Appraising your progress as the unit general manager. Establishing oneself in the early stages of the job.

As part of the development programmes for unit general managers which we run at Ashridge we have conducted action research with the course members over a period of a year. The research technique was part of the UGMs' (and our own) learning about management in the NHS context. From excellent responses from over 50 UGMs those responses have been compounded into a self-appraisal form. This paper will explain the research method, list the categories of significant work the UGMs have described (in the early months of their work), give examples of the self-appraisal form, outline some results and invite you to try it out.