Oh... To Be Young Again

Have you ever wished you could turn back the hands of time?  What year would you go back to?  What was so great about that time and that version of you?

Here's one woman's perspective...

Seven Ups of Performance Improvement

Show Up - Be available for your team, your peers and your leaders.  Be physically present; and also be mentally focused and attentive while you're there.  There are a million tasks pulling you in a million directions. and it's easy to get distracted.  Nevertheless, your team needs you.  Be hands-on (but don't be a micro-manager).  Listen to others needs, preferences and perspectives and offer your support.

Speak Up - Sometimes there's an elephant in the room and no one will acknowledge it.  Be willing to discuss those tough topics.  Rather than avoiding conflict, admit when something is not working and seek resolution.  Be quick to identify a problem and open dialogue to identify possible solutions.  If you are a leader, you should encourage others to do the same.  

Grow Up - This is not so much about emotional maturity as it about professional development; although both are important.  Take assessments of your communication, leadership and personality styles to better understand you and how you tend to behave and respond.  Gather feedback from up, down, and across your organization;  then develop a plan to strengthen your competencies in one or two key areas.  

Link Up - Network and partner with others inside and outside the organization where you work.  If you only network at work, you're limiting exposure to new ideas, options, opportunities, strategies, and even customers.   

Know What to Give Up - Making Adjustments in our behavior can be challenging.   Ask yourself "what am I willing to change to get better?" In Marshall Goldsmith's book What Got You Here Wont Get You There, he identifies 20 habits some leaders hang on to, that hold them back.  

Lift Others Up - .  Studies show that in order for employees to remain engaged, stick around, and not get burned out, they need to feel valued and they need to be encouraged.  If you are only recognizing those who do everything right all the time, you're missing the mark. Show your appreciation for people's efforts and the improvements they make.    Even when they make mistakes or don't meet their goals, talk about what they learned from the experience and coach them on how to get better.

Follow Up - There are Three Essential Conversations, you should have with direct reports:  Goal Setting, Feedback, and Follow Up.  Follow up conversations are periodically check-ins that provide you with a status report.  Make sure your team members understand that they should lead the discussion and therefore they should be prepared to share current state, challenges, lessons learned and needs.  Every team member may not need the same frequency of follow up, so consider each individuals level of expertise, and the complexity of their work.