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Published July 07, 2021 at 11:03 AM

Do You Know if Your Boss is Happy with Your Work?

5 min read
5 min read
Picture of Ryan Walcott

Ryan Walcott
a Rhythm Consultant

Many people wonder and worry about whether or not they are doing a good job and if their boss is performance reviewhappy with their work. It is one of the consistent emotional challenges employees face in the workplace, and sadly, most people don't know what to do about it.

One way this challenge has been dealt with is by having the dreaded annual or quarterly performance review. That's the day when you go and find the document (if you had one) from your last review and hope that you were able to improve your work performance from last time you had a formal discussion with your boss. This is usually a lose-lose scenario. You dread these meetings because they feel so formal and awkward. Your boss dreads these meetings because they have to try to figure out something smart, insightful and helpful to say to you to make them look and feel like they are being a good boss. Once it's over, all breathe a sigh of relief and are glad they don't have to do that again for another 3 months—or even a year.

There is a better way.

When you use Rhythm as a methodology and software to plan your growth and execute against your plan, you naturally gain better focus, alignment and accountability as an individual and as teams. It's easy to know if your boss is happy with your work, because the two of you work on a Job Scorecard together. You then create and track goals together that align to the purpose and expectations for your job, as documented by the scorecard.

The Job Scorecard documents:

  • The job position (ex. Head of Products)
  • To whom the person in the role reports (ex. CEO)
  • The purpose of the job (ex. Create products that grow revenues and delight our customers)
  • Desired results and KPIs for the job (ex. Product Revenue, Customer Retention etc.)
  • Key responsibilities of the job (ex. Stakeholder communication, Product planning, etc.)
  • Skills required to accomplish it successfully (ex. Leadership, Communication, etc.)

Once the Job Scorecard is documented, you are ready to create goals together. This process is powerful and helps you and your leadership understand, every day and every week, what is important to accomplish and what results are required for success in your job. You want your goals to be specific, measurable, realistic and time-bound. Rhythm helps you document your goals and track your execution against them weekly so that you and your boss always know how things are going. Rhythm gives you beautiful dashboards to easily see when you are succeeding and when you are struggling. No need to wait for quarterly performance reviews to talk about what adjustments are needed for growth and success. These conversations happen naturally every week you are working.

Here is an example dashboard from our Rhythm software:

Job Scorecard
 

You and your boss can click on any of the circles at any time to dig into the performance of any goal and have a discussion about improvement and growth needed. This process of creating Job Scorecards, setting goals quarterly together, and discussing goal execution weekly takes a lot of the drama out of the relationship with your boss. If you think your manager might need some help learning how to write goals, you can send them the link to help.  It frees you from the fear of quarterly or annual reviews by enabling you to talk about improving execution against goals every week. Don't worry, be happy! :-)

Rhythm Systems Job Scorecard Template

Check out our additional employee scorecard resources:

The Power of Systems and People: Accountable Leaders and Teams

Employee Engagement and Motivation: What's the Difference Between Employee Engagement and Employee Motivation

A Real-Life Job Scorecard Example [SlideShare]

Use Job Scorecards to Build Team Accountability

Don't Get Stuck on Your Job Scorecard

Use Your Core Values and Job Scorecards in Your Hiring Process

How to Roll Out Job Scorecards in Your Organization

The Staggering Cost of a Mis-Hire: Use Job Scorecards Instead

The 5 C's of Team Accountability

Photo Credit: iStock Photos