How honest should you be when you evaluate someone? I always thought that honesty was the best policy. Get things on the table and if they are fixable, fix them!
Today, there were four people in my firm who had been there for six months. According to our employee manual, six months marks their six month evaluation. Instead of doing them once a week, I decided to do it all in one shot. For some, I included my supervisors, and others I did it alone.
It’s hard to give constructive criticism. Everyone really has room for improvement, including me. Sometimes I think: What do I know about running a business or supervising folks? Yes I’ve been in business for 16 years and probably have at least 25 years experience supervising people, but my real forte in in publicity and promoting clients.
What’s really hard is when people hear you but don’t respond to the constructive criticism. The only way a person will grow is if they open their minds to change.
One of my associates asked what it meant to go above and beyond. “Does it mean staying late,” the employee said, “because if that’s right, I will.” And I just couldn’t define it until just now…. I think going above and beyond is when you work and you don’t care about the time, you don’t care about what’s around you, you just want to make sure that the job is done right, accurate and thorough, no matter what time of day!
About five years into my business, I got pregnant. Although, I had a home based business at the time, my business was doing well. I had two full time employees and quite a few part time workers. I had one job that only wanted to deal with me and none of my staff. She made me promise her that I wouldn’t have the baby on a Friday because that was when her ads were due. Although she said she was only kidding, I knew she meant it.
I had my son on a Thursday and had serious complications. I ended up in the hospital for a week. However, that Friday, when I was all doped up on medication for pain, I called my client and I took her ads and made sure they were placed in the newspaper. So from now on, when someone says what does it mean to go above and beyond, I tell them this story (and I have a ton more like it!).
