 All right, welcome to our three o'clock session of the day at Big Talk from Small Libraries, our conference where all of our presenters are from libraries with an FTE or population serve of 10,000 or less. And now we are going to be, here we go, have with us Jackie Mills who's from the Mount Angel Public Library in Oregon that talked to us about staff evaluations. Some people love doing these things, some people hate it. So hopefully with Jackie's presentation you should be able to figure out an easy way to do it yourself. And your library, so your population served is 3,400. Is that still where you're at there? That is correct. All right. All right. Thank you so much, Chris. Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. I'm just saying a hand over to Jackie to tell us all about doing effective staff evaluations. Awesome. Well, I want to thank you, Krista, for all the work you've done to make this event possible. This is, I think the third one that I've attended, first one I've presented at, but and also the other panelists because I've learned so much today. Just a couple housekeeping things. I will be giving the presentation and the documents to Krista to post so you don't have to write notes unless you just absolutely want to. And also, I had trouble finding the comments page or where you make comments, and so I want to just go through that. And maybe some other people have a different setup, but I had to hit the orange button, the little arrow, and then go down to chat. Yeah, there's chat and there's questions. Yeah, there's two different. Okay. Well, I don't have questions on mine. So that was the only thing that I found. Anyway, I just want to and I also I want you to get your little hand ready because this is an interactive presentation. So I would really like you to be able to write your questions or chat. Krista will ask them if it's an appropriate or we'll have time at the end. So here we go. So my name is Jackie Mills, and I am the director at Mount Angel Public Library. I've been a librarian for 30 years. That seems like a long time. Okay, mostly I was a school librarian, and I taught all grades from preschool to 12th grade. I spent a short time in a college library. And now it's been 11 years and running in a public library. And I love it. So I've I've found my niche though. One thing to say is that I am not an HR person. One of the earlier presenters, Serena, said, oh, no, they're gonna think I'm an expert on this. And I related to her, her sentiment, because I'm not a professional human resources person. What I'm sharing with you today are things that work for me. And every state is different. Every county and city and library is different. So I don't want to presume to override any advice or resources that a human resources professional gives you. But I've just found that these things work for me, and I'm here to share them with you. So what happened? Okay, I also want to apologize in advance to any source that should be acknowledged or credited in this presentation. I have developed this over years. It has come from all all kinds of crazy places, from colleagues to education theory to books to personal experience. And so I can't give you a book to read, because I don't remember what they are. So if you see something that, you know, look, oh, that looks like what Jackie said, then, you know, say thank you for me. I will tell you that this is a totally unique final product, because it came from my mind, and you are welcome to use it, in any way you wish, and change it, and do whatever you want to use it as a tool. So I have to brag on my library a little bit. I want to tell you about Mount Angel. Mount Angel is a small town of about 35, 34, 3500. We're in the Willamette Valley. It was established in 1893, and it is an primarily agriculture economy. And if you notice here, here's my great big arrow. So Mount Angel is right here. We're about an hour driving time southeast of Portland. And this white area that kind of goes down, it's between two mountain ranges, that's the Willamette Valley. And if that sounds familiar, it's because that's where the Oregon Trail ended. So in fact, if you've ever, lots and lots of amazing farmland here, and very beautiful between two mountain ranges. In fact, if you've ever gotten berries, the berry mix from Costco, they were probably grown here in the Willamette Valley. So we're known for our annual Oktoberfest, which is in September, and don't ask me why. But anyway, it's the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Last year, we had well over 400,000 people total over four days. On Saturday, you couldn't even move. So it's a delightful event, if you like that kind of thing. I do want to point out, this is right downtown. City Hall would be to your left. And those people that are standing behind the Chainlink fence are probably standing in the library garden. The library is right behind there. So we're right downtown. And the library is 4100 square feet. We have about 29,000 items in the collection. We are part of the Chamecata Cooperative Regional Library Service, which is 18 libraries in four counties. And we have so my patrons have access to about a million items. We do have a courier that comes every day and brings things. So it's a wonderful cooperative to be a part of. We're open 34 hours a week. And we have four staff, including me for a total of 2.5 FTE. And that just went up from 1.9 because we, we just hired a new person, brand new position. And I'm very thankful for that. And for the support from the city council. Oh, and here it is in a cute outfit. So today's goals. We're going to identify some characteristics of effective and not so effective evaluations. We're gonna, I'm going to introduce and review the elements of the monthly employee check in worksheet and the annual employee questionnaire. And for those of you who said monthly, I don't have time for that. I just want you to suspend your doubt for just a few minutes because we'll find ways to work around that. And I'm going to talk about tips for writing an evaluation and then hopefully we'll have time for questions at the end. So let's first talk about evaluations. I want you to think for a moment about some of the evaluations you've had in your career. The good, the bad and the ugly. Okay, so raise your little virtual hand if you've ever had an awful evaluation. And I'm, I'm raised in mine. In fact, more of mine were awful than good, but evaluation of yourself. Yep, there. Yes. Okay. So this is where I want your comments. What made them bad specifically? And I'll name a few that I've, when I asked my family members and friends, one of the things that made them bad was that they, that my supervisor had absolutely no idea what I do. It was all negative. It wasn't constructive or helpful at all. What are some other ones? The first comment that came through is exactly what you just said. Evaluator had no idea what I do. No, yes. Any others? Not based on my job description, actually. I was held accountable for things not necessarily in my control. Oh, the evaluator was way too personal and had too many emotions, was too emotional about it, the evaluator. Oh gosh, some of this is just makes my head hurt. I was dressed down for lack of training from my boss who was in charge of training me. I don't know what you can do about that. I felt like I was being attacked. Oh, the evaluator said that they just never gave an excellent. Nobody gets it anyway, no matter how good you are, you're never going to get the highest level. Subjective goals, not objective goals. And on a scale of one to three, the supervisor never gave a one. I'm saying one is best. So just, oh, that's a bizarre one. Someone says I was told I wasn't wearing enough makeup. Wow. Okay. Okay, one more. Yeah. And someone else just says I haven't been evaluated in six years. So if this person says they're bad because they're not, I'm not actually getting evaluated, so I have no idea. Oh, wow. Yep. And so most of us have had really horrible evaluations, and those are just a spattering of what makes them bad. But now I want you to think about great evaluations or even feedback and what made them good. I have to tell you a personal experience. I would consider him among my top two bosses in my life, and he had made a donation to the library or something, and I wrote him a thank you note. And he walked by my library, and he goes, do you do that all the time? And I go, yeah. And he goes, good job. And he walked away. And I've never forgotten that. It's just a little thing. Yeah. Yeah, that they notice that I do something. So what makes a great evaluation? Do we have any comments yet? Yeah. So now tell us what's, if you've had a good evaluation what has made it, or what you think would be the opposite of everything that was just said. Sure. And that's true. Certainly knowing the person. I know a friend of mine said, having constructive, constructive criticism. Criticism is okay, but make sure that you give me a plan of action that you're very specific about what you want me to do. That someone just mentioned something honest, being honest, and the feedback I've gotten that has been great has been specific and measurable. Something that can actually do something about. Yeah. A great evaluation. We would sit down and evaluate the year, and this is some specifics. What are three things that went great? What are three things that you had challenges with? And we worked through it together. It wasn't a blindside. So that's that specific and measurable. Recognition of hard work and success. Attention to how I personally do on the job. Tell me specifically what I had accomplished and that they appreciated. Having it be relevant to what they saw and heard from patrons and other staff, not vague. I think we're getting a lot of the same things specific. All right. Thank you for your input. So I found this is a Gallup survey regarding employee measurements. And it was found that only one out of five employees strongly agree their performance is managed that motivates them to do outstanding work. Only 30% strongly agree their manager involves them in goal setting. Only 25% agree that strongly agree the feedback they received helped them do their work better. 22% strongly agree their performance is managed in a way that motivates them. Only 19% strongly agree that they talk to their manager about steps to reach their goals. And I don't know about you, but that just kind of took my breath away. Although it does correlate with my own experiences. And as supervisors, we want to be that manager, but how? So again, I'm going to share with you what I do. Feel free to revise it however your situation warrants. But I do monthly employee check-ins. And why do I do that? Well, first of all, is communication. We sit down together one on one and communicate. And it is a two-way communication. It's not me just speaking at them. It allows us together to set clear goals and expectations. It allows me to stay plugged into what my employees are doing and how my employees are doing. We're very limited by law with what we can ask. You can't ask personal questions and that's fine. But sometimes things are going on and you know things are going on. So you may not know specifics, but you know there's something going on. So this is a time when I really kind of check the temperature. If I have a particularly fragile employee, if I have one who deals with a medical issue, I just want to check how they're doing. If I have one that lacks confidence, this is a great way for me to kind of help that. But it also allows me to see what they're doing, okay? Because I am like the absolute opposite of a micromanager. My philosophy is I hire great people and I let them go. And of course I'm there to provide whatever they need, but I do not micromanage. So sometimes I do need to plug it and see what they're doing. The other thing that it provides a regular and balanced feedback. It's not something you do once a year or once every six months, but on a routine basis we talk about the good, the bad, and figure out ways to make anything better. And this is a huge one, is documentation. It's timely and detailed notes on the good as well as the bad. So you have, we all know if you have a situation where an employee is not an ideal fit, you're going to need documentation if you need to let them play go. And this is just, you don't have to do anything special. You have your notes right there. But it also helps when you're writing your annual evaluation because you don't have to sit there and think about what happened 11 months ago. It's written down. And then this is a really good one too. It keeps annual performance discussions in perspective. They're no longer once a year. So there's this daunting event and you have to be nervous about it. It's just one among many. And it's a little bit more formal, but it's not the all and then the end all of performance discussions. And then finally, and this is my personal favorite, is to invest value into your employee. It's down, and catered time just for them. It's just so important for them to, and sometimes I am, I am, I know you guys are too, but I'm crazy busy. And I know that they don't interrupt me. They don't want to interrupt me. And sometimes, and they know they can, but they don't like to. So this is a time that we just have to just sit down and, and it's dedicated just to them. So how does it work? Well, I set aside 30 minutes per staff member per month. And I put it on our schedule. And I also send them a calendar invite. So there's no question about when it is. And we do a check in. And I, because I am a, I'm a task mode person, I run 110 miles an hour. Most of the time, I have to just sit back, take a deep breath, and remember that my total focus needs to be on my employee. Put on your listening ears and put on your, your watching eyes, and switch from task mode to people mode. It's not that I don't like people, I do, but I, but I have to be intentional when I, when I do this particular part of my job. Because I, I get distracted. So it is a two-way conversation. So it's not you doing all the talking. It's just we having a conversation about how things are going and what's going on. And listen and watch for insights. Of course, you listen to what they say, but also watch. I could have avoided a huge issue if I had, if I had paid attention better or responded better to an employee that hesitated before she answered me. And, and I, I noticed it, but I, I'm, I'm a really upfront person. And I just assumed, okay, well, she meant what she said and she said what she meant and turned out that hesitation really meant something. And so really watch and see what's going on. Not everybody's like me, not everybody's like you. So kind of try to see what your, how your employee ticks and what just the different tells they may have that something's going on. So here's the form. I'm, I'm, you're gonna, we're gonna go over each piece. So don't feel like you have to scramble it and write it all down, but this is just what it looks like. It's a one page form. And I usually make a copy for my employee as well. And we both write on it. And then I keep mine and they do whatever they want with theirs, but I have mine. And I keep it in a notebook so I can see what I said, like I'll review, you know, the last few months the last few months before I sit down and just see, okay, well, how are you doing on this and how are you doing on this? So here are the elements of this worksheet. I start by on the very top are our core values. Okay. Ours are welcoming, inclusive, responsive, and passionate. We, my staff and I came up with these. It was really kind of a fun process. And I, I'm really pleased with how, how they turned out. So, but so I, I want to challenge you, do you have core values? If you do, does your staff know them? And then do you live by them? And having them at the top of the page helps both of us keep them in mind as we review the month. How have you demonstrated the piece this month? If you don't have core values, I, again, I really encourage you to get them. It's, it doesn't take very long, and it's kind of a fun process. So I'm not going to talk about the whole process today. But if you want to know more, or how we did it, it's just one way among many, you can drop me an email, my email will be at the end. So, and then, so that's the first thing. And then I have four key discussion questions. The first one is just how's it going? And they can talk about anything they want at that point. Okay, so if they're having a stressful situation at home, or if they're, if they're struggling with a health issue or whatever, as long as they bring it up, you, you can talk about it. So is there something I can do for you? Okay, so sometimes there's something specific that I can do for them. And a lot of times I was like, no, you're doing it already or whatever, but, but you never know. So are there any barriers making your job harder? It's really interesting, some of the things that come up that I didn't know about, you know, and I would think that I would know about it, but I didn't. So that's a good one. And then the last one is there, is there anything special you want to work on? So again, sometimes it's no, sometimes it's yes. And if, you know, and I have things too. So we go on. The next part of the worksheet or the, or the meeting is going over the last month. And I always start with positives. And again, I didn't, it may or may not be more specific than this, but I wanted to be kind of generic in my example. But I'll, you know, this was your first summer reading program, and you did great. And I want to thank you for that. I love the creativity of your programs that you developed like the sidewalk track festival, the escape room and the STEM exhibit. I love how you interact with patrons. I watched you take time with Mrs. M and talk to her about her baby and signing it for 1000 books for kid before kindergarten. So notice there that I'm really specific, because again, that was that's part of what makes an effective evaluation, right? And I guarantee you in 11 months, when I sit down and write her an annual evaluation, I won't remember Mrs. M, but I will have it written down. So then I look at things to work on. Okay, well, the organization of the storage cabinets where we keep all our craft materials is a disaster. And I've kind of asked you to do this before. And also, sometimes you don't put the stuff after programs away, and it's like out all over. So I would really like you to work on that. We had a couple of times where our change drawer was incorrect this month. And so I want you to be really careful about how you make change. And I noticed once that you were eating at your desk and then you were drinking while you were talking to a patron. And I would just ask, you can eat anytime you want, you just need to go in into a private space. And you can have a drink at your desk, but don't drink it while you're talking to patrons. Okay? So again, those are measurable. Am I putting things away at the end of a program? Is the cash balancing now? Am I eating or drinking while talking to patrons? Yes or no? And then I ask my employees to complete one training a month at least. Okay? And it doesn't have to be super long or anything. But so this is where we document it. She did an ancestrytraining.com. And then she's also starting a youth service course next week. So that's where I hold them accountable for their trainings. And then what are some projects that you want to work on? And this kind of is a carryover from question four, is she wants to start a teen book club. And she's going to begin promoting the teen advisory board. And then she also wants to work on collection development in the children's and young adults area. And then the last, well, this isn't the last, the next section is an action plan. So it's our to-do list. Her to-do list is to come up with a theme for the next escape room, mine, and also to do a survey for the young adults. And mine, this is really funny. So we did an escape room and we found out we didn't have enough containers to lock. And I actually made some. And so I'm going to be watching for, you know, things that we can lock for escape rooms and also for any props. So, and then I also decided I needed to show her, she's not a librarian. So she didn't doesn't know about book review sources. So I showed her where the book lists are and how to use them. And I try, by the way, I try to get these done, like within a day or two of the meeting so that they don't forget, because it's really easy to just get buried, right? And then the last one, so the future goals or improvement areas. And you know how on, at least on every annual evaluation I've ever had, they have like three or four or five goals that you work on for the next year. And how many times in my life have I looked at those and just went, oh, sugar. I totally forgot about those. So we put them, I copy and paste them right on the evaluation or on the monthly check-in form so we can review them every month. And they aren't forgot. So an example, create an ongoing reading program for young adults like a thousand books to read before college by September. Start a Teen Y Book Club by May and a Teen Advisory Board by October. Continue to participate in monthly training opportunities, including at least one that focuses on diversity, inclusivity and equity, and one that involves technology by the next annual evaluation. So this third one I want to talk about, I'll talk about where you can get training opportunities for them. But if our state, our OLA, Oregon Library Association, in conjunction with the state library puts out standards for public libraries every few years. And in the latest one, there is one that says staff is trained in DEI or DIE. And then also staff is trained in technology at least once a year. Well, if I put this in their goals, then it's no longer my problem, it's their, no, no, not problem, my or such stability, it's there. It's just a way to remind us that that's important and it needs to be done. We've also done a technology, what do you call those? Checklist to see where they are. So they decide what technology, I don't tell them, well, you have to take this word course or whatever, they decide where they need help, and then they decide what to take. So that's an easy way to get those things checked off on the state standards. And just a comment about training. In my experience, supervisors often take too much responsibility for training by assigning training or whatever. And I would just like to give you permission to hand that off and give your employee the responsibility for their own training. So you have your responsibilities, your employee has their responsibilities, my responsibilities include providing options for training and then paying for it if you can, if it's needed. So later on in the presentation, I'll talk about some of the training free training opportunities I've utilized, but and sometimes it does need to be paid for, you know, and if you have the budget for it, then that's fine. Their responsibility is to select the appropriate training for them. And of course, like I'll jump in if I need to, if they start doing the same thing over and over, because that's what they like. Or, you know, like recently, we all had to take CPR. Well, that's just the way it is. You just got to do it, right? So they also need to communicate with me about the time needed to complete the training. So if they're, I don't expect them, and I don't expect them to do it on their own time, but they need to let me know when I need to cover for them or find somebody to cover for them. And then my job is to adjust the schedules as needed. And I pay for their time to complete the training. Then their job is to complete the training and report back to me. And I just asked for a really brief paragraph that they email me. So I attended this training. This is what I've learned. This is how it will help the patrons, because for me, the bottom line is how does it help the patron? And then finally, they need to keep track of their own training. It's not my job. But my job is to acknowledge that training in their evaluation, because that's effort on their part, and that's places where they've improved, hopefully. So that's the monthly check-in. Does anybody have questions or comments or suggestions? Anything? And while you're writing, let me tell you some I've gotten in the past. So I supervise 500 employees. And I can't possibly do this monthly. No, really, the lady that talked to me said she supervised 40 employees. And I was just like, then you can't possibly be a small library. And I didn't say that, but I was thinking it. But my response to that is there's lots of things you could do. You could do it quarterly and divide your employees up. I do know, I'm not an HR person, but I do know that really, people shouldn't be supervising more than five people, because you can't possibly know what all those people do and do a good job. And so one thing, if you do have a ton of employees that you supervise, is perhaps delegate some of that. You may not be able to pay them. I know that we're all limited in our budgets, but you could give them that job experience that would benefit them later on down the line. Anyway, so don't do it monthly. Do it quarterly instead. Doesn't it get repetitive? Somebody asked me that, and I'm like, no. I've not had it get repetitive yet. I will tell you that when you... The other thing about scheduling it monthly is that you have the liberty then of canceling if something happens. This last month in February, actually, something came up for all three of the ones that I was going to do. And but because I know, okay, well, I'm going to... I just talked with them and I'm going to talk with them again, you have the flexibility then of canceling if you have to, whether or illness or emergency meeting or whatever. The other thing about that if you do it less than once a month, if you do it bi-monthly or quarterly, then you really don't have that the liberty of changing, of canceling because you're not going to see them again soon. I don't have the time. Well, I just did the budget for next year, and I know that the majority of the library's budget is invested, and I say that intentionally invested into my staff. So I really don't not have the time. I need to take care of my staff. So, Chris, are there any other questions or comments? Yeah, yeah, there are some that are coming in. I was just letting them come in so I can get them all out here. Yeah, yes. Okay, so yeah, we do have some questions here. Have you found that, have you found that some things are just their personality, such as not a self-starter, would rather be on a Cirque Destin planning programming or not organized? How do you handle that? I mean, I think that's a big part of being a manager. How do you handle things that are not their personality? Maybe they're in the wrong position at the library. Right, right. And again, I'm going to cop out and say I'm not an HR person, but how I would specifically handle that is by going back to the forum and really having very detailed things to work on that are measurable. And we're going to talk about that in just a second. But, you know, that I want to see you, you know, if they don't want to do programming, but that's part of their job, then start small, start with one or whatever. So, that would be my suggestion. I'm kind of, I don't really allow personality to be part of it. It's like, this is your job. So, it might just be a bad fit at that point. And then it goes back to the documentation again, right? Yeah. So, um, okay, oh, here's a good comment here. Okay, I had to read as a long one, so I was reading through it. I'll make sure. I love the points about remembering to put your people hat on. I'm a people person and an extrovert, but it is still important for me to remember that as a that I'm in listening mode right now, not necessarily action or problem-solving mode. Yeah. To your personality, we need to be like, rained in a bit if you are very, you know, let them, let them talk. You know, you said that pause that you said that was so important and I needed to notice that, you know, and she said great tip. Yeah. That's a great comment. And I appreciate that. Okay, well, keep, keep them coming. I don't, I want to be able to get through this and then we'll address some more at the end. I just wanted to know if you're willing to share the form that you use for your monthly job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect for what I need to do. I'm a new director as of December and she wants to, yeah. Yes. I will share the slides and the forms and also there's a, I have this handy dandy performance appraisal action verbs that I'm also going to share. So you'll get all that stuff. And if you don't for whatever reason, then you can email me. So great. And we'll put that up with the archive. Okay. I want to have access to perfect. All right. So this is your commercial break. If you are not here at the very opening comments, Jeannie Gardner from the Association of Rural and Small Libraries was here and she was just, and they're one of our sponsors for this event. If you are not a member, you should be. It is a wonderful, wonderful organization. They did not pay me to say this. I have been to three of their conferences and they are the best that I've ever attended. I've been to local conferences, state conferences, national conferences, one international conference and if I had one to go to it would be this one because everybody there is just like you. You know, you're sitting next to other people who know exactly what it's like to be a small, not a small, I'm not a small librarian. I'm a big librarian, but in a small library, smaller library. That's an awesome way to describe it. Yes. Yeah. So anyway, the one coming up is in Wichita, Kansas in September. And I have been to three and I've not paid for one because I've applied for scholarships. So they're scholarship from different organizations. There are scholarships out there. So I really encourage you to really look into that because it's just, you'll learn a lot and it's just very, a lot of us in small libraries and rural libraries are kind of lone wolves and it's very nice to be around other people that know what you're, where you're coming from. So there's your commercial break. Okay. So now we're going to talk about the annual employee questionnaire. And this is, these are four questions that I give to my staff two weeks prior to when their evaluation is due. And it allows them to write it and get back to me and then for me to write it and discuss the evaluation. So here are the questions. What are your short term goals and what are your long term professional and career interests and how can I help with them? So I want to know what their short term goals are, at least three, and I want to know at least one long term. Okay. And then how can I help with them? What do you think is your greatest accomplishment in the last 12 months? And if they want to list more than one, that's just fine. I just didn't want to make it too like, oh my gosh. What do you think is your greatest improvement in the last 12 months? And what has been your greatest challenge in the last 12 months? And then I have them list all the trainings that they've completed. So these are really good questions for them to just think about what they've done and it'll be, it's always interesting to me what they say because it may be totally different than what I would have said, but like it brought, I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. Or I don't know, but that's okay. That's your prerogative too. So we're talking about measurable and specific earlier. And I don't know how many of you've seen these smart goals. Smart goals are again, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. And you could have a whole session just on this. You could have a whole class just on this. So we're not going to dive into this very much, but I do want to encourage you to think about this when you're writing your employee's goals. It should be specific. You state what you're going to do and use action words. They should be measurable. You should provide a way to evaluate. Have you done it? Yes or no? How do we know that it was a success? And use metrics or data targets. So achievable, is it within your scope? Is it possible to accomplish? Is it attainable? Is it relevant? Again, it makes sense in your job function and improves the services to patrons in some way. And then finally, time bound. State when you'll get it done and be specific on the time frame. So again, I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this, but just keep this in mind as you're writing goals for your employees. Actually, writing the evaluation, you review the previous monthly check-in forms and also the annual evaluation or the annual questions. And you decide how you're going to use those contents and assign to different performance categories. So the evaluation form I'm asked to use is seven different areas, so I figure out where I'm going to put those. And by the way, as you get better at this, you'll also be thinking about those as you're talking to your employee throughout the year. Document issues even if they were resolved, because that shows progress. So in the particular case of my employee who was having trouble making change, I have not had any issues with that since we spoke. So I would put that even though it's resolved, I would say at first Jane Doe had issues with balancing the till, but that has improved over the last months or whatever, so it shows improvement. Use specific examples to support your training or your writing. One of the things we have is something about communication with the public. So I would give her her rating, but I always say she is always, does, makes patrons feel very special. She spoke to Mrs. M about her child that was just her newborn child inviting her to participate in a thousand books before kindergarten or something like that. So you can use those specific examples as long as you're not using names. Use performance appraisal and action words, and I will, those will go out with the form and the slides. Avoid the use of good or excellent. Use other words, use action words, use things that are more specific. And make sure you're, this is a personal pet peeve, make sure your cases and tenses match in a, within a sentence or within a paragraph, don't use different things. And then this one is so important, always, always proof read, do not rely on spell check. You probably already know this, but I have the funniest story about this. I was reading an application and she had listed her references and one of them was an employer and it was the shift supervisor and she forgot the F and I, I tell you I was rolling on the floor. So the meeting and we're running out of time. So I'm going to rip through this. Make sure it's private. There's plenty of time with no distractions. Use the sandwich approach. Always start with, start and end with the positive. That's your bread. And if, if there's a negative or like whatever, something to work on, put it in between. Review each section and allow for questions and comments. One thing that we've started doing and I think it's awesome is we review the job description at every annual evaluation for accuracy. If there are things that should be taken out, if there are things that should be added, we do it right then. So, and that makes it so much easier if you have to apply, advertise for that job, it's already been revised. This one is important. Never, ever, ever, ever address an issue for the first time in an annual review. You should have already talked to your staff about that beforehand so that there are no surprises. You don't, that just makes for that. Yeah, it's just, you just don't do that. No blindsiding. No, no, no. So, this is what we do also, we both answer. What are you getting for me that you like and find helpful? What are you getting me that appeads your effectiveness and would like me to stop? And again, this would have, this question would have saved me a lot of pain and anguish in my past life. What are you getting for me that you would, you think would and what are you not getting that would enhance your effectiveness? And in hindsight, I love this question. So, the first three are more about me as a supervisor and what can I do that works for that person, right? But this last one is a great one for them to think about. In hindsight, what things in the last few months do you wish you had done differently? And what have you learned from that? Because that's what it's all about, right? We all make mistakes, but what can we do in the future to make it better? So, training sources. I'm just listing ones that I know. I live in Oregon. I want to just emphasize your state library is a huge wealth of information and wonderful people usually. So, I encourage you to go there. Web Junction, Deesh Academy, eResources. If you use your vendors, like we use SeerSea Dynex and they have lots of training, and then Lyrosis also, and these are all free. But then there's also stuff you can pay for out there too. So, any questions about this process? And we don't have time for scenarios. So, no, it's okay. Has anybody has any questions, comments? Yeah, I get them in. We're close to the end of this hour. So, we do want to get any of your questions or comments or suggestions shared to everyone before we go into our last session of the day. We have one comment that did come in that I'll read off here right now. She says, I have managed teams for many years, and I have to say this presentation was excellent, and it reflects my own brain dump on this topic. Thank you for your leadership. That's always good. Great minds think alike, right? And by the way, this is my email address, so feel free to email me if you have, you know, specifics. But again, I'm not an HR person, so I don't know how to deal with specific problems, but I can help with the evaluation part. And I can brainstorm with you. I mean, I'm not... What's that? No, I was just going to say, we do have time. We still have some time if people do want to ask some questions, or get some input on how you can do better at your staff evaluations, or if any of you have dealt with any of these kind of issues and want to share how you handled them, or a difficult situation, or a successful situation. Can we hear both? Yes. Yeah, so thank you so much, Jackie. Yeah, well, I'll wait and I'll see if we get anything typed that comes in. I can't see when you all are typing something, so I have to wait till the whole message pops up. So if you've got some long comments or questions coming in, I'll have to wait and see if they pop up the next minute or two here. This is definitely, I think, a very important presentation, very important information. Staff evaluations can be a very polarizing issue in many, depending on people, yes. Simple thing is requirement. And I don't think... Yeah, and I don't think anybody ever really trains you on it. I mean, it's like, I just learned a lot of this just by the hard way. I worked in one place that they wanted, no matter what rating you gave, you had to provide specific instances. And if you didn't know that, I hadn't been watching for that. I hadn't been making note of that. And then once I knew that, then I could be watching for it. But it was, yeah, it was kind of being thrown in the deep end the first time I was writing evaluations. Yeah, I know some places they don't do evaluations at all and you just wonder. And there's formal evaluations you can do, which are very important. But I can think sometimes informal things too. Like you said, just saying, good job, I recognize that you did this thing. That's a, I would say a type of evaluation sort of. It's just like, hey, I saw you did this thing, I'm appreciating it. So you know, I've noted it in my head. Well, certainly feedback. So one of my personal pet peeves is when you get the form, the blank form from your boss, and they say, well, I want you to fill this out on yourself. And I was like, okay, I don't, that is just, you know what, that's just a cop out. So, and I've had to do that in other, in several different places. And that's where the questionnaire, the annual questionnaire comes in. Because you are, I mean, there is value in thinking about it and, and ruminating on your, your performance and where you could improve and stuff. But I don't think it's fair that I'm writing my evaluation, you know. Yeah, I think it could be both. I mean, because I mean, the self legislation is where you've asked them, what do you think you did that was great in the last year, or things that you struggled with. That's what that is. Yeah. Okay, so now we've got a couple of questions here. There are actually two questions here on the same vein about talking about your evaluation from your, by your library's board. You're talking about you as the, as the director, you know, evaluating your staff. What about your evaluation from the board? Do you give them ideas for how to do that? And then someone else says the Iowa State Library requires boards to conduct their director's evaluation annually. It's one of the public library standards in Iowa. Is there anything that you have like that in your library, in your state? Well, all of our libraries are different. So, like, I'm a municipal library, so I'm an employee, I'm employee of the city. And so my, the city manager does my evaluation, but every library is different. You know, the library next four miles down the road is a library district and their board would do the evaluation. I know that I'm trying to think of what it's called, but there's a training organization for library boards. And I took my board through that. And one of the, one of the modules was how to evaluate your director. Oh, the United Library? Yes, yes. Yes, so I would suggest go to there. And they're the ones that would have really good, good information. We just skip that module because it doesn't apply to us, but it doesn't apply. Yeah. And that's something to be aware of. Yeah, both these questions coming from different places. Each state may have different requirements and different rules that don't apply to other ones. Yeah. What you were talking about today is for a supervisor to staff, I think that's going to apply to everybody. But when it comes to this, your evaluation is going to be from who knows from where. Yeah. But for anyone who does have library boards just in general, yeah, we highly recommend United for Libraries. Just go ahead and look it up. It's an ALA division specifically for trustees, the trustees library boards, and also friends and foundation groups. They have a lot of awesome resources and training and the trustee academy for those kinds of situations. Right. And our state library actually paid for, I guess it's a subscription so that it was free. We didn't even have to pay for that training. Some states have done statewide subscriptions, yep, yep. So check and see if your state is there. Another great thing about yeah, it's another great thing about state libraries. They have free training modules. Yeah, we did that and the Nebraska Library Commission is the state library for Nebraska and we did that for us. So every library employee and board member has free access to the United for Libraries board trainings and information. Yep. All right. I don't see any other questions coming in. Any other desperate questions? That's great. That's fine. There is Jackie's email. If you want to talk to her about staff evaluations, just some great presentations. Thank you so much. Comments coming in. Thank you. Yeah, thanks so much, Jackie.