5 Reasons to Perform a Self Review

photo credit: ChazWags

Last week I wrote an article entitled Dealing With Mr. Cranky-Pants. In this article I outlined an encounter I had with a client and my reactions to it.

Since writing the article I’ve done some reflection about that particular encounter and the effect it had on me. Now, before I go any further I want you to know that I don’t recant any of what I said last week. I still feel I handled myself well and I stand behind the reccomendations I made.

However, the client interaction got me thinking. Perhaps I could have been more effective when dealing with Mr. Cranky-Pants.

While I was dealing with Mr. Cranky-Pants I did things as I always did. In the past I had never had complaints. I am also successful at what I do. I’d like to think I’m good at my job. However, as I thought more about Mr. Crank-Pants’ complaint with me I wondered if perhaps there wasn’t something to it. You see it’s been my practice to address clients by their full name and then become more casual and then just use their first name. Mr. Cranky-Pants wanted to be addressed as ‘Mr. Cranky-Pants’. Now, this client was a grumpy old man there is no denying that, but perhaps his request wasn’t so unreasonable.

In fact his request was very reasonable. As the week has progressed I’ve given it more thought and I wonder if encorporating Mr. Cranky-Pants’ demand of me into my regular routine when contacting clients might yeild me better results.

Now, I’ve yet to incorporate this into my routine. I’ll be working on that when I’m back into work and will give it a trial run to see how client reactions are. Also, to see if it results in me converting more contacts into appointments.

The point of all this of course is that through an unpleasant client experience I did some self reflection. This is important, if we don’t take time to pause and review our progress we don’t know if we’re on track or not. Listed below are five reasons to perform a self review.

1. As I mentioned above, if you don’t stop to reflect from time to time how do you know if you are on the right path? If you’ve been following a plan towards a particular goal, you need to take time to ensure that you are still working towards the goal. You need to ensure that the steps you’ve taken are leading towards the objective you have set for youself.
2. You may discover that while you’ve been successful to date, a new approach can take you to the next level. Let’s be honest, we all want to be more successful so take the steps to get there.
3. By performing a self review you may realize that you are way off track. Perhaps you’ve been distracted by a new venture, relationship, stress or any other variable. This distraction, while perhaps enjoyable and benificial, has put you off course. You either need to reasses your priorities and formulate a new plan or modify your existing plan, factoring in the new variables.
4. Stopping to reflect may cause you to realize that you don’t have a plan to follow. That you’re just rolling along the path of life. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, you may find that by reviewing life to date that you are able to put together some career and personal goals. You can then factor in some steps to help you achieve these goals and realize your dreams.
5. Finally, perhaps you’ve hit your goal. If so congratulations! However, don’t stop there. There are always new mountains to climb and new oceans to cross. Always continue to challenge yourself and work towards new goals, just remember to stop smell the roses and review the plan from time to time.