What Can I do Better?

As a professional technician, you need feedback from your manager to grow.  Here are two questions that you can ask that will help both you and your manager:  What can I do better?  What am I doing well?

While these are certainly questions that you need to delve into more deeply when your manager conducts an annual performance review* or a more formal feedback session, which should be a minimum of four times per year, you can also get answers from an informal, five minute conversation.  The key here is to condition your manager by frequently asking him these questions.  Go for once or twice per month.

Make notes on what your manager says.  And then work to improve yourself between the times you ask.  Make notes on your improvements.  When your manager tells you what you are doing well, that means he is paying attention to your performance.  And it sure is nice to hear about positive aspects of your work instead of just the negative ones.

Special thanks to Scott Savor for his input here.

*We are not fond of what is traditionally known as the annual review, here at The Technician Shop.  More to come in the future on that subject.