The Art of Leadership

Chapter 6. Your Professional Growth Questionnaire

Do you know what time of year it is? Chances are, as you read this, it’s not “performance season.” For many of the companies I’ve worked at over the past three decades, performance season is three weeks once a year. More progressive companies have one major performance cycle per year with a minor cycle six months later to allow for one-off promotions for exceptional performance, correct errors in job leveling at hiring, and perform other performance housekeeping tasks that can’t wait another six months.

Three weeks. It’s the time where you write your self-assessment, gather peer feedback, perhaps build a promotion packet, and finally receive feedback from your manager in written and verbal form. The minor cycle is perhaps slightly less work. Let’s call it two weeks. This means if you have a major and a minor cycle, you’re talking about five weeks when it is actually performance season.

Five weeks out of 52. Chances are when you’re reading this, it’s not performance season.

Lies.

It’s always performance season.

The Professional Growth Questionnaire

The following is a large set of questions I think you should ask yourself multiple times a year. Furthermore, I recommend writing down your answers to these questions each time so that you can review them at a later date, because how your answers change over time is as interesting as the answers themselves.

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. There is no grade. The ...