Rate Me! Evaluate Me! I'm Good and Ohhhh So Smart!

It's that time of the year when Christmas carolers go a-wassailing, holiday lights twinkle merrily upon trees and employees everywhere prepare for annual performance reviews. I am in that mode right now as well as I prepare my own self-assessment to submit to my boss with his review of me to come sometime in January. As a supervisor, I will be receiving 9 self-assessments from my own employees that I will need to act on come January and while I am fortunate to have a really good group... 9 different appraisals? Yeesh. It's not a hugely welcome prospect, mostly because this is not something I can or would just blow through - it's just too important to people's careers to take lightly.

So here are a few tips for you to give some thought to as you get ready for performance review time (and some to help you prepare well ahead of time for future reviews):

Make it easy on your boss.
This comes under a few different forms and the more that I look at it, this might be one tip that comprises several at one time. If you work within a review process that has you assess yourself, don't make it hugely difficult for your boss to give you a positive review. First and foremost, write clearly and don't be ridiculously verbose. Also, give clear examples of what you have done in the past year. Now, if you don't have a formal process of writing up a self-assessment and you just have a one way review where your supervisor lays down his/her view of your work, these tips all still apply because this will all bolster your case if you and the head honcho do not quite see eyeball to eyeball.

Avoid mind-numbing detail.
While I have full faith that your achievements in 2007 were the stuff of Arthurian legend, it's best not to treat your performance review as the chance to recount every potential positive thing you did in lurid detail. If you need to abbreviate every other word in order to fit your epic tale into the pre-defined text box of the performance review form... you might just be including too much. Maybe that's just me.

Stay calm in the face of criticism.
At some point, someone is going to have less-than-stellar things to say about your work product... not me mind you, but the rest of your slobs might have this problem. But to be serious, it's just a part of the process and, in a way, you should welcome criticism provided it's constructive to your improving at your job. If no one ever tells you what you can do better or tweak a little bit, you're going to get stale and have a much harder time advancing (unless you have a gift for cold-eyed analysis of your strengths and weaknesses). But if you immediately face any amount of "room for improvement" with a tight forced smile and gripping the armrests of your chair lest you throttle your boss... you need to take a deep breath. While much can be at stake in your annual review, you will never ever help yourself by getting emotional - all you end up accomplishing is reaffirming whatever the criticism was in the first place. If you disagree with it, be prepared to provide examples to the contrary.

For the future:

S.M.A.R.T. objectives.
Ok, Ok... you, me and every other person I can think of hates to be told the tip of "Make sure you're doing S.M.A.R.T. objectives!" As a refresher, S.M.A.R.T. stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timebound
Ugh, I hate myself a little bit just for writing that out. The idea of conforming your objectives to these criteria gets tiresome in a hurry, but I can definitely say that the extra hour or so you spend doing this will pay off later. This is (obviously) more of a long term tip.

Define a means to exceed your objectives.
This is a corollary to the S.M.A.R.T. tip, but in creating your own goals for the year, make it clear what you need to do not to only meet your objectives, but to exceed them as well. This can be a fairly process of chatting with your boss about what you feel it takes to be better than the norm and it helps to properly set expectations for the year ahead. For example, maybe your objective is to complete five IT implementation projects, but what does it mean if you do six? Is that top notch? Or do you need seven? Better to know that now as opposed to in December and be sorely disappointed if you and your boss have completely different ideas. And besides... do you really just want to slide along and never be seen as a top performer? If that's the case, I have no idea how you made it this far in a blog post all about how to do better in performance reviews. You're some kinda freak. Shoo.

The kudos file.
I'm not talking about those candy bars that masquerade as a semi-healthy granola bar, but rather, keep a log of all the praise, props and positive pronouncements (a 4 bagger of alliteration!) someplace where you can whip them out for your review. I do this with e-mails for myself and I also keep them for my own employees when someone sends me a nice note for someone on my team. But hey, I cannot say every boss will do this, so do it on your own and build up your arsenal of good work. This is absolutely killer material and should never be blown off.

Anyhoo, I will be knee deep in all of this soon enough and hopefully I am doing a good enough job of following my own advice on the topic. Stay tuned.

(And in case you are wondering, I took the quote from The Simpsons episode where the teachers went on strike and Lisa lost her mind not being graded)

Sitting in Queue

Yup, this pretty much sums up my feelings as I sit here going on an hour in the virtual waiting
room hoping for Sox tickets...

Bring On the Power Tools!

As I sit here in queue for 2008 Red Sox tickets, I thought I would bang out a blog post (all the while praying that my having another Firefox tab open will not somehow disturb my computer's mojo and send me careening towards no ticket doom), I was thinking about my upcoming Christmas shutdown break. At my company, we are shutdown from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day and believe me when I write that I am looking forward to it pretty heavily. In years past, I would spend the time deflating from the hard work of the year, collect myself a bit, hit the gym a ton and look forward to the clean sheet of paper that would be the upcoming year.

I'm doing something a little different this year during my break. In the vein of seeking to try new things and then detail those efforts here, I'm taking a big step (for me at least) of tackling some kind of project(s) here at the Chez Kuzia condo. In order for this to feel like a true challenge, it's gotta be something more than, say, painting a room (although I may do that as well). There's gotta be dust and mayhem and shenanigans and likely lots of cursing. One idea I have is to rip up the linoleum I have in my upstairs bathroom and throw down tile since I have some nice tiles leftover by the previous owner. Me and my handy Home Depot book will be attempting to make some sweet property value increasing magic, described in glorious detail right here with some photos and likely video. God help me.

The logical part of my brain tells me this is something regular people like me do all the time and are able to accomplish and get better at with some practice... but this is an area where I've long felt is some kind of real leap for me. Funny huh? For some people it would be going bungee jumping or wrestling an anaconda, but for me, it's replacing a sink or putting down some new floors.

And if anyone has any ideas on little things to do around this place to snazz it up (which I know is tough without actually seeing my place, unless I get some photos up here for everyone), feel free to let me know. One other option (which does not involve a ton on my part except for the almighty dollar) is to get some new appliances since the ones I have are not all that great. The dishwasher is getting some funk built up on the inside seals and that seems inherently problematic for a device meant to get things clean. I'm just sayin'.

FORE! Taking The Life Mulligan

I'm a fan of the ESPN Radio Show "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd and I happened to catch a bit of his show today while driving home to have some lunch. Colin was discussing a bit of which teams in professional sports most need a mulligan, i.e. a chance to start over and get out of an ugly situation. For all of you non-golfers... a do-over. Simple enough concept.

But he also went into a little bit of detail about taking a mulligan in life and his overall point was very directly related to my theme of making life better through simplification. He commented about how during his early to mid 30's, he was on the rat race treadmill and as soon as he got off of it... his life improved dramatically. Of course, it's always helpful to find the right mix of job, friends, family and personal satisfaction to make it all really click, but it's a good lesson nonetheless. How often do we put things off because of work or put the things we say are important on the back burner because we will get to it tomorrow? It's probably one of my absolute worst habits... the things I will do later. The cool trips or life experiences I will take part in somewhere down the line. What's that line? Life is what happens when you're busy making plans?

I don't mean to have this entire post descend into utter cliche. But Colin makes a really great point in that adding more "stuff" to your life (the big house, the fast car, the best TV or even just the gnawing need for all of those things) just makes things more difficult than you need... and how does that possibly make you happier? Life tends to throw enough complications at you as it is, so why add further complexity all on your own? You know... like me doing that totally sweet 450 degree spin out on the drive home from youth group Sunday night. Hit me some sweet black ice while driving less than 50 MPH, losing control of the car and being one fortunate SOB not to hit anyone. Oh yeah... really good times there. Nothing quite like that moment when you realize you cannot turn out of the spin and for the next 5 or 6 seconds, you are waiting it out to see what in the name of all that is holy is gonna happen to you.

You can download the MP3 podcast from Colin show's today here. I highly recommend going to the ESPNRadio.com Podcenter to subscribe and get them delivered to you daily (especially if you are not able to listen to the show as it's broadcasted live because that ugly little distraction known as your job keeps getting in the way).

Balanced Life - Bringing Back A Classic

I posted on this one before in the older incarnation of my blog, but it's certainly a good enough one to bring back again. Allen Galbraith goes through his 10 tips on how to lead a balanced life. Heck, I even see my old comment right there from when it was first published! Ahh, the memories of those halcyon days of yore...

It's interesting looking back on this post because in my comment, I say that tip #5 ("Don't buy into the culture around if you don't want to") was the one that stuck out the most, but the more I think about it, the more I think that #7 is pretty critical, "Recognize you have to be healthier than those around you." Why is this one sticking out more than the others?

I think it's because my mind has been thinking more and more about environment and the effect of the people who surround you on your life... the ups, the downs, the failures and the successes. It's something I blogged about just a few days ago here.

While I think most of us (me included) say the brave things like, "I am my own person... what other people do doesn't affect me and my choices", I think that more often than we can admit to even ourselves... those other people do affect us... and probably a lot more than we know. It's not as if we are completely malleable to the will of our friends, family and the dude at Starbucks who puts the extra sprinkle of cinnamon on your Grande low-foam latte. However, the people that surround us every day will have some impact upon us. My thought is that if you are in a rather unenviable balance of being surrounded by more negative people than positive or, those negative people are just louder and more convincing, you'll always have a much harder time at staying in a positive frame of mind. I don't care who you are or how finely honed your mental powers are there, Professor X... it ain't gonna be easy to hold off the marauding horde of doubters and ne'r- do-wells if you are flat out surrounded by those draining SOBs.

Recognizing those others who are the drains is not always easy - they most dangerous ones come in the familiar guise of a good friend or a close family member... but if you stop and take a little bit of time to think about who is in your life and what kind of impact they have upon you... you might be surprised at what you discover. Give it a try since I will be doing that tonight and reporting back later.

Great Tips: How to Open Blister Packages

Ever buy something that comes in one of those blister/clamshell packages and then swear in nine different dialects as you attempt to open the sucker and get your goods out? This happens with me constantly when I buy things like cell phone accessories or other kinds of electronics. I just found this over at Lifehacker and the sheer simplicity of it knocked me over. Can opener! Who woulda thunk it?

Ok, not my most inspired post, but handy nonetheless.

Reuniting Man and... Umm... Glove

I have no statistics to back this up, but I have to believe one of the things people lose the most (besides their minds, inhibitions and dignity) are their gloves. They are just so easy to misplace on a park bench, in a restaurant and so on. But what to do? Especially if you just lose a single one from the pair of hand-warming goodness?

Well, if you live in Pittsburgh, PA, you're potentially in luck if you are currently carrying on a quest of grail-like proportions for a missing glove or mitten. Onecoldhand.com is a Web site created to reunite missing gloves with their forlorn owners. What's not to love about that concept?

This site will not bring peace to the Middle East or prevent deforestation in the Amazon River basin... but isn't this the kind of thing you just like to hear about during the holidays? It's a small act of kindness, created with a bit of wit and whimsy for no other purpose than to remind people that there are a few nice folks still walking around out there. I know, I know... I'm being incredibly sappy, but I figure that I get a free pass during this time of year. And the rest of the year? Well, if you've ever met me, I am never short on the sap and I am a fairly firm believer in our needing a little more of it out there. I guess that is my personal question of grail-like proportions.

America's Cheapest Family

Can you imagine being a family of 7 people and living on a post-taxes annual budget of $35,000 per year? Seems borderline impossible, but it seems there is a family who has done it out in Arizona as detailed in the linked post over at The Digerati Life by Silicon Valley Blogger, who does some really nice takeaway tips from looking at this amazing family.

The one that jump out at me most (since it is where I think I hit my own personal wall) is the notion of organizing yourself properly to attack a life of greater frugality. Oh, as if any words could ever be so true as this! I think of all the times where I spent more money than I needed due to just not planning ahead:

• Not packing a lunch and then blowing money on an overpriced meal at the company cafeteria (which just ticks me off all the more because the food is less-than-delicious)
• Wasting food (especially fresh vegetables) I bought because I got caught up in doing too much during the week and it goes bad
• Buying something I saw in the store the first time I see it when, chances are, it's much cheaper on-line

In fact, I think when it comes to eating, that is where I run into the biggest issue. I like the idea of cooking a lot at once so I have tons of food on hand whenever I am ready to eat... but for reasons that continue to elude me, I don't do a great job of putting it into practice.

My baby steps goal is to getting in a bunch of weekend cooking and store it all away for the week. It's just one step, but one that will avoid a lot of last minute stops at places that are overpriced and (lest I forget) 100 times less healthy than what I can whip up myself.

Stuff I Like: Nordstrom

Last night I ventured out to the mall as I do maybe once per Christmas shopping season and it was, thankfully, painless. I'm not one of those people against shopping per se, but during this crazed time of year, I stand against it as a personal protest. I find myself in less of a Christmas spirit when faced with all of the traffic, crowds, lack of parking and borderline obscene amounts of commercialism that malls have in spades.

But there is one place I never mind shopping: Nordstrom. There is something so completely different about walking through their stores that makes for a shopping experience that is wholly different from any other department store. Admittedly they are a more expensive store than Macy's, Dillard's and others, but they get one thing so very right, that I don't mind the more premium prices and why they earn a stuff I like designation: top-notch customer service.

I went in last night needing to pick up some lotion I use after shaving since my skin gets crazy dry and irritated using other products. The Nordstrom clerk was like every other one I have dealt with: pleasant, informative, helpful and just a breeze to conduct a transaction with. She also did something I have noticed all Nordstrom employees do which is subtle, but powerful. After running my credit card, she bagged my purchase and came out from behind the counter to stand next to me and hand me the slip to sign. In other words, they make an effort not to have something (in this case, the product counter) between them and their customers.

Is that alone enough to justify higher prices? You decide. I certainly don't go there just because they don't remain behind the counter, but in an age when your average person working a counter treats you like a leper, it matters. The amount of hassle I avoid by dealing with a Nordstrom salesperson who is polite, professional and knowledgeable enough to answer all my questions is worth paying a little more for. Plus, it's less of a hassle just getting around their store with the wide aisle and open sight lines.

Who said a little extra peace of mind doesn't have a price?

Simple Living: The Journey's First Steps

Over the past few days, I've gotten a few pieces of fairly unwelcome financial news. Yesterday, I found out I needed about $800 of work on my car to fix up the O2 sensor and catalytic converter so I could pass my emissions test. Then today, I got the really super news at the
dentist that I have a crack in one of my molars and will need a crown… which AFTER insurance will run me $1,200. Needless to say, my wallet is a touch on the sore side this evening as I look over these completely unexpected costs.

All of this is a good lead-in (at least there was some silver lining to all of this) to something I've been thinking a lot about of late and something I plan on posting about quite a bit: what it would take and what it would mean to live a much simpler life. It occurs me quite a bit whenever I incur some financial hit because a simple life means seeking to live below your means and giving you a great deal of personal freedom.

This is not exactly a topic I plan on trying to tackle all in a single post, but I wanted to at least get the concept flowing now for everyone to consider since I'm sure there are a lot of people out
there who long for a little less life complication. So where to begin with a topic so vast? I thought this was a nice little piece over at Get Rich Slowly on how to get more value on what you already have.

It's a pretty interesting concept: Before you pull the trigger to make a purchase, get into the habit of being mindful to ask 2 questions:

1. How often will you use the item; and
   
2. How much enjoyment will you get out of it?

I've started to get myself into this habit of late because it can be very easy for me to confuse need against want. Perfect example. My car was giving me more hassles than I care to think about with the need for maintenance… and of course this was all kicking in after I got that bugger paid off. Feeling fed up with my car (the incredibly sexy 2001 Nissan Altima GXE… Limited Edition… because, you know… they only made like eleventy billion of them), I swung by an Infiniti dealership on my drive out from picking my ride up from service. I took an Infiniti G35x out for a spin and… holy crap, that was nice. I was rather smitten.

Oh sweet siren... call me not to my doom upon the rocks!

But you know what? As I left the dealership, got home and let the euphoria of dropping the hammer on 306 incredibly sweet horses wash away… I realized it was just a car. That's it. A really nice car, but just a car. It wouldn't change who I was as a person nor would it suddenly make me the definition of refined cool (as the commercials would suggest). What it would do is add an additional $650 to $700 per month to my budget with car payments and higher insurance premiums. So for me, it wasn't worth it… at least not yet. My car will crap out eventually and is rapidly approaching 100K miles, but until that time, it gets the job done.

This is a small step, but an important one - to begin to cut myself off from thinking things bring about the happiness or satisfaction you imagine they might as you consider snapping them up. It doesn't have to be something as elaborate and expensive as a finely tuned luxury sports sedan.

So here's to first steps that will, hopefully, lead to more and more steps... and more blog postings.