The Real Value of Evaluation is What You Do With It
Evaluation. That word usually sparks joy in no one. In certain settings, we know it is absolutely necessary. We want our doctors, teachers, and tradesmen to be evaluated to ensure they are proficient in their jobs. After all, we rely on them for important aspects of our lives. But evaluation doesn’t have to always be about about compliance. There are very positive elements of evaluation that can be beneficial to anyone, especially leaders. The real key to that is making the most of it and putting the information from the evaluation to work for you.
The natural response to evaluation is to feel judged. We have to mature to a place where we respond to it with gratitude, and love feedback. — Henry Cloud
I want to share a few different types of evaluation that would be common in our retail space and provide ideas on how you can get the most from those.
Self-evaluation
Perhaps the most significant evaluation you can embrace is that of self-evaluation. Ultimately, you are the judge of yourself. What others think only goes so far. You know the effort you put in. Only you know what you really know and where you stand. You must always be fair with yourself. More importantly, though, you must be honest. Again, your evaluation of yourself is your own, no one else needs to know where you know you can or should have done better.
Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable. — John Wooden
The standard you set for yourself is what you measure against. How you perform is your collection of your choices, attitude, and behaviors. All of which are in your control. Take time each day, each week, or at the end of key projects to evaluate your performance. Big things, little things, capture them all. I would highly recommend writing them down and having a way to come back to them in the future, perhaps during a future self-evaluation to measure improvement.
Feedback and evaluation from others
Probably the most common form of evaluation we are used to is getting it from others. Whether it is a formal (think performance appraisal), or informal (think follow-up conversation on the phone), this is feedback on how you are doing compared to the standard. This is extremely valuable information. That is, if you allow it to be.
To be the best next-generation leader you can be, you must enlist the help of others. Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential. You need a leadership coach. Coaching enables a leader to go further faster. — Andy Stanley
Listening to, and absorbing feedback is a high-quality leadership skill. And I do believe it is a skill. Not everyone is naturally great at taking feedback. I am sure you have experienced it. You may even be in a season of your career where it is hard to hear feedback. It can be challenging, especially when that feedback is critical of your performance. The natural response is to be defensive, and to shut down. To get the most from feedback, allow yourself to take in the information. You do not need to respond right away. In a previous article, 5 Ways to Seek Productive Feedback That Will Improve You as a Leader, I talk about how you can solicit and make use of the feedback provided.
Some of the best growth opportunities I have had as a leader have come from situations where my supervisor gave me direct feedback. I was open to listening (and that took time, by the way), but has remained with me in how I approach certain situations to this day.
Location Visits
Store visits are a form of evaluation. Some more formal than others. Often we dread these, or in others, we wonder what the purpose was for someone spending time in your store or location. These can be excellent opportunities to seek feedback on how you and your team are performing. If you are unclear as to the feedback you are receiving, or the purpose of someone’s visit to your store — ASK. Anytime someone visits your location, it should be an opportunity for you to get better.
In the more formal evaluations, perhaps with a checklist or compliance audit, use the event to understand how you are performing, what they are looking at, and why they are rating it the way they are. Even if you do not agree, there will be something to learn from those occasions. After each visit, capture what you can do to make the improvements you want and that are necessary.
Data
Reports are a form of evaluation. It is probably the most overused and least valuable of the forms of evaluation that are common in our business. Reports can be a place to hide behind either good or bad information. It can be too easy to find data that would suggest a positive reflection of your business, and leave vulnerable the real issues that need addressing. Sometimes the data simply doesn’t show the entire picture (good or bad).
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. — Albert Einstein
Much like feedback itself, the data is only ever as good as you make use of it. If you are not taking action on the data you have, you should question the value of the data. Or spend a few minutes on the self-evaluation portion of this article to understand what is holding you back. I would guess that most retailers (or any business, for that matter) have more reports and data than they know what to do with. We’re all only one report away from greatness (NOT). Identify the most critical data points you have. Use those to guide and steer your actions, follow-up routines, and your outcomes to make the shifts you need. Use the data then to guide your steps along the way.
Evaluations and the feedback that comes from them is truly a gift and growth opportunity. But only if we allow it to be. When receiving feedback, don’t just hear what you want to hear. The real need is to listen to ALL the information and be honest with yourself. Then you can begin to distill and filter the information for the most valuable parts to act on.
How will you make the most of evaluations in the future?
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Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash