the way my clothes fit and the new strength and confidence that I felt. I felt healthy, strong, and more confident than I had ever felt before I had kids because I had taken control and implemented real change in my life.

As people started asking me what I was doing to lose weight I decided I wanted to share with people what I had learned over the past year. I became a Beachbody coach to help others reach their health and wellness goals because I know what a difference being healthy and learning to take care of my body has made in all aspects of my life, and I wanted to do the same thing for other women.

As a coach, I hold monthly challenge groups that provide specific workouts, nutrition plans, and most importantly, accountability and encouragement from me and the others participating in the group. You can have great nutrition and workouts, but without the accountability it is a lot easier to fall off track. I love helping others learn how to be fit and healthy which doesn’t have a thing to do with weight, but focuses more on eating clean, staying active, and feeling good about yourself.

It isn’t easy to live a healthy lifestyle in today’s world of convenience and fast food, but I have found it to be easier with accountability and support from a network of like-minded people, and I want to provide that for others. I want to be honest and real and show people that living a healthy life is doable and worth the hard work.

Even with my background in Exercise Science and Nursing I never had anyone to hold my hand and walk me through the little changes I could make. I had to learn them myself over time and now I think it is important to share my knowledge and passion with others so that they can get healthy and in turn get their families healthy.

To learn more about Susan and the work she is doing, check out www.SusanOzier.weebly.com or visit her Facebook page.

January 29, 2015
Goal Setting for Students

I’ve always been a list maker. I love to make a list at the end of each work day, so I can draw a red line through item after time the following work day. And, by the way, I don’t just do this for work. I do it for everything: grocery list, kid’s activities for the week, Christmas shopping list, cleaning for the week and the list goes on and on. I’m the queen of lists.

That being said, even though I’m a list maker, I’m still not as organized as I would like to be. But, when I began the process of quarterly goal setting and implemented a weekly tracking process, organization and my life ran much smoother.

I believe this process can not only be valuable in a person’s career, but is a great tool to help students become more organized and, long term, be ready for college or career. What a great habit to begin as a high school student?

First things first words written on the chalkboard

To quote Stephen Covey, first things first, developing a mission statement is a great way to get on the right track. Check out Developing a Personal Mission Statement to prevent stress and burnout and Power of 3 – Mission and Purpose to help you develop a mission statement. Then, you are in a great position to begin your quarterly goal setting. You can begin this most any time of year, but I suggest beginning on January 1 or in the summer before the upcoming school year. Develop 3 or 4 goals for the quarter. Then, document how you will achieve those goals. This will help you as you begin entering action items into you weekly tracking spreadsheet.

Even if you are very disciplined, it is great to have an accountability partner. So, grab a friend and begin the process together. How great will it be to be entering your senior year of high school and already be on the right track for college or career? You could have your portfolio complete, applications completed to your top college choice, job shadowing experience and even taken the ACT for the fourth time. You will be leaps and bounds ahead of some of your classmates.

Check out our Goal Setting Worksheet to help you get started.

January 27, 2015
Goal Setting – Feedback

I want to round out the goal setting discussion by focusing on the importance of feedback. To illustrate, feedback has played a critical role in a current client business coaching engagement.  To begin the coaching process this past summer, we employed a 360° feedback mechanism to help set priorities for the client’s development.  Feedback was first necessary to set goals and priorities.

Based on areas for improvement, we developed four questions that she asks herself each and every day.  These are all “yes” or “no” questions.  (As example, a question I ask myself every day is “Did I do something to develop new business today?”  because one of my goals for the year is revenue growth.)  She has them posted by her computer and we begin each session by going through those questions, regardless of the focus of that particular session.  This is a simple personal feedback mechanism that was set in place to hold herself accountable.

Finally, providing feedback to her subordinates is important to this client’s development as a leader.  She is already good at providing feedback and motivation to her team, but her business has grown large enough that she needs (and desires) to have a process in place that helps her provide ongoing feedback for development and evaluation.

At every step in the process, feedback has played a critical role in establishing success.

What feedback mechanisms do you use to personally hold yourself accountable or those you lead accountable?

For more insight, check out New Year’s Resolutions 101: Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse.

**This post originally appeared on Horizon Point Blogpost January 30, 2012.

January 22, 2015