Blog - Fast Mirror - 360-Degree Feedback.

How to Increase Your Mentor Pool

September 15, 2019November 30, 2023
by John Azzara

Updated: November 30, 2023

Here at Fast Mirror we get a chance to talk to lots of companies about how they use mentoring or coaching in their organizations. We often explore issues or pain points they are having with their mentoring programs or issues they anticipate they’ll have while developing them. One of the biggest challenges we hear about is that there are more people that want to be mentored than those willing to serve as mentors.

Goal setting

3 Tips to Help Protégés Achieve Goals in Mentoring…

February 16, 2017November 30, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

Does your company offer a mentoring program? If not, it should. The benefits of mentoring programs are vast and range from individual-focused benefits, such as improvement in critical job skills, to organizational-level benefits, such as reduced employee turnover.

Career development

The Importance of Feedback – Why You Should Care…

December 13, 2016December 1, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

Do you believe in the importance of feedback? Do you value it and think of it as an important component of your career development? If so, you don’t need to read any further – although this post will validate your perspective. This post is for those of you who do not believe in the importance of feedback. You know who you are! You’re the ones that say things like “I don’t care what other people think”, “I’d rather not know the truth”, or something similar that rationalizes why it’s ok to ignore or deny other people’s opinion of you.

Career development

How To Interview Candidates That Will Own Their Career…

November 9, 2016December 1, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

Updated: December 1st 2023

If you’ve ever hired an employee, whether you’re a recruiter or a hiring manager, you’ve probably experienced the challenge of finding qualified candidates who are willing to take ownership of their career development. You probably have not thought of the issue in this way, or even realized that you have this problem.

Career development

How To Do Your Own Goal Setting with Limited…

October 14, 2016December 1, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

This may stress you out, but the end of the year is approaching. Along with a million other things, you’ll soon need to think about goal setting for next year – whether you set traditional goals annually or if you use quarterly OKRS (objectives and key results).

Career development

How to Own Your Career Development

September 26, 2016August 10, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

Does your company offer career development resources and programs? While there are some great companies that do, they are in the minority. Chances are you don’t work for them.

Experiential learning

Lies and Truth About Development Planning

September 1, 2016August 15, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

When it comes to development planning, there’s no shortage of excuses for falling behind and taking shortcuts. Which of the following sound familiar to you?

“I just don’t have the money to spend on developing my skills.”
“I wish I could do something but my manager is holding me back.”
“I just don’t have the time to focus on development planning activities.”
“I can’t come up with development goals that are measurable enough.”

Experiential learning

SMART Goal Examples Part 2: Leadership Development Activities

August 16, 2016August 15, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

In my last post, I provided a few examples of SMART goals for developing competencies or “soft skills” (as opposed to technical skills). Samples were written for the common yet vague goals to “be a better communicator” and “improve leadership skills.” If you haven’t already done so, I recommend you read that post first before continuing with this one, because this post is a continuation of that example. This post will focus on leadership development activities as opposed to leadership development goals.

Individual Development Plan

SMART Goal Examples for Competency-Based Development

July 29, 2016August 10, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably looking for SMART goal examples targeting a competency or “soft skill” for development in your IDP template (or perhaps helping a client to do so.) When setting development goals, people have little trouble translating the tangible ones into SMART goals. “Increase revenue by X% within six months”….”Reduce customer wait time on the phone by 4 minutes by end of Q3”….and so on.

Feedback

Performance Reviews: Are Adjectives Really Better Than Numerical Ratings?

July 13, 2016August 10, 2023
by Eileen Azzara

The redefining of performance reviews and the feedback that goes along with them continue to challenge HR. Companies are continuing to drop or revamp their performance reviews. Some changes are more drastic than others. I recently found this SHRM article describing how some organizations are shifting their performance reviews to be adjective-based as a replacement for the now-doomed numerical rating scale. Surely words are better than numbers! The rationale is that adjectives are more personal than numbers, provide more information, and therefore increase employee motivation.

Fast Mirror Blog