This course was a great instrument for me in regards to some changes I want to make in my own communication styles. One of the biggest things that stuck out to me is the performance feedback communication. This is something that I have just begun to experience last few years and this year because of this class, I am going to change up how I conduct these. It is so easy to copy and paste items from past evals and give the same feedback each year and move on to the next meeting, phone call, training, etc. but I want to make an impact, to mentor to challenge my employees.
Today one of my coworkers came to me saying that she is struggling with what goals she should put down on her eval. After I asked her some questions I listened to what she was thinking and based on that I told her what goals she should put down. She felt good about it and I felt that I got something out of this as well. I don't want to just say, "yeah we can see what we can do about that" I want to actually help make a difference. On the other hand I have an employee who puts down exceeds on pretty much everything on her eval and what she feels she is exceeding on is exactly what her job is. How do I approach this? I am nervous to speak to her but I know that going over the eval with her and explaining ways she can actually take initiative, mentor, improve her communication skills will help her in the long run. I am also going to ask her where she sees herself in the department in the next few years...is she looking for promotions or just raises?
Effective communication is another big one for me. In our department, we are always sending out email reminders about things that counselors have done incorrectly or dispelling rumors or misunderstandings that they may have. It appears that we need to make time to do some refresher training and spend more time mentoring and coaching our employees. I am going to start a monthly training so that the counselors have an opportunity to learn and in turn teach each other.
I am excited to see what these changes will do for not only me but for our department as well.
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