I play poker occasionally and the achilles heel of many poker players is that they think they are better than they really are. They’ll play in tough games where they’ll lose in the long run. The players that honestly assess how poorly they play will avoid situations where they are bound to lose and play games that their skill level will excel at. I’m not a great poker player, but generally I can assess pretty darn quickly if I’m the sucker at the table and admit it. (Stop playing those A9s, it’ll kill your bankroll 
The same applies to your personal review.
If you aren’t accurately assessing your core strengths and weaknesses with a very critical eye, you’ll get beat. You’ll be overmatched and worse yet, set the company off on the wrong course. Do the tough thing and ask your staff to be critical of you and rate you without repercussions. If you don’t have staff, ask your advisers, your customers, or anyone you think can give you a real 360 degree view of you. Do your own self assessment of what you did well, what you did poorly in the past year and give yourself a rating. Do it in writing. Do it honestly and be hard on yourself. Would you fire yourself? File it like you would for any other employee to review every month or quarter.
It doesn’t do any good to stop after doing your review. You need to also come up with an action plan. Never stop learning or growing every day. What are you going to do to improve on your strengths? What are you going to do to cover/improve your weaknesses? Should you hire someone better than you or offload the responsibilities to current staff?
Once you have your action plan, who is going to keep you accountable? Meet with them once a month or even more often. Don’t do it yourself, it’s just too hard.
If you’re like me, life is much more interesting and fun when we’re honest with ourselves and we’re constantly improving. How are you improving yourself each and every day?
Athletes always look at game film to find weaknesses, it’s the only way to get better. Sometimes people like to hide their weaknesses for whatever reason but the pros are always looking for new weaknesses they didn’t know they had. It’s hard to find weaknesses, so it’s always good to get constructive criticism.
You got me thinking about my ‘09 plan at ER.
Jim - great meeting you. Your comment is absolutely true - pros have to find their weaknesses because their competition is always exploiting them.
Wow that pics intense!! I’m improving myself every single day by learning new information. One thing I found out is that we learn more by teaching than we do by reading (we retain 95% of what we teach compared to 10% of what we read.) So after I learn new information, I teach it via my blog.
I’ve been in personal development for over 6 years and I’ve taken more action and have a better understanding of what I’ve learned since I started my blog and started teaching others only a few months ago.
AJ - great point, I’d encourage everyone to teach or write a blog as it really helps to crystallize ideas that drive action.
Nice site. There
Great Post. I have made a habit of reading two new books every week. It has been amazingly valuable to me. I constantly monitor the web for new and interesting books and keep a long wish list on Amazon so that I never run out of to-read books. Also, I made a list of things I want to learn more about. The list includes such things as: Learning about the Stock Market, learning to dance, taking a improvisatory comedy class, etc. I pick one of them and try to schedule some activity that helps me reach the goal every week.
I think the hardest part is to find out where you need improvement. Sometimes I find myself ignoring my more serious weaknesses and instead improving on other things, just out of convenience. A good tactic is to ask your friends/coworkers for their honest opinion (tell them to be as critical as they can!) about your weaknesses.
Always be learning!
Another good reason to hire a coach?!
Love those words - “don’t do it yourself” - mainly because as a solo-preneur, I often feel like I am doing it all my own.
I’d add in “mentors” (as opposed to advisers) as being crucial to support growth. Good mentors are those who know how to pull, coax, and prod your talents from the inside out. Great mentors offer insights into our blind spots on all levels (mental, emotional, physical, soul-full) with compassion - and keep us motivated to act in accordance with our highest selves.
So do you actually ask your staff “to be critical of you and rate you without repercussions”?
How do you elicit that honesty without fear of reprisal? In my experience, I’ve never been able to have my direct reports get over their perception that “I pay their salaries, therefore they shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds them.”