Excellent advice!

When you are proactive you have just a little more control over the outcome.

When you ask the two questions “What can I do better? What am I doing well?” you do two huge things for yourself (and your manager).

First – you reduce or eliminate the chance for surprises, both short term and on official reviews. No one likes surprises during their review, but managers are notorious for this, holding off on bad news for fear of… well, frankly lots of things, like not wanting to deliver bad news, or hoping you will ‘get better’ even though you may not know you need to. Also, paradoxically, managers often fail to tell their people that they ARE doing good. For some reason it is not as important to them, but they lose a great chance to motivate.

Second – When you find out what you are doing good you become more motivated. I am not talking about asking for praise here. Praise is an external motivation. Asking for specifics on your techniques and what you do well at work is an opportunity to see if these areas fit your values and when they do, you become more self-motivated.

When you receive the answers to these questions write them down in a journal. Keeping the record helps you to see your progress, and is a reminder to yourself, and if it comes down to it your boss, on areas that you continually discuss.
Bart Gragg | Blue Collar U´s last blog ..What Does A Manager Do?