This is Steveer Robbins.

Welcome to the Good It Dung Guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today's an exciting day at Green Growing Things Plant Store.

It's annual review time.

Annual reviews are important.

The owner Bernice calls in her employees.

She asks each one to identify their strengths and their weaknesses, and together they come up with a personal development plan to shore up all of those weaknesses.

But why?

Although business results come from day-to-day management, Bernice has all of her people working on fixing their weaknesses.

That's the wrong way to go about it.

Annual reviews are not very effective. We think they are, but we're gullible, aren't we?

A 1998 meta-analysis found that annual reviews were more about people having their voices

heard and less about changing their actual performance. In other words, annual reviews are

forward-covetching. Let's take a look at a better way,

effectively managing people by using their best qualities.

One. Focus on Strengths. Consider Bernice's employee Europa. Europa's emotional intelligence

is off the chart. She's the secret overlord of the Eastern Block, which she holds together

through sheer force of personality. Augmented, of course, with control of a small R off the chart. She's the secret overlord of the Eastern Block, which she holds together through

sheer force of personality, augmented, of course, with control of a small arsenal of tactical

nuclear weapons. But when it comes to computer skills, Europa still thinks that a mouse

is cat food. Oh dear. Although Europa's development plan could concentrate on shoring up her

weaknesses by sending

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