Relive the Glory Days

Disclaimer:  I am a proud football mom.  I know some people without kids will roll their eyes at that because ten years ago, I would have done the same to all the minivan-driving soccer moms.  That said, I think there are so many things that can be learned by watching little ones play sports.

I just received a DVD of my son’s last football game.  These 5- 6 year olds played with such heart!  When it got to the part of the video where my son broke free and made an 80 yard run….I was teary eyed.  Not because he made a good play.  Not even because it was so good that the ref actually high-fived him, although that was cool.  It was because someone took time to film this for us so we can relive the great moments with him.

In the workplace, whether you’re a leader in the organization or you’re in human resources, we try to encourage managers to complete performance evals on their staff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to tout the developmental opportunities we open up by using performance feedback, and that is still true.  However, watching the football video this morning, something hit me like a ton of bricks.

The most important part of the performance evaluation is giving that employee the ability to relive the glory of their accomplishments.

Let that sit there for a moment.

I am going to make a mental note to approach performance evaluations from this angle from now on.  Sure, I’ll still tell managers all the great reasons that by documenting it can help them improve performance, but the MAIN thing is to really celebrate achievements.

Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments.