This week’s TRIPLE III TIME message is about the importance of periodically going through an evaluation process of Recognizing/Identifying Gaps & Weaknesses in you as a professional and/or the organization/business you work for.  Isn’t this possibly the greatest example of “professional discomfort” you can think of!?

So then I want everyone to think hard about this professional discomfort generating activity…and honestly determine if you can really complete this type of an evaluation thoroughly.

I can report that I go through this type of process at least once a week.  And during my self-assessment steps I think about:

• Did I cover all topics that seemed necessary in the American Government & Politics classes I teach?
• Were there gaps in my instruction or weaknesses in my delivery because I wasn’t prepared?
• Did I interact or follow-up with every consultant customer on their expectations of me…and my assignments to them?
• Did I reveal gaps or weaknesses in their organizational structure, product line, communication methods, etc.?

As you can see there are multiple approaches and useful results that may come out when Recognizing/Identifying Gaps & Weaknesses.  Often you may find trends, situations that can lead to creativity and innovative alternatives.  And if you extend your assessments to include your team of co-workers, Agency or company, who knows what progress concepts could be suggested.

Finally the Recognizing/Identifying Gaps & Weaknesses activity may help you realize that you may be too close to an issue to see it clearly and/or discover that the problems may not at all be what you thought.

Bottomline:  Do NOT just conduct the Recognizing/Identifying Gaps & Weaknesses activity on a random basis.  It’s value arises from assessment consistency.