Preparing For Your Review Documents
With the “Preparing for Your Review” podcast, we’re including a couple of documents that will help you get the most out of the podcast:
- A complete transcript of the entire show - Download the Transcript Here
- A Powerpoint presentation (in PDF form) with a detailed outline of the review preparation process
- A detailed note-taking form to guide you through the process - Download the Note-Taking Form Here
Folks, no note-taking required on this show… we’ve done all the work for you. As we discussed on the discussion boards, these are examples of what you’ll get with our premium membership program … which will be announced shortly!
If you haven’t listened to the associated podcast, you can find it here.
August 1st, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Hi M&M
Here’s my feedback…
On the transcript: I won’t really use it, because I also think I’m learning something by listening to the way you make your points in the podcast.
PP presentation: This stuff will really help me out as soon as I start to make presentations based on your teachings to the people I work with (will probably do one about “giving feedback” and another about “building networks” this week alone!)
Note-taking form: I actually like taking notes, I’m still a student… it comes with the job. But I’ll try your form and then I’ll let you know how it worked for me.
Thanks for the inovations!
Diogo Garrido
August 1st, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Diogo-
Perfect! Thank you.
Mark
August 1st, 2006 at 10:29 pm
This is great! Agree with previous feedback on the transcript. Personally, reading more than 10 pages of text would put me to sleep if I had the option to listen to it. But I think this would be great for hearing impaired managers/leaders as it gives them an option. Although as this started out as a podcast, I am not sure how to reach out to a hearing impaired population to market it.
PPTs are great for the same reason as mentioned and can easily allow me to share the learning. Same with the note form. I wish i knew this 3 months ago as we are doing mid-year reviews now! My self eval is due in 3 days. This will definitely help for Q4 to your end. Great stuff!
Carlo
August 2nd, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Carlo-
Just think, in 10 years, you’ll almost have all our stuff! Sorry that’s as fast as we’re going.
Mark
August 2nd, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Hi Mark,
I´m new here, but really impressed with the easy way to describe and explain the topics of the podcasts. Unfortunately I´m one year late with the releases, so I´m begining to listen to them twice a day.
I´m from Colombia and will try to put this usefull tools in practice everyday at work.
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Hi,
“long time listener, first time poster!”
The clarity and depth of the work you guys produce is superb! I am a retail area manager (enjoying a Heatwave here in Scotland!) and have found the podcast’s invaluable in helping me help my teams.
I used the feedback and 1-1 learnings in my last role and found that even my biggest reflectors could provide fast, accurate feedback!
The 1-1s made my managers an teams feel engaged and valued and led to some amazing progress, not only in results but in understanding of each other.
I have just changed roles and have truely found a people focussed business where 1-1s “should” happen, my new team, to a one, have asked for help in giving feeback to profesional members of their teams and colleagues to ensure the 1-1s count, so you can add another 17 store managers and teams to the list of those you have helped.
Why post this here, because the “premium” content would be an invaluable aid, to have a range of material which I could share to meet each tem members needs is a fantastic resource. Can I sign up for 2 years and get a bigger discount!!!!!
Please accept a HUGE Thankyou for what you have done and take some time to realise the positive impact you guys are having for managers,
thanks,
Jim
August 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
I’ll sign up for 10 years as well (and hope to get an even better discount!) if you keep producing such great material!
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:51 am
Excited to see the direction y’all are taking.
Content: Another superior podcast.
Transcript: Might be nice to have if I wanted to grab a particular quote, but given the production quality of the cast, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Powerpoint: Excellent. My first reaction was that it could look better. (Occupational hazard of marketing.) “This is like something anybody could put together with a little work.” And then I realized that that’s the point. Content of the ppt was exactly what I’d expect given your cast on presentations–concise, clear, professional; supporting the discussion instead of supplanting it.
Note-Taking Form: Excellent. You may want to rename these (again with the marketing!) because I think they’re more than note-taking forms–they’re supporting documentation for the action items outlined in the cast. While the ppt helps the cast, the ‘forms’ support the practical application of the cast, not note-taking. Maybe “Next Steps” (’Task Forms’ and ‘Process Forms’ sound draconian, and my other ideas weren’t true to your voice).
I’ll try to give some thought to other ways you could support your casts, but I think you’re breaking new ground in podcasting, and this is a great start.
-CG
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:43 am
I am a first time poster. My wife got me a nano ipod for my birthday and I am hooked on your podcasts- You guys are marvellous.
I am gorging on the past podcasts and I hope I don’t overdo it.
Keep up the great work.
O
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:52 am
Alejo-
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you’re getting value out of our work.
You might think it’s unfortunate that you’re a year late, but that’s not the worst of it, we’re told. You’re REALLY not going to like it when you get all caught up and you only get 5 casts a month. We’ve dubbed this, based on lots of member comments, “the dreaded all caught up syndrome.”
But, we’re glad you’re here and listening. We appreciate our international members.
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:42 am
Jim-
Thanks for the kind words, and your thanks are gratefully accepted. Notes like yours and Alejo’s are what make our work so rewarding. Knowing that our work is being USED is our best motivator.
Yes, there will be an option to sign up for two years for an additional discount. We’re planning on offering that for what amounts to 3 months free.
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:43 am
Carlo-
Right now, we only have 2 years of discount… but we’re still figuring some stuff out!
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:46 am
Chris-
Thanks for the great comments. This is the kind of stuff we need to keep refining what we do. We did play around with several different “presentations” of the slides, and opted for stripped bare. Periodically, we’ll look at ways to add value without distracting from the content. I am a big fan of Jakob Nielsen…
Glad you’re getting value from our work!
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:52 am
Olugbenga-
Enjoy the gorging! Just don’t complain when you get all caught up and face the dreaded “the dreaded all caught up syndrome”.
We’re glad you’re a member.
It’s a privilege to serve you.
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 pm
“the dreaded all caught up syndrome”
OMG! That’s hilarious! I think i’m almost there having listened to maybe 60-70% of the casts. I’m already feeling the jitters when i finish the first of x sessions on one topic! I’ll be considering waiting for all parts to come about before even starting on the first whenever there are multi-part casts.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:58 am
Carlo-
I SWEAR I didn’t make that up as marketing. A BUNCH of folks have commented on it.
Seriously, though, don’t wait on the multi-parters. There’s more to digest… if you do it all at once, you’ll not get some subtleties…
Mark
August 8th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Aloha,
I’m using a tired iMac g3 with OS X 10.2- almost embarassing to admit…
Anyway, the Note Taking Form is illegible– all I get are boxes where letters of text should be. I’ll check this again on my newer G4 notebook when I get back to my proper space, but I thought you should know.
As always, thanks for the wonderful podcasts!
August 10th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
[…] Preparing For Your Review Documents […]
August 10th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
rgammon (& M/M),
I’ve had similar troubles with other PDF’s that are created with 3rd party PDF generators like PrimoPDF. I have had much better portability with PDF’s created with CutePDF though.
I think it has to do with the selected font — and whether the PDF generator embeds the font or not.
Bottom line . . . I think this is something that needs to be taken care of at the PDF-creation step.
August 10th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Folks-
We’ll take a look and figure it out. Thanks for letting us know!
Mark
August 11th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Guys,
I think the collateral is great.
I’m gong to stick my neck out and say I WANT the transcripts! Mainly, so I can search on words or phrases you used and find the right podcast. No, I’m probably not going to read them from front to back, but being able to find key sections or quotes will be very valuable. I’m finding I’m wanting that now - there are topics I know you’ve covered as part of another podcast but it’s not always obvious which one it’s in - hence I have used some time flipping and skipping through a number of casts to find it.
Peter
August 11th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Others have mentioned that the transcript may not be very useful. I think it makes an excellent way to text search the podcasts. Would be very useful when searching a larger set of podcasts that continues to grow.
August 12th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Mike-
Yes, that was our thought. We are trying to appeal to as many different uses/preferences/presentations as we can, within reason.
Mark
August 16th, 2006 at 7:34 am
perfect … this will save me hours of making extensive notes. Much better than the odd file or two attached occasionally on the main page.
I’ve got two questions:
1. Where do I sign up
2. How much
And as Mike likes a half step:
2a. If this is going to be a significant cost per year have you thought of monthly or quarterly payment by paypal or similar?
August 16th, 2006 at 7:59 am
I think it’s safe at this point to say we’ve settled on a two-tier rate — $15/month for non-execs (folks making less than $100k a year), and $20/month for execs. We’ll use the honor system here; we have no desire to make this difficult.
We absolutely will have a monthly recurring credit card option, as well as a discounted 1-year and 2-year subscription.
Timing … you can’t sign up YET, but this will be available shortly (days, not weeks).
Thanks!
Mike
August 25th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Let me put in a good word for the transcripts. Using an iPod, I can’t rewind to catch a point if my mind wanders. The transcript will help overcome this. Plus, I can print it out and review it again whenever I need to. I agree with one of the posters above about pulling quotes, etc.
Mike, I’m an exec making less than $100K a year (it’s that non-profit thing) I would imagine there are also many smaller businesses with execs in the same boat as me. You might want to come up with a better descriptor than “execs” and “non-execs.” when discussing the break point for pricing.My suggestion, until you come up with a better marketing term, is to omit a label entirely. “If you’re making less than $100K per year, you pay X, if you’re making more than $100K per year you pay Y.”
Outstanding work, guys.
Regards,
Glenn
August 26th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Glenn,
Great idea … you’re absolutely right. Thanks for pointing this out.
thanks,
Mike
September 14th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Hi everybody,
It’s been a while since I started listening to this great podcast.
I just wanted to say:
1) THANKS MIKE AND MARK!!!
2) The transcripts are a great idea: I’m Italian, and I mostly understand everything of your show: anyway, the trascript will give me (and my wife) the opportunity to practice english listening comprehension.
I’ll seriously think about paying for subscribing: I just hope you don’t make me pay for the extra
Oustanding is the right word, because you stand out from the crowd
Oliviero
September 14th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Oliveiro-
Thank you for your kind words! We’re glad you’re with us.
I’m not sure what you mean by paying for extra. Transcripts for new shows and some old shows will be included in the $15 monthly fee. We’re trying to make it easy for everyone.
Mark
September 17th, 2006 at 11:35 am
I was just kidding.
I mean that since I learn not only great management tools, but also a little English on the way, for me (and maybe for some other non-English speaking people, who knows) having a transcript it’s like a bonus, an extra.
Anyway, thank you for this too!
Oliviero
September 17th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Oliveiro-
Ahh! SWEET!!! Glad it will help.
Mark
September 18th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
M&M, your podcasts are like listening in to a couple of seasoned business execs discussing various approaches to management at a coffee shop - excellent. Whether the debate/query is spontaneous or not it often highlights doubts listeners have in their minds and makes for a more “human” show.
Thanks for your hard work and effort, the workplace is defnitely measurably more effective for it.
September 19th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Loic-
Thanks for the kind words! We’re glad our format is helpful.
It’s a privilege to serve you,
Mark
October 4th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Hi Mark,
Love the review notes form. I prefer to work on my computer instead of printing things out. Would it be possible to either allow entry right into the PDF using form fields or to at least allow commenting in the file?
Thanks, and I love this stuff!
Mike
October 4th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Mike-
What about us just providing the note taking form in Word?
Mark
March 25th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Fella’s,
I happened to be listening to some of your podcasts during a long trip over the weekend - in particular the podcasts relating to giving reviews and preparing for your own. These are spot-on. Not only that but I got home and low and behold there was an e-mail from one of my employees expressing frustration at doing his own appraisal.
I knew you had stuff so jumped on here and downloaded the PPT relating to preparing for your review - grabbed a few snippets and passed your wisdom on. I will be following up with this fellow in a couple of days when I return to work.
I’m finding your podcasts very good - keep up the good work.
Cheers
Andrew
March 25th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Fella’s,
I forgot to mention - I’m in Australia, thanks for providing such a service.
Cheers
Andrew
March 26th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Thanks Andrew!
Cheers,
Mark