Today, I'm excited to share some best practices and strategies for effectively evaluating your assistant's performance to ensure alignment with your business objectives. It’s important to have a regular cadence of reviewing your assistant’s performance as they grow with your business, so they know what they’re doing well in, and exactly what they need to be doing to improve in any specific areas!
Let’s dive into some best practices we use in our business. These practices will help you foster a collaborative and trusted relationship with your assistant not just a few times a year in performance reviews, but on an ongoing basis.
- Set Clear Expectations: Clearly define your assistant’s role, responsibilities, and performance metrics to provide a roadmap for success. For example, what metrics are you going to be rating their performance on, and by what scale?
- Regular Feedback Loop: Conduct regular check-ins and provide constructive feedback to foster continuous improvement. I’d suggest having at least a weekly check-in meeting with your assistant. One-on-one meetings (if done right) can be very beneficial to you and your assistant, and ensure that you’re both aligned on any current projects.
- Align with Business Objectives: Ensure that the assistant's goals align with your business's overall objectives by setting SMART goals and emphasizing your company values. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals provide a clear roadmapā€‹ for you and your assistant.
- Utilize Technology: Use tools like Trello or Asana to track performance and productivity. In Systems and Assistants That Work All Access, we give you the exact Trello template for our Assistant Training Dashboard that we use with our team of assistants everyday! All you have to do is customize it to your business.
- Encourage Development: Offer ongoing training and promote a growth mindset to help your assistant excel.
- Evaluate Soft Skills: Assess communication, adaptability, and problem-solving abilities. Great leaders coach their teams to always be improving, so make sure you’re not only evaluating, but coaching them how to improve!
Now that we’ve reviewed best practices when it comes to collaborating with and evaluating your assistant’s performance on an ongoing basis, let’s talk performance reviews.
These reviews should be a succinct format that take into consideration how your assistant is doing overall in both their goals, as well as supporting overall business goals. Keep it simple, but actionable!
- Preparation: Gather data, feedback, and prepare an agenda for the review meeting.
- Balanced Review: Start with positives and discuss areas for improvement with actionable plans.
- Set Goals: Define short-term and long-term goals and create a development plan.
- Follow Up: Regularly monitor progress and provide necessary resources and support. Don’t micromanage or hover… instead, ask how you can best support them and their growth!
By implementing these best practices, you'll be able to evaluate your assistant's performance effectively and ensure they are aligned with your business goals.
I’m always here to help answer any questions you may have. Just comment below and I’d love to hear more about your business and your next steps when it comes to getting the help you need!
