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| Writing Self Assessments: An Important Big Four Skill |
by Thomas Johansmeyer
The self-assessment reports that you write tend to become the most important indicators of your performance throughout the year. You do a lot of work every year. You may participate in three or four client service projects, write a few proposals, an d lead an internal initiative. A full year of working sixty hours a week can make it difficult for you to keep track of all your successes - and even harder to learn from your mistakes.
Take Notes during the Project
Your self-assessment does not start when the project ends; it starts when the project begins. You should take notes throughout the project. Identify the tasks you do well, and jot down some ideas on how you could have improved your performance at key milestones. The most effective approach is to keep a project journal. It does not have to be formal; just document a few bullet points every day about what you did and how well you did it. You may even see your performance improve throughout the project, before you even consider your self-assessment.
Your project journal essentially is an ongoing self-assessment. You will keep track of your performance every day, and you will undergo a process of continual learning. This will help you complete an effective and realistic self-assessment. Your career will progress in accordance with the effort you put into your self-assessment. Your contribution to your own growth truly will enhance your career and your effectiveness in the professional services industry.
Complete Assessments as Soon as Possible
With your ongoing self-assessment, your memories of your successes and shortcomings will be documented and fresh. But, you should not count on your managers to keep such thorough notes. Instead of relying on their scattered memories - they will have as many projects as you have potentially five or more team members per project - you should initiate the self-assessment process as early as possible for each of your projects.
Complete your firm's self-assessment form promptly and submit it to your manager or evaluator. Work proactively. Ask your manager for an appointment (either in person or by conference call) to review your self-assessment. Even if the manager does not have time to complete his assessment of your performance on the project, taking the time to discuss your assessment - even briefly - will give you immediate feedback and reinforce your manager's understanding of your performance. When he does complete his evaluation of your performance, it will be more accurate and ultimately more meaningful.
Be Thorough
Too many consultants simply plug a few bullet points into each section of their self-assessment forms, regardless of the tool or format a particular firm uses, and consider that to be a reasonable effort. Your self-assessment is an implement used by senior management to determine the strength of your performance. Your job is to make it easier for them to perceive your performance as positively as possible. A thorough self-assessment makes it easier for evaluators to step through your strengths and development needs on a particular project in order to ascertain your performance.
In being thorough, you should document all relevant activities. This includes the tasks on which you worked, leadership roles you played, and innovative solutions you devised. You should be honest; exaggeration tends to be transparent, damaging your integrity. Also, show some balance. Do not emphasize your strengths disproportionately. Everybody has development needs, and understanding them shows that you have the strength and resolve to grow professionally.
Support Your Claims
For every claim you make in your self-assessment, have proof. Substantiate your accomplishments and development needs. When possible, numeric and verifiable substantiation is best. You could say that you completed 90% of your tasks at least one week ahead of schedule, for example (assum ing, of course, that this is true). Not every important accomplishment can be substantiated through this type of rigorous proof. Anecdotes can be effective in demonstrating your successes as well. Discuss a key training session where you held the client audience's attention or a joint application design workshop where you created an interesting solution to a problem. Substantiation is not always statistical, but you should always have some way to support your claims.
Your self-assessments - for projects, mid-year, and year-end - are the tools that the partnership and senior management use to evaluate your performance and determine the direction of your career. It pays to put some effort and consideration into your self-assessments; this effort will reflect itself in compensation increases and promotions in the future. Too many consultants view this as "overhead" - a distraction from client service work or the pursuit of new business opportunities. While effective self-assessments may not trace directly to the firm's bottom line, they do trace directly to yours. Invest some time in your own growth, and enjoy the dividends.
Thomas Johansmeyer, Staff Writer, Big4.com
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