The Foreign Service Journal, September 2005

V.P. VOICE: USAID n BY BILL CARTER Future Perfect M any people, and I amone of them, are fascinatedwith the idea of time travel. Ever see that movie “Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeve, where he travels back to woo a stage actress from a previous era? I thought I would combine these sci-fi proclivities with the career advancement aspirations of USAID AFSA members. So after hours, I stole into HR’s promotion-panel briefing room and tried to transport myself into the future. After several failed attempts, I succeeded in commuting into the near future of June 2006 and foundmyself sitting at next year’s promotion-panel debriefs. The physics of time travel prevented my pen and notepad frommaking the trip, so memory is my only resource. Nevertheless, for members to know with absolute certitude what is valued by next year’s boards should greatly augment their promo- tion prospects. Here are some of the board member quotes I brought back from the future: • “Strong work objectives, which emphasize impact and results, were a common denominator for employees who earned high ratings. Conversely, we low-ranked employees with poor, slapdash or inadequate work objectives.” • “Work objectives that were challenging and complex, and afforded the employ- ee the opportunity to display a broad range of skills, merited our highest consider- ation.” • “Evaluations with strong narratives that answered the ‘so what’ question were themost competitive. Weweremost impressedwhen therewas a clear, factual account of the role that the employee played in the mission accomplishing its specific devel- opment goals.” • “Effusively superlative adjectives and hyperbolic statements unsupported by con- crete examples lacked credibility and rang hollow and meaningless. They turned us off!” • “Raters who effectively used the ‘Role in the Organization’ section to discuss the employee specifically, as opposed to tedious boilerplate descriptions of the mis- sion or the strategic objective, were placed much higher in our rank order.” • “Rating officers who used the mid-cycle review section to highlight an employ- ee’s progress, or to provide significant additional context, enhanced our ability to make a better assessment and thus upped the promotion possibilities for the employ- ee.” • “We valued the opinion of the Appraisal Committee when it used its section to endorse the rater or provide helpful further understanding of the employee’s accom- plishments or shortcomings.” • “Employee statements that rambled andwere whiny and complaint-riddenwere self-destructive in our view. Bloated, overly self-aggrandizing comments in a state- ment were the kiss of death. We particularly disliked statements that disparaged other offices or employees. It’s unbelievable, but again this year several employees committed ‘suicide’ in the employee statement section.” I searched the briefing room in vain for a discarded Wall Street Journal for the return trip, or at least some stock quotes to share, but, unfortunately, I melted back to the present without them. However, if you heed the tips above, you could still reap some very healthy profits in your career. r 4 AFSA NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2005 Awards • Continued from page 1 AFSA awards ceremony guests in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room at the State Department. Several types of AFSA awards were presented at the June 17 ceremony in the Benjamin FranklinDiplomatic Reception Room of the State Department. Before an audience of more than 300, AFSApre- sented three dissent awards, three out- standing performance awards, one spe- cial achievement award and the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award. “You Picked the Very Best Person” Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick presented the Lifetime Contri- butions to American Diplomacy Award to Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee, R-Ind. “You picked the very best per- son I can imagine for this (award),” Zoellick commented. He described Sen. Lugar as having a strong interest in not only foreign policy, but in the peo- ple who develop and carry it out. Lugar received a standing ovation when he rose to accept the award. “It is exciting to be surrounded by people who believe in the power of diplomacy and who are optimistic about what the United States can achieve in the world,” Lugar remarked. “Our country depends on the Foreign Service to temper a world that is often uncertain and dangerous. We take for granted that Foreign Service officers will venture into hostile circum- stances to advance U.S. interests, often with far less protection than corre- sponding military units. Many Foreign Service officers have given their lives in