A good professional knows that self-assessment is an excellent tool for career development. Meanwhile, just as important as getting third-party feedback is having the ability to assess yourself.
What is a self-assessment?
Self-assessment is an exercise in reflection on oneself. We do to investigate and learn about our own characteristics, therefore, it is an exercise in self-knowledge.
When the person evaluates himself, he knows his strengths, but also his weaknesses. It is important to identify them, since the first helps us in our growth and progress; and the second indicates the points of attention and improvement.
Although it is a very important tool, many ignore it, because sometimes it is delicate to be face to face with oneself. We do not always want to leave the comfort zone or be aware of our since this means that we must take measures that we have postponed for a long time.
At first, it may seem difficult, because seeing yourself with an unbiased eye requires self-knowledge.
In addition, it is also necessary to have a good dose of understanding, so as not to end up being too critical and upsetting you.
However, when you understand that this is an interesting path that expands the possibilities of growth in both professional and personal life, it becomes easier to carry out the self-assessment.
After all, with it it is possible to see what you can improve and everything that has potential for development, understanding your strengths and weaknesses as allies.
With practice, it becomes an indispensable habit. That’s why we’ve put together a script with some amazing tips from start to finish for you to learn how to do an efficient self-assessment.
Preparing the environment for the self-assessment
Before developing the stages of the self-assessment, it is necessary to understand that this is a moment of attention to oneself.
It is important to have time to do it without interruptions.
The chosen place should be comfortable and quiet, creating a calm environment free of interruptions.
Self-assessment is an activity of introspection, a moment of looking inward and reflecting on oneself.
For that, it is essential to know where you come from and where you want to go, as well as what are the options and choices that are on this path.
Keeping that in mind, it will be much easier to establish the stages of that practice.
1. Determine a periodicity
Planning is an essential element when doing a self-assessment.
Taking into account your career plan, you can understand that your professional path is built in stages and in which of them you are.
The determination of the periodicity of carrying out this evaluation is part of the process.
It can be carried out fortnightly, monthly or in longer or shorter periods. Everything will depend on the achievements, always considering your capacity and your pace.
2. Define what aspects you are going to evaluate
A self-assessment does not have to be general, it is very common for people to want to do a self-assessment of everything they do; however, it is possible to make self-assessments focused only on some aspects.
If you feel the need to do a general self-assessment, it is likely that you will have to invest a lot of time and effort to be able to have successful results, and it is also advisable to do it little by little, since it is necessary to reflect a lot to do it correctly.
If, on the other hand, you only want to address some aspects of yourself, the exercise will be simpler and more effective, since you can focus on the characteristics that matter most to you at that moment.
For example, if you’re looking to do a self-assessment of how you’re doing at work, your next steps can be limited to assessing features you only use when you work,
In fact, delimiting the aspects you are going to evaluate will help a lot to make your self-assessment more assertive and precise, as well as helping you to be clearer about the changes you must make to obtain the objectives you are looking for.
3. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses
Here you need to be as honest as possible with yourself.
It is not a very easy task at first, especially if you are a person who has difficulty looking at yourself and admitting your flaws or if you are too critical to recognize your merits.
Regardless, fooling yourself isn’t going to get you anywhere.
- What do you know how to do best?
- What situation do you dominate in the work environment?
- What is your best feature?
- And your locks?
- In what situations do you find yourself most uncomfortable?
- What is your main difficulty?
If you have the frankness necessary to answer questions like these and put your positives and negatives, naturally, your rights and wrongs will appear.
Anyway, watch out! We suggest that you approach this without judging too much, since it will provide you with a clearer view of the situation. And you will also be able to see the limitations that deserve to be worked on and what aspects can be used favorably.
In truth, they should be understood as collaborators.
4. Identify how you reflect the strengths of the list
Once your main characteristics have been established, it is necessary to identify how they are presented.
Think about how your positive points appear in your work environment, in professional relationships and with your co-workers.
In which situations you felt most comfortable, in which they praised your behavior or felt enthusiastic about your actions.
You can go a step further, and think about other skills outside of the workplace that can also complement your professional journey.
Try to look in a different way at a hobby or other activity that you dominate and how that can manifest itself professionally.
Also reflect on your most striking personal aspect. Think about what identifies you, how that characteristic stands out and that it should be constantly used in your favor, as one and personal.
5. Strengthen your strengths on a day-to-day basis
By identifying your strengths and where you excel, you can use it to improve your performance at work and also expand that ability in your professional life in general.
Examine the possibilities, finding ways to use your strengths in setting your goals until the next self-assessment.
Try to establish more specific and minor actions, which will put your attributes in evidence.
Also focus on your relationships with co-workers and other people. What can come from you that will also be significant in the group as a whole?
You will perceive that you do not need to have characteristics that are not yours when setting your goals, if you can use the ones you already have to improve your performance and.
6. Understand your pain points
List your weak points thinking about the main barriers or difficulties that they cause you in your day to day life.
Here personal or technical aspects must enter, and it may be some obstacle to expression or relationship, including little knowledge about a certain topic.
Think of situations in which you found yourself at an impasse, which made you feel insecure or discouraged.
Also think of some action or behavior that can be understood as negative and that you can improve.
Acknowledging our negative parts does not necessarily mean diminishing or discouraging ourselves.
On the contrary! only by recognizing the attitudes that impede good performance is it possible to modify them.
No one gets to be perfect all the time, and admitting flaws is the first step in promoting improvement.
7. Find ways to use weaknesses to your advantage
It is also necessary to be honest when proposing actions considering your shortcomings.
In the same way as the positive aspects, they must be understood as starting points for the goals to be achieved.
What’s the use of promising to end once and for all some bad habit you’ve had for a long time, but you know it won’t be so easy to get rid of it?
In addition to showing a lack of self-knowledge, this can lead to unnecessary frustration.
The ideal is to establish small initiatives that will stimulate you more and more to change.
Sometimes, insisting on some action or situation that has not had positive results can also be a weak point that must be examined.
The energy placed there can be channeled towards other issues in a positive way.
You must know how to dose your criticism, always seeing those points as a motivation for change. Just so.
8. Be aware of where you want to go
Always keep your main goal in mind. What do you want to achieve in your professional life?
Think about what is the moment of your trajectory in which you are now and what would be the next ones.
This is the ideal time for you to identify yourself personally and professionally, aligning your actions and your desires.
Make sure that the goals you want to accomplish in the time frame until the next self-assessment are in line with your professional aspirations. They should represent steps that will help you grow more and more and achieve what you want.
You can also set questions to be answered in the next analysis, to measure your impressions and performance.
It is interesting that you organize the ideas and write down everything throughout the process, to leave it clearly visible and that nothing escapes you, no matter how simple or obvious it may seem.
Finally, understand everything as a process and always recognize your evolution, respecting your own rhythm.
You may not have fully achieved an item, but seeing how far you’ve progressed will help you stay motivated.
Do not forget that this stage goes far beyond setting goals and deadlines.
This is an exercise in self-knowledge that will provide you with more and more understanding of yourself and even go beyond what is expected.
9. Carry out a new self-assessment and compare it with the previous one
As we indicated in the first step, the self-assessments have a periodicity in which they must be reviewed and compared to see if there is an important evolution.
The new evaluation has to take into account the same parameters that you considered in the first step, however, this time you will be able to give a more precise, objective and realistic description of the changes you have faced.
In this phase you will be able to have a more objective approach to yourself in a simpler way for the simple reason that you have been aware of the improvements you have been working on.
For this reason, it is very possible that you discover some qualities that you ignored or that you had that you were not paying much attention to.
Comparing your new self with your old self will help you know if you’ve achieved your goals for improvement and if you’re doing things better than you did before.
Do your own self-assessment
A good self-assessment is the one that enables you to understand how you are, examining your…
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