When I assess my own performance at work, I always feel like I could have done better. I feel like I could have done more. It’s not that I’m not giving 100%. But it’s more a feeling in the day-to-day and week-to-week grind of the job. It’s that feeling that I’m not strategic enough when I need to be. I’m not focused enough on the little things. I wonder, if this is my best output and where could I be doing more.
Is this healthy? I think so. Here’s why.
Feeling inadequate helps me maintain a sense of urgency.
I don’t always act with a sense of urgency. It’s hard to maintain the drive of 100% all the time. But self assessments that seek new ways and better ways to do things help me keep a sense of urgency to continue to grow. Feeling inadequate to grow is a bit of reverse psychology. But I believe it’s a way to keep pride from letting myself get lazy.
Self assessment is healthy and results new ideas and actions.
Do the drill and self assess. As much as people hate the annual performance review at work, it does give all us an opportunity to self assess our performance. For me, it will inevitably lead to new ideas for how to improve my actions. I’ve used performance reviews to help set goals for the upcoming year and to identify personal disciplines that I need to develop.
A professional career is a journey filled with both success and failure.
I don’t like failure just like everyone else. But I don’t mind failure if leads me to examine new ideas. When I self examine, if I know I’ve failed at something then I may resolve to try the task again in a different manner or think about an alternate way to solve the problem. Software projects are good examples of this. I’ve been part of a team that has delivered software on-time and on-budget as well as as teams that have not delivered. The course of action is to examine what failed then get back to work. Take the time to assess.
If I’m ever satisfied, then I’m not accomplishing enough.
If I feel like I’ve arrived or mastered or all there is to know then I stop learning and growing. That’s not a good place to be. Looking back I can see this happening to me with project management skills after I completed a set of training classes. I know my skills as a project manager ceased to grow at that point. But there is always room for improvement. There is always something new to learn. I’m not one to sit and watch. I like to take action.