- Looking Back…Looking Forward
- How to Teach Your Staff to Write Performance Objectives
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Looking Back/Looking Forward
As we come to the close of another year, I’ve always found it a good exercise to look back over the last year to review how I’ve evolved and grown, the success I’ve had, significant events, changes in thinking/perspective, etc. This exercise always helps me value the holiday season a little more as well as gain a sense of what I want the next year to be. My first coach, Elizabeth Carrington, got me started on this process and I’ve continued it over the years. Here are some questions that might help you ‘Look Back:’
- What was fulfilling about the past year?
- What were the disappointments? (Acknowledge so you can release them.)
- How am I different than I was in January 2015?
- What were my key learning’s?
- What do I want to celebrate/acknowledge about the year?
- What was the year really about?
If you had a ‘theme’ for the year, ask yourself how you did in living it. ‘Looking Back’ is only a part of the process as we learn from the past and must acknowledge it in order to create the future we want.
The second part of the process is ‘Looking Forward’ and being intentional and purposeful about what you want the next year to be. This goes far beyond the traditional new year’s resolutions by using the past to propel us forward. To be intentional and purposeful we must know what we want. This reminds me of a scene from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When Alice arrived at the fork in the road and encountered the Chesire Cat, she asks for advice:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” Said the Cat.
Here are some questions that might help you be purposeful in creating the year you want or where you want to go.
- What do you want to be celebrating at the end of the year?
- What are three key outcomes you want to manifest this year?
- What is your theme for the year? What do you want this year to be about?
- What values aren’t being expressed that you’d like to begin honoring?
Looking Back…Looking Forward allows you to build on the past to create a more fulfilling and self-directed future! Without defining what you want the new year to bring, chances are you won’t achieve it.
If you’d like a partner to assist you in creating a more successful and fulfilling future consider engaging a professional coach. Harmony Coaching & Consulting can help you with that. Give us a call at 901-272-7390 and check out what some of our clients have said about working with us at https://harmonycc.net/coaching-testimonials.php
How to Teach your Staff to Write Performance Objectives
With the new year many of us will be involved in creating performance objectives. Those goals we want/need to achieve over the new year in our work. Many managers want to involve their staff in identifying and writing performance objectives. Many managers don’t know how to teach their staff to do this. In this article I’m going to show you a step by step method for (yep you’ve guessed) writing objectives so that you can teach this method to your staff. Here goes:
Step One: Identify the core areas of the job
Core areas are short descriptions of the important parts of your job – important because these are the parts of the job that contribute most to the success of your business or organization
Examples: dealing with customer telephone calls, processing customer orders, completing sales reports, dealing with customer complaints
Important! Performance objectives are not just about the ‘numbers’ part of the job – they are also about the behaviors that contribute to the success of your business. So, include things like; team work, developing solutions, training new colleagues etc.
Step Two: Identify measures
Measures are a building block for writing performance objectives. When we identify (in simple terms) how our performance could be measured, we can build on those measures to write objectives. So…
Take each core area and ask yourself ‘if I was my manager, how would I measure my performance in this area?‘
Example 1 Core Area – Processing customer orders
Measures: speed, accuracy
Example 2 Core Area – Team Work
Measures: offering help to others, contributing to team meetings, meeting team objectives
Step Three: Identify the performance objectives for the core areas
Objectives are all about describing the standards needed for the job. They describe, in some detail, what good performance looks like in each of the core areas
So, now we take the measures identified at step two and describe more fully what good performance looks like
Example 1 Core Area – Processing customer orders:
Measures: speed, accuracy
Performance objectives:
- Process customer orders within 1 day of receipt
- Ensure all customer orders are input into the system accurately
Example 2 Core Area – Team Work
Measures: offering help to others, contributing to team meetings, meeting team objectives
Performance objectives:
- Identify when other team members need help or assistance and offer that help and assistance
- Fully participate in team meetings and events by:
- Preparing for team meetings and events – reading the agenda, looking for areas where you can contribute to the discussion, researching (if appropriate) e.g. looking for data the team would find useful
- Contributing to team meetings and events – talking through ideas at the appropriate time (when the agenda item is reached or when asked), making points clearly, checking that other team members have understood what has been said
- Demonstrating listening – not interrupting, building on others ideas, asking questions
- a) Explain the team objectives and your role in meeting those objectives
- b) Meet your own objectives
Summary: teaching your staff to write performance objectives
This simple, three-step process is a great way to write objectives. Even better, it’s easy to teach! Once your staff know how to write their own objectives you, and they, can reap the benefits
Would you like to read more about the easy way to use performance objectives? Then grab a copy of my new (free) special report ‘Performance Objectives Made Easy’ at http://www.performanceobjectivesnow.com
From Joan Henshaw The Managing Employee Performance Coach and author of ‘Instant Performance Objectives. 200 Performance Objectives – and How to Use Them’
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joan_Henshaw/630275
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