And she also included the benefits to stockholders, to boot. Julie included her boss and a colleague in the answer.
See what I did in the holistic answer? Julie didn’t just answer the question by talking about herself, like before. I’m sure you’re the same in thinking that our stockholders needed some good news. It was also great to work with Mary (Julie’s colleague) on the finances as we needed to offer a very competitive discount this time around before quarter-end. Our structured approach in our proposal really worked – without it I struggled last time.
Holistic A: Well Bill, we really made great progress when you and I went to see Acme Associates and landed that distribution deal. I’ll bet the stockholders will be pleased with me! I used an even better approach to structure the proposal and worked the finances to make it really appealing. Self-focused A: Bill (Julie’s boss) I thought I totally rocked the Acme Associates deal. Q: Julie, what has been your greatest achievement over the last 3 months? I’ll use two examples, each with a ‘self-focused’ and ‘holistic’ answer. A holistic answer still centers on YOU, but is not entirely focused on you. It’s a honest view of your performance and how you have impacted your colleagues, your organization and its results. It also considers the business context, such as management, financial and strategic, and an organisational context that includes Finance, IT, Operations, Customer Services, etc.Ī holistic answer encompasses yourself, your team, how you collaborate, and what impact you have. They’re your colleagues, direct reports and your bosses. When I use the term ‘holistic’, I refer to viewing what you do, and the value you create through your work, in a wider context – a context that includes the people around you – upwards, downwards and across-ways in your organization. So we must use this to our advantage, and of course, we must do it with integrity, too. Leaders want to learn about opportunities for change and success stories across their organization.) (Managers want to know how their department is running. Their ‘listening’ filters are continuously scouring your answers for information that they can understand in their own terms… or even for information that benefits themself, or to confirm their own biases. Might seem harsh, but I am talking about processing at the sub-conscious level.
PRODUCTION DONE IN MOHO PRO 12 HOW TO
If all you did, when answering questions from your reviewer, were to talk about how your work and performance impacts (and benefits) you only, you’re missing a trick.īecause, like most people, your reviewer is inherently (but not maliciously) selfish – they don’t really want to know about you – all they want to know is how to write your appraisal effectively according to operating procedures, and to be able to justify their assessment. But perhaps (in this context) a bit misleading, because YOU also work in an organizational context of other people. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that many times before I’ve written that your Performance Review/Appraisal is, and must only be, about YOU. holisticĬharacterized by the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. The best way to answer Performance Review questions is to take what I call the ‘holistic approach’.
One which you will and your manager will walk away with more confidence in your potential to add value to your organization? Your Performance Review must be honest if it is to achieve two things 1) a critical look at your performance, both good and bad, to identify gaps in your skills, knowledge and capabilities and 2) it must identify genuine areas for improvement, investments and specific interventions, allied with goals and objectives that could be set to close these gaps.īut how do you turn a good Performance Review into a great Performance Review? You might be expecting me to say something predictable and a bit boring like “ Honesty is the Best Policy.”Īnd you know what, you would be right. Your Performance Appraisal is here, and you want to give it your best shot: here is a tried and tested way of answering appraisal questions that will get you the BEST result.