Almost everybody employed in a company of any size will be used to regular appraisals by their manager. It doesn’t matter what level you are in company. Unless you are at very summit there is always a manager above you to appraise your performance.

This is often a prospect dreaded by both staff and manager. It is often regarded as a formality, or a waste of time, or a time when manager and his staff are rude to each other. But it needn’t be and it shouldn’t be. Handled properly it is a time when strengths and weaknesses are honestly assessed and agreed upon. It is a time when mutually agreed actions are instigated for benefit of all concerned.

This short article looks at it from point of view of person being appraised. How should he approach his appraisal? How can he benefit from it?

Stop and Think

Before time of your actual appraisal meeting with your manager, think back over previous year (or whatever your appraisal period is) and do your own self-appraisal. How do you yourself think you have performed? What have been your likes and dislikes concerning what you have had to do? What problems have you encountered and how have you dealt with them? Where, if at all, have you fallen short of what was asked of you, and what were reasons?

Be honest with yourself. An honest self-appraisal of your own strengths and weaknesses will put you in a good position to profit from your real appraisal when it does take place.

Plan ahead

Confident in your own assessment of how you have performed, you can now set your own goals for year ahead. What is it you really want to achieve? Is it a particular job you want to do? Are you looking for promotion? Do you want to acquire new skills? Think about what you need to achieve these aims. Will you need specific training? Do you need to gain experience of a particular function? Do you need to improve your people skills?

If you can go into your appraisal with firm aims and ambitions you will stand out as someone who knows where he is going. If you know what to ask for you are more likely to get it.

Attitude

Demonstrate a positive attitude in your appraisal meeting. Show that you take responsibility for your own success. Don’t make lame excuses for things that have not turned out perfectly. Explain that you have learnt from your mistakes, and demonstrate your enthusiasm to improve and advance.

Co-operate

Written by Aaron Colman info@ibasics.biz http://www.ibasics.biz

In beginning, people hunted animals... grew crops... and lived close to people they worked for. In fact that was one of big plusses in working for someone else. If you worked for a local king, his castle and guards would protect you from outside armies, while providing a means to settle domestic disputes.

As time went on, governments became less about getting work done and more about collecting taxes and providing for general welfare of it's people.

In corporate age, people would come to work for a central agency and that organization took on many of same roles as kingdoms of old.

Times have changed some. Today, with advent of a wide-spread Internet some tasks can be done by people anywhere in world. If this trend continues, many projects will end up having it's work "distributed" across a large area. This is known as outsourcing.

Outsourcing has become very controversial as many people feel that their jobs are being shipped overseas with no potential for getting a new one, but there's a definite upside to domestic outsourcing.

Domestic outsourcing is different from off-shoring. Domestic means that you're outsourcing to someone else in same country or area. Not only are you providing for your local community, but there's a real cost-to-benefit increase in staying in a local jurisdiction. When you offshore to someplace far overseas, there's not a heck of a lot you can do if they decide to blow you off. It's just not feasible to take someone to court overseas for a few thousand dollars. This means that outsourcing projects overseas comes with a definite increase in risk associated with decrease in cost. This shouldn't be surprising as most increases return come with added risk... but there is a reliable way to improve your returns without adding this risk. And that is...

Domestic Outsourcing.

Domestic outsourcing IS wave of future. Large corporations are being overtaken by large waves of competition from smaller, more efficient, organizations. While some large industrial applications can never be outsourced, many can be.

Here are some things to consider when outsourcing a project:

The Pros: The biggest decrease is in cost. If you have only a small project that needs done, why go thru hassle of hiring someone and paying all of those taxes and related fees? Not to mention potential legal issues of hiring a staff. Liability issues, discrimination laws, list is huge.