The 4 Views of Evaluation

Welcome to the podcast this week. So this week, we're going to talk about evaluation. For me, I think, really, and if you've ever spent any time listening to me, I think evaluation is straight up rocket fuel for business. It is one of those things that we as human beings like to skip, because it can be kind of tricky to sit down and look at our own work really carefully. But it really is the thing that makes all the difference. So today, I want to talk about four views of evaluation. These are the four views, I think, that are really essential for looking at your business, evaluating for work, your work, and they are what really build success in a business more effectively, more quickly, all the things. So first, I think you can think about evaluation, you can think about evaluation as evaluating your work, like emphasis on the work, or you can think of evaluating as evaluating your work and the part you play in it.

So we can look at what we're doing in our businesses, both in terms of what happens, the work, the output, the outcome, but also in terms of how we show up our work. So in order to do this, we look at viewpoints, we look at views, I think of them almost as like different pairs of glasses, like I can wear my glasses, I can wear my sunglasses, I can wear goggles, I can wear ski glasses, whatever. And each of these four pairs of glasses, different kinds of glasses, gives us different things. So I think some of these views of evaluation people use more commonly than others. And some of them are actually more useful than others. But they all matter. So I think the one that we all use most, the most common thing is that we look at our work and we think how are things going with my clients? This is us being responsible to our clients, to our customers. So I think, you know, are my clients progressing in their businesses? How are they progressing? Are they progressing as quickly as they'd hoped? Or I'd hope? What's in the way? What's happening? What else can I do to help them evolve further faster? So this is me, looking at them, and thinking about how I can be more responsible to them. I think this is, particularly for teachers, the most common viewpoint that we take, because this is really like what happens in a school building, right? We look at our students, and we look at their outcomes, we look at their scores, we look at their work products, we look at their results. And we think about how we can improve their results with them. Right. And lots of times it's changing a teaching move, sometimes it's talking to an individual, sometimes you can lead the horse to water and you can't make a drink. So we can only take so much responsibility in that way. So that's one. The second view of value of evaluation that I think is really useful is we can look at our work as how are people responding to me. So this is a tricky kind of thing in some ways. But it's sort of our responsibility to the greater good. Like, how am I participating in the conversation at large? How am I just giving value? How am I sort of my coach, who has Simone sole refers to this as giving value to clients that haven't paid yet they're like, not paid clients. And she's better word that is not coming to mind right now. So it is this responsibility out into the world. One of the things that we do that sort of turns this one sideways, is we look at how people are responding to me as in Facebook data, as likes as comments as all of these things as quote, unquote, engagement.

And I'm not a big fan of that, because those numbers aren't real. They are not related to how many people are reading what you're doing. They're not related to how many people are onboarding what you're doing, and they don't necessarily show you a clear picture. of the impact your work is having on the other side of the screen. So if you're thinking about and evaluating how people are responding to me, a lot of times this can come from the inside out. This is I am giving a lot of value I am that post I made earlier, was like $100 worth of coaching or $1,000 worth of coaching that I put out into the world? It is, how good how useful how effective is the stuff I'm putting out to the people around me whether they tell me that actually or not.

Okay, so that's number three, is, how are things going in my business? So you, the business owner, are responsible to your business, because you are not your business? You are a separate entity. So this is you being responsible to each other, right? Your business support you you support your business, and you can sit back and look at how are things going in my business? How am I showing up in my business?

Like, how am I being responsible to the goals of my business? How am I being responsible to the people that my business is connected to? just you know, how is that working. And when you do this, you know, you're looking at business goals, you're looking at how connected you're staying to your business, you're looking at whether or not sort of you're staying in line with the larger mission, and you're being consistent. And it's really just it's a view, right? It's one of the harder ones, I think on this list. And I've sort of ranked them from, quote unquote, easier to harder, because we tend to look at how our work does for other people, right? We look at the results our students gets our clients get. We look at how people respond to us, we look for engagement, we look for validation. But it's a little scarier, to look at it and go like okay, but how is my business doing? And how can I be more responsible to the result I want? And then the fourth view of evaluation is the scariest honestly. Which is how are things going in me? is a human being How am I performing? And how am I being responsible? responsible? Excuse me to myself? Like, am I showing up as the person I aspire to be? Am I giving the amount of good I want to give? Am I getting what I need day to day to perform? Am I taking care of myself? And am I taking care of myself first? This is a hard one because in so many cases, you know teachers, entrepreneurs, women, mothers, we are last man, we were last on every list.

So it is really challenging to sit down and take a good look at how I human being and performing responsible to myself like am I holding up my end of the bargain here? For how I want my life to look? Or am I sort of letting all the other things the expectations of clients, the expectation of family, the expectations of students, whoever it is by letting them drive? Or am I driving myself. So these are all different ways to look at how you are showing up responsibility to your clients responsibility to the greater good responsibility to your business and then responsibility to yourself. I would say that probably As humans, we spend 75% of time on the first two and 25% on the second two. And the last two, when really it's reversed. If we were thinking way more about how we are responsible to ourselves and to our businesses, the good for the greater good, the greater good for our community, whoever that may be. And the good for our clients and the people. We're supporting our students calm as a result. When you're doing for you you're doing for your business, everybody wins. It's just that it's harder to ask those questions first. So when I work on myself, I work on how I'm showing up in my business that That's where the biggest breakthroughs come. It's harder fought because it's, you know, it sort of sucks to peel that onion back that far and get to that internal level, where you might have to admit that who you are failing is yourself or your business, because we tend to fail ourselves, or fail our businesses before we're willing to fail other people, and we don't even realize we're doing it. So these are the ways you can really start to evaluate, you know, if you're going to try any one of these, I think that the more effective path is to really look at how you are showing up responsible to yourself and what you value, and also how you're showing up responsible to your business. And what's important there, my guess is you're doing the other two without realizing it. And these two may or may not have been in the mix. So they're important to fold into the process. They're not the only things. But you know, this whole picture, it's like, you don't Grade A student, just on one test for the whole year, you get a whole picture, you take a holistic view of what they're learning, you look at work products, you look at projects, you look at tests, you look at writing, this is the same thing. This is us taking a holistic view of ourselves, our work in our business, so that we can continue to give ourselves, our business and our clients and our customers what they need, and to grow most effectively. So this is try it, your action to take is to try a couple of these and see how it goes. That's that's all there is to do here, right? To really catch yourself and what kinds of evaluating you're doing. So if I can be of help, evaluation isn't easy. And it is particularly hard when, you know, we're caught in the loop of shaming ourselves, of judging the work we're doing, of constantly telling ourselves, we're not doing enough. This is sort of the magical place where coaching comes in. Because from the outside in, I get to see all the things you're doing well, that you don't even realize are going on, I can see the way you're advocating for yourself, for your business for your clients. And as a coach, my job is to help you leverage those, rather than beat yourself over the head with a stick of all the things that are not happening. And that is where having someone in your corner having a coach really does a tremendous amount towards growth sooner rather than later. So if you are thinking about coaching, feel free to reach out. This is what I do with clients evaluation is part of my favorite thing. And I feel like it is one of the most important things we can learn to do effectively in this business as business owners might be like the only thing you change that creates such an impact right away.

If you want to connect, please feel free to reach out on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. Or you can send me an email Sara at Torpeycoaching.com, where you can go to my website and book yourself a time slot to chat. I promise that they're not scary. And then if you're looking for more about how to evaluate and different ways to evaluate, come on into my Facebook group. It's called Teachers in Business just like this podcast. And inside there's a freebie called 30 essential questions. They're really great for helping you look at your work and think about your business day after day. And really dig into what's important to you what's important to your people, and what you want to create. So, have a great week.

I'll talk to you next week.