Apologies where due.

After re-reading my last post, I had a think back to my last performance management review.  Being a male, performance reviews, when I did them, focused on performance.  What had a person done, how had it been done, how could it be done better.  It focused on skills had, skills developed, skills required and skills gained since the previous review.

I learned something from my last performance management.  I lacked soft skills when performance managing.  A good manager knows their staff and steps in to remind them when they are not looking after themselves and can step in and make changes.  I always did this under my management premise rather than under performance management - but I can see how it could fit here too.  If a staff member is not looking after themselves, if home life is not taken into account - performance will suffer.  By talking through the issues (rather than just making the changes) a staff member can become empowered to better manage themselves.

Revising my original statement, under my usage of performance management, admin is poorly suited to analysing content provision and pedagogy due to time and skills constraints.  Using their experience to assist in management of self is a good use of their time, as they see continuous snapshots of staff behaviour and can spot when a staff member is struggling.  Reviewing how often this is occurring is a valid use of performance management time.

I'm lucky in this respect as my line manager (and even indirectly my principal) has had to step in a number of times to remind me of my limitations before I started something I couldn't finish.  For that I am thankful.


Russ.