The Value of Disciplined Performance Appraisal

Using a tool such as the Lean Adviser ‘Performance Assessment Grid’ does more than identify what went right and wrong; it underscores the significance of planning and getting client buy-in.

I love what Thurgood Marshall said about career mentors: “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

The guy who helped pick me up my boots was Peter. This was at my first job as a qualified lawyer, at a terrific little firm in London. As I’ve mentioned, I spent my first few years in a reinsurance litigation group at which Peter was a partner. There’s a lot of luck about these things, and at times I’ve been absurdly lucky. So one day, Peter was asking me about my job history, and we got into all the legal and non-legal places I had worked. “There’s no such thing as bad experience,” he said. “You learn from every job.” Like many things Peter said, this turned out to be more profound than I appreciated. And, of course, this is precisely why these lessons are laced with takeaways and borrowed ideas from an array of sources.

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