Check on How You Are “Really Doing”: How to Evaluate Your Work
By Hugh Ballou
Things are going to get a lot worse
before they get worse. - Lily Tomlin
How bad does it need to get before you do something about it ("IT" is the processes and systems in your organization)
In reading a post by Guy Kawasaki on the American Express OPEN Forum site, I found this comment, "Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you." It made me think about checking on systems that I have implemented. Are the systems going as I perceive, or are they just appearing to be effective? Hmmm... Now I am wondering how I can really check. This comment really gave me a paradigm shift. It's time to play the part of a customer or church member and look at the systems in my organization from their point of view. What a great idea!
So, develop feedback systems that are authentic and consistent. Don't check once and think that it's done. Develop a balanced scorecard to constantly evaluate your systems. This is not a reflection on you, the leader personally. It's not a sign of failure. It's simply a process check. Authenticity in leadership (an important Transformational Leadership trait) means that you eliminate the "elephant in the room" where everybody knows something is wrong, but nobody talks about it.
To be effective as a leader, you must establish systems to evaluate your systems. This is a great activity for teams and you may want to occasionally include consumers or members (for church or non-profit) in some of the discussions. Develop an effective evaluation system and then capture the concepts in an action plan to ensure that are not having the same issues in the next evaluation. Here’s a model that I use often with great success: Evaluation (Header) Category 1) What we do well or what is working; Category 2) What needs changing; Category 3) New things to consider. These categories will provide you with ample material to work with.
By the way, be sure to develop strategies for changing the things that need changing and monitoring the change.
What do you think? Please comment.
Comments
I like the way you combine a story in your post with a valuable lesson - establish systems to evaluate your systems. It can also be lonely at the top of any organization. Your evaluation system suggestion is a key to improvement. Having a coach or inner circle to provide feedback makes a difference too.
Evaluation is the reality check you can give yourself and your organization to make sure you're acting on purpose. One common area many nonprofit leaders can relate to is when it comes to securing grants. A key element in the proposal is evaluation. The entities providing funding want to know how you plan to measure success based on what you say you will do. This is tied directly to your vision, mission, and strategy. If this is unclear, unrealistic, or fuzzy, it will show up here. The people you ask for support want to know if you are who you say you are. You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Conducting a brief Discovery Session with a member of our Wayfinder team is a great place to start seein how to put your best foot forward!
Great advice, Russell!
Thanks, Russ
You are so correct.
Cheers,
Hugh