us>> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report," with abc 7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> tnk you for joinining us for a fresh lookok at how business and fince affects in t d.c.c. reregion. rebecca is off this ek. i am bruce. how are you beieing judged during your annual performance reews? we have tips on howow to make yourself shine. thpresident spoke a l about the e midd class during hiss state of the union address roundtable eerts u unpack the facts, and t of the plans for the president's final two years in office. first, ourur intererview focuses on taking on a projecect wi the goal ofaking your, better, a and

stronger, and learning from someone who has aa proven trtrack reco. our guest joined e adsory board company morere than a decade ago, and took er as ceo can 20 --- i in 2008. theoal is to have a bigger impact othe mmunity. we want to knknow howow he pulled it off, and won numerous awards in the process. welcome, robert. tell us about the advisory board company. what do you do? >> we wo with 3000 hospitals and more thahan a thousand universities. we sit athe center of these industries. we are able to colct performance information practices that work, practices that do not work, andhare that with the industry. we help hohospitals reduce costs improve quality of care to patients. for higher education stitutions, we help keep students in school and graduatate successfully. >> it sounds like heavy invovolvement in the mededical sphere. >> we have traditionally y been in

alth care, for aut 30 years helping g hospital systems improve everythingng they do, in terms of rendering their mimission. >> what sorts of goals are you trying to help people obobtain? >> the big issue is costs in health care. ife can help our institutions deliver care at lower costs that makes them more able to provide better community c care. a lot of our work goes to, how can care become more efficicient and higher quality of the same time? >> a lot of discussion about cost containment and health care, a lot of concern. opinion seems to differ abou whether we are m making g progress. are we? > i think we are making tremendous progress. obviously,y, many more people are covered today as a resulult of federal policy and what we see are members doing. costs have not increreasedearly as much as they had prior years. you see an industry really embracg delivering valu instead of just delivering patient care.

for example, many of our members are looking at ways to take on the ownership of the cost fofor caring for a whole population of patienents. we are going to provide tter care at a lower cost. we will have incentives ound doing so. that is the big shift underway the hospital and health system envirment. >> are you optimistic we will see more change in the next couple of years? it's we have e to. the fors at work today, m most consumers patients -- how more and more responsisibility for the cost of their care. dedeductibles are going up.. employers are moving peoeople into hi deductible plans. there are going to be a lot more price shoppin a and price sensitities around quality health care. people are going to be making decisions based on what types of health care theyey need, and cost will become part of it. all 3000 hospitatals are looking at ways they are going to be cost competitive in an environment where costs are going to matter more. that is going to dve costs down.

>> the advisory board company has had impressive growth. you haveve thousands of employees scatterehere and aoad. was thatat the goal? was that your primary goal when you took -- when you becamame ceo? >> i would say it morof an offshoot of what we have been ing. ouour goalal is to help imove the dustries we are in. the reason we love serving hospitals and alth-care systemems is that, that improves healalth care. if we improve health care, iis a noble mission for us. in higher education -- we watched that business sev yearars ag i was involved. it looked likeke health care. if w get how colleges improve their ability to graduate students, and provovide accessible access, that was a good. our goal has been to have a greater impact on industriese serve. that has resulted in expanansion asur company continued to do that better. >> an integral role for technolology in the work you do. >> absolutely. you think about health carare.

all kinds of data available, even me as t the federal government is pushed to help syststems adadopt medical record technology. totoday, you have access to clinicical information you never had in the past. the big push fofor us is, how do you use that more effectively to drdrive better patient care? totoday, w we can help a doctor undersnd if a patient is more likelyly to be readmittelater. therefore, would you do someing differt while the patient in front you to have a better chance of ththat not happening? >> important metric. >> a care plan, so when a person leaves the hospital and is i in the community, can we monitor thee activitities happeningng to them over the next several weekeks to make sure they do not have anotr acute epide? at i is revevolutionary tremendously exciting. your company has one notable awards. u.s. an individual has -- you as an individual were named the

most admired ceo in health care. with such a big company, is it possible to have relationships with so many emploloyees, and to be toughgh but nice at the same time? > i tryry to just bmyself. i came up through the company. i did nostart in this role. i am good friendnds with my whole executive team. we love working together. it is very collaborative. it is important f the employees to know me as a person. just last night, i was at a dinner for people who join us inn the past couple of years top-perfororming n new employees. those dinners give up -- give me great ergy,nd continues to validate the things we are doing. i do not take the credit. we have a strong mission and a fanttic operatioion, in terms of value, and that fuels the right engagement of employees. >> it is imporortantor y to find time to be in the commununity. you are on one board of a nonprofit doing fantaic work

for peoplple's -- peop facing lilife challenges. >> marion's kitchen. -- miriam's kitchen. their missision has evolved from feeding the homeless to king on the challenge to brining togetherhe community to end chronic homelessness in d.c. we are on the path to doing it. trtremendously exciting. 's an important goal. appreciate yourime today. thank you. when we return, our expert is here to tl us how to shine in perfrformance reviews. simple tips to show u in your best light. our small

>> love them or hate them,

performance reviews are bound to be part of your work life that am point. the trick is to make sure you are projecting your best w work when you are asked about yourself. mary abbajay, always great to have you here. you are abeliever that thee performance review, the sitdown with the bososs annual, is n not a moment to be shy. you need to makeke surthat the rk you have done -- >> is recognized, heard, and seen. this is your chance where you can talk a about your successes gracefully, , and without the fear of having toto put anyone else down. thiss the moment to say, here is what i accomplished. here is how fantastic i am.m. >> if there were accolishments, do not leave the room without making sure they are on the e table. >> you haveo make sure you are prepareded. you ve to do your own reviews as well. you want to go back through the entire year a and mark what accomplished. what were your succecesses?

come with a list and be ab to talk about those things. >> this isovie awards season. a lot of people suspect t movies out at the end of the year have some advantage. when youou are sitting down with your boss,s, you want to make sure something big and good from early in the year is a. >> i recommend going through yo e-mails, your calendars. if you start in january, all the way through, do not forget the firsfew thingsn your plate. do notot rely on the boss's memory. although you want to keep the bossss fosters active in mind, y you wawant to go bacack through everything you did. -- the boss's perspective in mind, you want to go back throug everything you did. but he talked about sosoliciting ininput from corkers. we are not always the best judge of who we e. some of us think we are better than we ar and some of us tend not to realize how good we are.

lien to feedback from usted coworkers and colleagues. help them think through some of ththe of competency may have made. you ar to usthem verbatim, but they willl give you a broader perspective of things you can n talk about. >> i you have a trusted coworker or maybare lucky enough to have a work wife or work husband, they might be in -- a better advocate than you yourselflf. >> they might think of something you had not thought of. >> you are an advocate of bringingacts tthe table jecte things thahat are going to a appeal. > for s some metrics on it,t, like saying i am great at customer servicice is one thing, but sayiying, i resu 98% of complaints. or i increased our bottotom line by such and such pcent. if you can turn it into hard-core numumbersthat is going stick in people's minds. >> review is going w well, some people are goingo be tempted to pivot to salary, to the money. >> do not do that.

you u want to keep these things serate. you nt to leave your ss with great impresession of who you are. most c companies do not combine them. this is not the time t to asfor a raise. you want to talk about how great you are, and let it marinate for a while. due to salarary negogotiations on - another time. >> you are a believer in using appropriate language. >> you do not want to be so formal sti, anrobotic. you do n not want to be so f flowery andd conversational it does t have biness terminology.y. it is likeke a rume. as you are writing it, think of strong action verbs. you dodo notant to overpower. be careful about your language. >> the p performanceevieis classilly the look bac shshldn't also be the look ahead?d? chris you also want to look at some o of your goals. these might some of whate

call areas of opportunity things you may be lookining to improve. you may find doing your own review that you were not so great in some areas. tell your boss. >> you are a big believer in self criritique. >> you have to self critique. you have to be the first one out there saying, here are my streths, then here are my areas of opporortunity. you have to be your own adadvocate as far as growth anduccess. >> if your compapany culture does not include review, should you ask for one? >> you should, and that does not keep you from doing it yourself. i do not have e a boss. i do a performance you for myself -- revi for m myself everery year. i look at where i fell short,t, where i didid well. evereryone should make this rt of their personal annual,l, no matt w what. >> always great to be able to talk with you. thanks for your time. next, our roundtable tackles the

state of the union address, and how the capital region be impacted. -- will be impacted.

>> even the democrats have lost control of both the hou and senate, president obama was tooting hihis horn during the state of the unionddress.. positiveve job reports a the plunging price of gasoline helping mr. obama tell the nation h how he wants to see things happen during his final 24 months in office. joining us with a realality check

the seninior staff reporter for "washington business journrnal," and the business reporter at "the washington post ergo post." a middle-class thrust to the agenda. we heard talk of tax changes that will benefit middle incncome earners, those who aspire to be in the middle class, frfree communy college, paid sick leave. it was a middle-class orientation to the remarks, and presumably will fuel his agenda. >> there wasas the negative i keep hearing about in terms of taking away some the tax breaks that were there. thats kind of getting a little bit ofushback from the middle class, in terms of college savings plans. generally, hetuck with his line in terms of suprtg the middle class. could run up with a little chchallenge in congress, which is not on his side in a loof cases. >> reaeaction from lawmakers,

particularly l locally, but nationally as well, verery much mixed. democrats praised the presesident's remarks inis agen, becae they know how difficult an environment t this is. wewe have wage stagnation for many people. >> i think one thihing you heard throughout obama's speech was talk of compromise, talk of democrats and republicans to work together. you hearard republicans talk about thisefore. there has been a lot of gridlock. there has not been a lot of compmpromise. i think the question will be can e parties work togetherr and pass m meaningful legislaon?? that remains to o be seen. >> there was a lot of suggestion that what the president was offefering was not a plan that has a rely good chance of getting approved by the gop congress, but he w framing s some issues for the next election cycle. that is two years away. for republicans to -- for

publicans and the white house not to be able to find common ground for two years, that is a long time for the nation to be on pause. >> i think it is a chance -- i am biased, because i report on cyber security. i think there is a cnce that saw what he is proposing for cyber security could get response and be moved along more. it is in the public eye, with the sony attacks. he is loing to i improve how the private seor and government exange information, d he is looking for a bill.. that is something congress has not been able to do for quite some time, as far as they have tried. i think there is a chance at the environment could compel ngress to come forward with something ththat is a little bit more substantial. there is ahance with that. her than that, i think it is going to end up getting bumped along. >> jerry donnelly said he thght the national infrastructure spending, investstment in the area of crumbling brbridges and roads,

cocould d be an area where the parties cocould unite. that would have a big impact locally. >> one thing you heard obama say in thehe speeches, there are issues people agree on. they just cannot agree on how to pay for it. that is what i think will be the sticking point. whetether it is ininfrastructure or cyber security -- a as joe mentioned,here are issues that both democrats and a phone can see as needing to be addressed. the question becomes how do you pay for itit and who getets credit? the washington business community could really stand to benefit from cyber security, but maryland and vginia are trying to pushnd dutch position themselv ahubs that serve the federal govement andnd the private sector. if the build is passed ande see incrcreased deral spending, a lot of those dollars could be spent in o our b backyard. >> there was an awkward, may be revealing moment,hen repuicans applded at a line that i do not think president obama meanant as an applause line,

underscoring the real headbutting anangsgst. we are in a divided governmenent no it w will be fascinating to watch this play out. >> there were a few odd moments. you have the usual quick back and fth with obama talking about how he has run two campaigns, so he does not have to run another. there was talk of trade in termrms of obama having a little bit more power over the looning of some trade oversrseas and so forth, which does not have democrats happy at all. in terms of a lol impact, theris talk on the democratic side that it could lead to some outsourcing of jobs. locally in washington, w we do not do a lot of manufacturin we do have companies that do manufacturing, but those jobs are nonot here. >> some folks who have white house on their resume haveeen active in a starp that helps

other startups. >> a group called precisn strategies, founded by several obama senior campaign staffers from 2012 -- ey run a sort of public relationsdata, and communications firm, panered with 1776, a startup hub. they're working with young companies to help them craft their message, so they can take that knowledge and enthusiasm, and convey it to journalists ke ourselves, and get attention to their companies. >> at a granular and basic level, with stuff lilike office space, but some sophisticated and nuanced aspects of getting the start up, of getting the concept, moving forward. >> 1776 helps. the help with venture finding all the steps are young company takes to get bigger.

precision comes into helping them get media exposurure and brand themselves, so they get the attention that will help them grow in t long run. >> we talked -- we will talk with the ceo here next week.k. we are off a running. you u hahave the preside's agenda. congress will have to budget. there is going to be lots of opportunity for the science to class. we will find out whether they can find common ground. >> whether or not wsee inteational situtuatns come into plain terms of fuing and that the defense departmtment, where the doars go -- it is polilitical, but it is also dependenupon a lotf the environment arnd the world that i is happening right now. >> thank you foreing in our undtable this week. thanks for your time. we are back with more right after this.

>> thank you for joining us. let us know what t you thoughof the show. send us a message on facebook, or follow us on twitter. we w will re-tweetet yousmall or big business news. if you want to

>> this week on "government matters" -- >> gen the very crowd, tight space they are trying to f fit in -- >> the agency issues a broad agency announcement in the search for smaller, more agile uauav's. >> we are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats. tonight i urge this congress to nally pass the legislation we need to better meet the evolving threat of cyber attacks identity theft, and protect our children plus information. >> the push to bolster the nation's capital security -- president obama addresses the issue in histate of the union but are his proposals enough to thwart cyber criminals? >> these digital services organizations across the government will be based on