Be Your Own Harshest Critic: Reviewing Your Negative Work Performance
Publié le 29 March 2021
Falling short of company goals is a bad situation, both for your and for you as a leader. When examining reasons why you were unable to reach a specific goal, it is important to be your own harshest critic and review your negative work performance in an honest and thorough manner. By conducting a performance review that analyzes your actions, the preparations you undertook, the organizational structure of your company and other key areas, you will be able to identify where, when and how you fell short and correct these problems.
6 important questions to ask yourself when reviewing your negative work performance:
- Was the failure a direct result of your actions?
- Was there a lack of foresight or proper planning?
- Did you have the necessary knowledge before making a decision?
- Did you fail to adapt in a timely manner?
- Were there important details you overlooked?
- Are there structural issues within your company?
Was The Failure A Direct Result Of Your Actions?
Mistakes happen. You can begin a project with nothing but the best intentions, and it is still possible for human error to derail the entire thing. You will likely feel angry and embarrassed, but it is important not to get bogged down in negativity.
The best method is to approach your negative work performance with an open mindset. Ask yourself what you did wrong and how you can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. The best case scenario is that you will be able to turn this into an opportunity for learning and personal growth.
What you must not do is make excuses and look for a scapegoat. You must hold yourself to a high standard and fully admit to your mistakes. Passing blame onto the company or, even worse, other employees will only breed resentment and frustration, while doing nothing to address the situation at hand.
Was There A Lack Of Foresight Or Proper Planning?
A construction company does not break ground on a building without blueprints and chef does not start cooking without a recipe. It is vitally important that you undertake the proper preparation and planning before you begin any new project.
A good business plan requires both structure and procedure. You need to have clear steps in place regarding how your company will have an impact and make a difference within your industry. As your company grows and becomes more successful, good planning and structure become even more significant. This is especially important when your number of employees grows larger, as it becomes easier to have communication mishaps. While it is important to avoid micromanaging and allow your employees the freedom to go beyond typical thinking, there must still be a firm foundation for them to build upon.
When it comes to the future of your company, making it up as you go is simply not acceptable. You are dealing with other people’s time, money and livelihood, and in light of this there is no way to justify a lack of foresight when you are designing a business plan. After failing to reach a goal as a result of poor planning, there is a straightforward and effective solution. You just have to take the time to sit down and produce a well-thought plan before beginning each future project.
Did You Have The Necessary Knowledge Before Making A Decision?
When launching a new business venture, it is natural to feel excited and eager to dive in head first. Ensuring the success of your company, however, requires you to take a brief step back. You must take the time to review and ensure that you have all the necessary knowledge before beginning.
For example, if you are planning your company’s expansion into a new marketplace, you need to have a complete understanding of the specific market forces that are at work. These forces include the actions of major competitors, certain factors that could affect supply, possible difficulties adapting your business model to a new environment and more.
If you lack the appropriate knowledge in any of these areas, it would be difficult to formulate a complete business plan and will likely lead to falling short of company goals and a negative work performance. You must be sure that you have equipped yourself and your employees with the information necessary to be successful.
Did You Fail To Adapt In A Timely Manner?
If it feels like the world of tech and business is changing faster than ever before, that’s because it is. As change envelops businesses in all industries at exponential rates, it is up to them to adapt or perish. The fact that you have a business model in place which had previously led your company to success in no way guarantees that this will happen again.
Imagine you are a marketing firm working to raise the awareness of a brand. Your method of using targeted social media ads has returned profitable results over the past year, but you notice a drop in your conversion rate. Rather than review and reappraise your SEO targets and optimize for the industries which are responding to your ads, you stick to the exact same model. The results diminish on a continual rate, leading to an unhappy client who chooses not to renew their contract.
The numbers don’t lie. Customers will stick with businesses that provide them with the best results right now. By failing to adapt to changing market trends, you have stifled the goals of both your client and your own company.
Were There Important Details You Overlooked?
It is important to be thorough when integrating any new plan or strategy into your business model. Take the time to review any and all details that will help you meet the specific goals of your client. This includes their unique needs, capabilities and existing customer base, while researching other businesses who took a similar approach and the difficulties they encountered. All of these details will affect how you tailor your approach.
For example, say you are working with a client seeking to expand their geographic reach from their Ontario base into Québec. You need to be sure that both your own business model and your client’s company are equipped to handle the linguistic and cultural differences between the two provinces.
If you do not adequately prepare an approach that takes these differences into account, there is a far greater likelihood that you will fail to meet targets. This will result in a negative work performance and falling short of company goals.
Are There Structural Issues Within Your Company?
A business must have a clear and smooth workflow in order to complete projects by their deadlines. If you have fallen short of your goals, take the time to review and analyze your workflow procedure to see if it may be the source of the issue. While it doesn’t not fully excuse your negative work performance, structural issues can have a serious impact that must be addressed. Each company is unique, and requires a specifically optimized workflow and organizational structure in order to reach long-term company goals.
There are two common issues when it comes to workflows: it has been improperly designed from the beginning or it has not been upscaled to meet the growing needs of the company. Initially, you should study the structure of your company and follow the trail of information. It may be possible to identify exactly where the problem began, which often involve redundancies or an unclear communication structure. This hinders the workflow process while using up much needed time, resulting in missed deadlines and failed goals.
If you find that your company structure is no longer meeting your needs, consider taking advantage of the newest trends in automation and AI-sublimated workflows. This is will ensure the projects stay on track while giving all employees valuable time and extra attention to focus on completing their tasks.
Modern industries, especially in the fields of HR and tech, are advancing at a quicker rate than ever before. If you have delivered a negative work performance, it can put your company at risk. You do not have the luxury of protecting your own feelings or resting on your laurels, as the only way to ensure that you build positively on a negative work performance is to highlight the specific areas in which you fell short. By owning this responsibility and learning from your mistakes, you will place your business in a much better position to avoid past issues and be a success in the near future.
