I’ve never been through an evaluation process personally, physically, spiritually, or occupationally that hasn’t hurt a little bit. Whether the comments are coming from my own mind and thoughts on how to appropriately address an event or quirk or flaw and make it better, or the comments come from friends, peers, onlookers, bosses, and confidants, it always hurts a little bit.
Here are a couple of laws I live with in the midst of evaluation, that truthfully I am not great at so I have to write them down often. These keep me afloat when it seems like hard things are required.
1. Evaluate everything. You stop being good when you stop getting better. It’s important to go through the hard stuff because it will only help in the long run.
2. Wear your hard hat. Things will be falling from everywhere. If your team really is for reaching a bar of excellence, keep your hard hat on and try to hear the reviews and evaluations as constructive and not destructive.
3. Bandaid. I have always found its better go just get after it and not pull it off one bit at a time. Make sure everyone is rested and removed long enough so it’s not too fresh, but also make sure you don’t wait too long that you forget. You have to prioritize evaluation. It’s important.
4. Change. Now that you’ve gone through the hard stuff and hard evaluations… Make the appropriate changes. If you sleep on the changes, the evaluation was not worth it.
5. Keep moving forward. Don’t over analyze a situation or an event to the point of death. Remember the good stuff that happened and while you evaluate the changes, don’t lose track of the things that went 100% right. No one ever finished a marathon by standing still. Just keep moving. Just keep swimming.
There’s probably a more exhaustive list out there somewhere… But these are an important 5 for me to remember when evaluating everything. Evaluate everything.
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