Communication

The power of an A-List

It’s performance review you time. You sit down at your computer, open up the form, and start rating yourself on various aspects of your job. But, suddenly, you’re blank. You can’t think of specific examples to support your claim of excellence. You rack your brain. Flip through your calendar to review past appointments and meetings. You open old files, perform a keyword search on your computer.

If you had an A-List, or an accomplishment list, you wouldn’t have this problem. You would have a list of your projects and results on hand to choose from. This article will discuss why you need an A-List and how to effectively create one.

Duties vs. Accomplishments

Depending on your job you may be used to tracking your daily duties for billable purposes or just company policy. This kind of tracking usually consists of time spent on certain projects and isn’t necessarily a reflection of your actual accomplishments. An A-list is different; instead of focusing on your duties, it focuses on your accomplishments.

These examples help illustrate the difference between duties and accomplishments:

Duty: Spent 3 hours on “Going Green” project
Accomplishment: Led team of eight on “Going Green” project for prominent client.

Duty: Worked on marketing budget for one hour a month
Accomplishment: Negotiated professional service fees, saving company 10% on budget

Duty: Wrote story on website
Accomplishment: Developed and implemented widget on website that increased web traffic by 50% and decreased bounce rate by 35%

Why keep an A-List

Once a year during performance reviews, employees sit down at their computers and try to think of everything they’ve done throughout the year. Every project they worked on. Every project they led. Every idea they suggested. Every time they went beyond expectations. If you only think about your accomplishments once a year, you=’re bound to forget something, or more than likely, a lot of things. It’s in your best interest to track your accomplishments throughout the year; you never know when you’re going to need them.

Here are a few examples:

Raises
There is no stronger case for a raise than your accomplishments. Your employer is only going to give you a raise if you add value to the company, and you’re going to need proof. A list of concrete accomplishments will help you prove your worth.

Promotions
What better way to prove you can handle more responsibility than by showing what you’re already doing? Show off everything you’ve accomplishments and you’ll be making a great case for more.

Resume
Potential employers want to see results. They don’t care that you worked on a project; they want to see the results of that project. How did you improve the business? What will you bring to the table?

“Rainy Day” Reminder
It sounds silly, but there are days when everything seems to be going wrong. You sent out the wrong email or you didn’t meet your sales goals. After you fix the issue, pull out your A-List and feel good about all the things you have done right.

What to include on your A-List

As the name implies, you should include all of your accomplishments, big and small. The A-List is a private list that you will review and pare down before using as ammo for a raise or another position, so you should record everything you do that is even remotely considered an accomplishment. You can always take it off the list if it doesn’t work out or doesn’t stand up the rest of your accomplishments.

When you’re thinking of what to put on your A-List, be creative. Ask yourself:

• How do I save the company money?
• How do I bring more money to the company?
• How do I help your co-workers do their jobs better?
• How am I a leader?
• What do people praise me for?
• How have I improved?
• How have I improved the relationship with our clients?
• How have I gone above and beyond the call of duty?
• How do I value to my company?

Here are a few other ideas for your A-List:

Ideas proposed
Keep track of all the ideas you suggest, even if they don’t go anywhere.

Ideas implemented
Record all of the ideas that were actually implemented. How did they help the company?

Problems solved
Employers love to know that you can solve problems of all kinds. Jot down the problem, the steps you took to solve it, and the end result.

Projects led
Leadership is a key quality for employers. Record the projects you led and other leadership roles you’re in. Results are especially important to show your quality of leadership.

Client and co-worker praise
Although not measurable, keep a file for all praise that you receive, even if it’s just a one-line email from a co-worker.

How to track your A-List

Use whatever method you’re comfortable with to track you’re A-List. It could be a simple as a small notebook, as complicated as an access database, or as technology-driven as www.backpackit.com.

There are three things you definitely want to track:

1. The project/idea/problem: What is the basic premise of the accomplishment?
2. Your role: How did you participate in the project?
3. The result, preferably measurable: What was the end result of the program?

There’s no need to spend a lot of time working on your list; it should take just a couple minutes at the week to jot down your projects and ideas. Any longer could be a waste of your time.

Final Thoughts

You may be accomplishing a lot more than you even realize. If you run into trouble filling out your A-List or you don’t think you accomplish anything, you should take a long, hard work at yourself and your job. Once you start your list, it will become natural to record this information. Remember, you’re the only one who will be seeing the list, so there’s no need to hold back.

 

© 2008 Girl Meets Business.