A Call to Action for YOU 2.0
By Dirk Baxter, PhD SPHR
Peter Drucker, the landmark leadership thinker once wrote “a decision is only a hope until carrying it out has become somebody’s work assignment and responsibility, with a deadline.” As leaders enter 2012 there will be new challenges and opportunities to become stronger. How do you make the best decision on setting a personal goal? To get started, consider these 5 actions taken by self-driven leaders:
No. 1: Decide to Change-- You first have to decide IF you want to be a better leader. The first step is making a decision and setting a target. So how do you decide? We encourage leaders to complete the sentence: "When I get better at......I would see these benefits…..” Do this multiple times. As you recite the potential benefits you will quickly realize what the change is worth. Ask peers or mentors if you were to change one thing so you would be more effective, what would it be? Now pick one and only one to work on.
No. 2: Surround Yourself– Every leadership challenge you will face in life has been faced by others before. You certainly can read stories of Churchill or Gandhi, but there are other leaders closer to home. Leverage their experience as you work on your goal. Who is your mentor? Who should be? Who can you expose your soft underbelly to when practicing a new leadership skill? Find a mentor, tell them what you are working on, and ask for advice on how to employ new behaviors to reach your goal. Remember, you aren’t in this journey alone! You need to know what other leaders are doing to improve, and follow their example. Some starter questions for them are: What do they read? What drives them? How do they stay motivated when faced with a setback? If they could go back in time and learn a lesson earlier in life, what would it be?
No. 3: Listen, and then Self-Innovate – Once you have decided on a goal and spoken with peers and mentors about goal setting you have the “what” you are working on. Now you need to find out the “how”. Being successful in reaching a goal involves finding new habits and new behaviors. “How can I do this differently?” This is why having mentors and peer mentors are so critical. By not being afraid of breaking out of your shell and trying new behaviors you demonstrate what we call “coachability”. What are you afraid of? Those that innovate aren’t risky, they seek opportunity and actually mitigate against risk. Be bold! Are you coachable? Link to assessing coachability.
No. 4: Stick with it – Leaders and those committed to change treat their change and their actions as importantly as they treat other pieces of their job. It is easy to get swamped in the day to day actions. Self-driven leaders are motivated not just by an immediate payoff, but by the vision of long-term improvement. By behaving consistently and committing to change especially when it is highly visible and under adverse conditions, is how the change becomes permanent. Just like the runner who trains in the rain, a leader can’t just wait for perfect conditions to practice a new habit.
No. 5: Accountability – Change is hard. Especially in the long-term. The secret is to let others know what you are working on and ask them for insight into reaching your goal. By keeping your team of mentors, co-workers, and leaders apprised of your progress, you can leverage their insight and hold yourself accountable. Fifteen minutes a month telling a mentor what you have done and what would they recommend you do in the future “feeds your intention” of reaching your goal. When others are involved with your success, they will work to aid you in your quest. As anyone sets a New Year’s resolution knows, the more people that know about a goal, the more likely you are to reach your goal.
Now is the time to act - Take a page out of Drucker’s book to set the goal, put in the success metrics, and add structure to the journey.
Next steps:
1) What would you change? What would the benefits be?
2) How important is this? Is it worth the effort?
3) Who has cracked the code before? Who should be your mentor? (Pro tip: you can have more than one).
4) What behaviors will be part of your new way of doing business? Time to innovate!
5) Let the world know – and in so doing you hold yourself accountable.
Dirk Baxter, PhD is a Senior Talent Strategist and coach at Leadership Futures (www.LeadershipFutures.com). He has expertise in assessing leadership capability and aligning individual goals against the organizational needs.
"It is not the Stress that Kills us. It is effective adaptation to stress that allows us to live." George Vaillant
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Charles Darwin
Posted by: Dirk Baxter | 02/27/2012 at 12:53 PM