David Maister’s Passion, People and Principles

post # 98 — Monday, June 5, 2006 6:00am — a Careers post

How Are You Doing?

As you plan your week, month, year and the rest of your life, why not take a few moments out to reflect on how well you're doing on these things?

Rate yourself on the following skills/attributes, using the following scale:

1 = This is something I really need to improve:

2 = I am less strong at this compared to the typical professional at my level;

3 = I am about as good at this as the typical professional at my level;

4 = I am a little bit better at this than the typical professional at my level;

5 = This is a particular strength of mine

 

1. The caliber of work I'm involved in
2. The strength of my external relationships (with clients)
3. The strength of my relationships with my superior(s)
4. The strength of my relationships with my colleagues
5. The strength of my relationships with my family
6. The new skills I have developed in the past two years
7. My current mood
8. My current energy level
9. My ability to set priorities well, so I do what's important, not what's urgent                      
10. Ability to be decisive, i.e. make decisions with limited information                                     
11. Ability to avoid jumping to conclusions too quickly                                                           
12. Ability to win people's trust and confidence                                                                     
13. Ability to get others to treat me like a member of their team                                              
14. Ability to persuade and convince, rather than to assert conclusions                                   
15. Ability to convey "bad" news to people in a way that they find acceptable                        
16. Being good at delegating to others what does not really require my talents                         
17. Confront and deal with underperformance in those who work for me - tackle issues, rather than avoid them      
18. Listen well to what people have to say before reacting                                                      
19. Show an interest in people beyond the specifics of the tasks that require you to deal with them
20. Deal with problems in my relationships openly and quickly                                                
21. Demonstrate energy, drive, ambition                                                                                

Any patterns to your answers? Does it make you want to do anything differently this week?