To preface, I look at the review process one goes through when analyzing anything as working on a bell curve. For those not familiar with it, a bell curve has a single high point where maximum efficiency is reached. Before that high point, your efficiency in whatever you are doing is increasing. After that high point, your efficiency is decreasing. With this in mind, we can move on to the purpose of this article.

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That’s right, you too can join the Green Tea bandwagon without having to suffer the awful, natural taste! See the updates below.

• Today’s Tip of the Day provides a great alternative to regular Green Tea via instant Green Tea.
• Dreading reviewing your co-workers work? See this article on How to Effectively Review Other People’s Work for some tips on how to make this as painless as possible.

Being able to review another persons work is one of those extremely valuable skills that someone shooting for any kind of leadership position needs to master. It can be a very challenging and intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Below I’ve outlined some basic tips that will help you to not only be up to the task, but excel at it as well.

To note: The kind of review that I will be referencing for this article is what I call an In-Depth Review. That means that it is for both content as well as your basic grammar and spelling.

• Be familiar with the subject matter - This may seem like a no-brainer if you’re doing a content review, however you might be surprised how often this is not the case. If you’re not familiar enough with the subject to make a good review, let them know. The last thing you want to do is make their work worse after they incorporate your comments. One of the worst outcomes of this is that one of your comments could make their work actually incorrect, which can cascade into a bunch of different issues.

• Have a template for your comments - Many a time I’ve had someone return my work to me with their comments scattered all over the document, making me search through the document to find out what they said. This is a very time consuming process, and it also leaves room to miss a comment, especially if it’s a large document. Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok to make inline comments, however you should also mark where these comments are in a predefined template. This template is usually pretty basic, a simple example would contain the name of the reviewer, date of the review, work being reviewed, and then for each comment there would be a reference number, location, and description.

• Be descriptive - If you’re going to make a comment, make sure you explain exactly what you are trying to get at. It doesn’t have to be a thesis, but writing down “Wrong” won’t cut it and only leads to you having to explain each comment. A few short sentences should usually be sufficient to explain yourself. They should contain what you are referencing, and how you think it needs to be changed. If you need more than that, it’s probably just better to note your comment and talk to them about it.

• Be constructive with your criticism - This goes hand-in-hand with the point above. If you think something needs rework, don’t put “This sucks, get rid of all of it then play in traffic”. While it may be true that they need to do a lot of work, instead of pure negative criticism suggest a way in which it can be improved.

• Be objective - This might be the most important piece of advice I can give you. Lot’s of times at work we are asked to review the work of someone who we might not necessarily like or respect. This should NOT be brought into play when you actually do their review. Remember, you are reviewing their work, not them personally. Even though you may not like them, their work could be important to your project. Making it worse or not helping to improve that product will do you no good in the long run.

• Make sure you have the latest version - This is a two way street. While it is the other persons responsibility to make sure you have the latest and greatest copy of their work to review, it will be your time that is wasted if you review the wrong copy. Before you start reviewing, do a final check with them to make sure you have the correct copy.

• Set aside conference time - Make sure that you are prepared to take some time out and answer questions about your review. I’ve never had a review where either I wasn’t asked questions or asked questions myself. Know this is going to happen, and try to plan accordingly. A good idea if you are pressed for time during the day is to schedule a time to go over the review, and make sure that they have all their questions ready for you when you meet.

I can’t stress this enough: Being able to effectively and thoroughly review someone else’s work is one of the most important skills you can develop in today’s workplace. Leading others is one of the major milestones in most people’s careers, and in order to do that you need to be able to review what they produce.

Sorry for the delay on the new article, it’s been a rough day.

• Check out the new article on Maximizing Your Next Performance Review for ways to get that next promotion or raise you want.

On the docket for tomorrow should be a Microsoft Office related article, not sure which piece of software I’ll do it on but I have some ideas for some interesting Microsoft Word topics.

The Performance Review. It seems that every company, organization, and t-ball league has one today. Not only are they rampant, but many times they are the single gateway to your next raise or promotion. The problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to get the most out of their review, and consequently they miss out on great opportunities. It’s not because they don’t want to get to that next level, it’s that they don’t know how. This is where the tips below come in. In my experience, if you really make an effort to work them into your routine, you will definitely see the difference the next time your review comes around.

• Analyze your last review - This is something that you should have done right after you’re last review. You want to start working on your weak areas immediately so that next time they are your strong areas. A good way to do this is to write down each weak area, and brainstorm how you can improve in that area. Write the resulting ideas down and keep this list visible at your desk. Make sure you try to work on at least one of the ideas everyday.

• Get intermediate feedback - I wrote a whole article on getting feedback, that’s how important it is. To make it short and sweet, the first time an area in which you can improve is identified to you should not be in the formal review. With that being said, it’s pretty much assured to happen. However, you can minimize this. Make sure you get feedback from not only your supervisor but also any team members whom you supervise on a regular basis. If you’re unsure how to do this, you can read my aforementioned article on asking for feedback.

• Prepare for your review - This is an extremely important piece of advice. Before your review, you need to make sure you get yourself prepared. For starters, if you can get your hands on the criteria for the review, take a look at it and try to fill it out like you were reviewing yourself. If you can’t, make a list of what you think your strong and weak areas are. Most importantly, be honest. If you can’t be honest with your weak areas especially, then don’t even bother following any of this advice. We all have weak areas, identifying them is the only way we improve on them. For your strengths, write down specific examples of how you are strong in each area. For example, if you are a good team leader, you could write that your team finished all of its work on schedule (list the specific milestones you hit). For your weaknesses, write down some ideas on how you could improve (similar to the first bullet point). Make sure to bring your lists to your review.

• Make your review a two way conversation - During your review, don’t just sit there like a fence post. Make sure you understand all of your supervisor’s points. If you think they are missing a strength in your review, take out your strength list and suggest some (along with your supporting examples). Also, if you think that they identify something as a weakness that you don’t think is, discuss it. The important thing to remember here is that this is your big chance. In my company, these reviews can be YEARLY. Once a year is not a lot. Say what you need to say, make sure you understand everything that went on. If you need to work on something, make sure that you know what direction to take. You can even ask your supervisor for suggestions. If they are already on your weakness list, bounce some of the ways to improve off your supervisor to see if they agree. Another thing that goes a long way is to show that you are actively taking charge of your career. Showing you are interested in maximizing your performance at work is guaranteed to raise your stock with your manager.

Note: These tips are based on the fact that you have a meeting to go over your review with your boss. If this is not the case, try to schedule one. Otherwise, do the best you can to take the review that they have given you and write up any questions/concerns you might have with it. Then, email them this list and try to initiate some kind of back and forth. Otherwise, the review doesn’t end up doing anybody much good.

These tips are guaranteed to make your next performance review better for both you and your boss. However, don’t limit yourself to these tips alone. If you can think of something else that will help, go for it. There probably are many things you can do that are specific to your line of work that can help you out. Make a concentrated effort, and I’m sure you’ll be glad with the results.