Every manager realizes at some point that they or their team is not performing at their peak or at the level they want to be. Results seem harder to get, the daily structure feels disorganized and it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the week.
Upon reflection, you notice short cuts have crept into everyone’s routine and consistency has fallen by the wayside. You spend most of your time reacting to what comes up rather than being proactive. How did you end up there, but more importantly, what kind of management training can you get back on track?
I am a firm believer that in order to move forward effectively, you have to look back. Take a moment and think about what you DID when you felt on top of your game. Identifying that behavior allows you to repeat it and gives you the ability to get back on track.
Some people will respond that they don’t know exactly what they did to be effective, the individual pieces are confusing to identify from the whole. Others will say that they don’t like to reflect; they live in the moment and just want to look forward.
This means trouble. Managers that can neither identify their own effective or ineffective behaviors and those managers that choose to ignore their past performance as a learning curve for the future will stay inevitably stuck. Ignoring ineffective behavior leads to repeating ineffective behavior and thus continuing to get ineffective results.
Successful managers have consistent active behaviors that guide their day-to-day performance on the job and with their teams such as:
• I follow my checklist of tasks or plan of action.
• I finish one project before moving on to the next.
• I stop what I am doing to listen to someone instead of typing an email.
• I focus on what was in front of me and give it my full attention instead of trying to do 3 things at once.
• I cross things off my to do list when they were done.
• I write things down so I do not have to try and remember everything.
The list could go on and on but everything on the list refers to ACTIONS, not REACTIONS.
Remember that just because you SAY you want to change, that does not mean it will happen. Start simply with these 3 steps:
1) Write down 3 things that you will DO differently.
2) Remind yourself and apply the new actions daily.
3) Monitor your progress closely over a determined time period (2 weeks / 4 weeks/ 6 weeks) to examine how your new routine is working and if you are getting the results you want.
Getting back on track is not as hard as people think but it does take work and time.
Let me know your thoughts
