We are at p in our journey of alphabetical six leadership questions a day. P stands for priorities, pulse and plan, performance, praise and pivot.
Priorities – Most of us operate in an environment where time is a challenge, and prioritization is key. I’ve written past blog posts which include some tips on prioritizing your time. You can access an "oldy-but-a-goodie" post from my older BizToolkit blog on Four Tools for Prioritization here.
March 22nd Sunday audio post also addresses the topic of priorities. Listen into the Teams365 call which is dedicated to giving you 12 minutes to pause and reflect on your achievements from Q1 this year.
Questions to consider:
What are your top three priorities right now? What resources do you need in order to be successful? What is going to support you in keeping these in focus? What might you/do you need to say no to in order to be successful with these priorities?
Pulse – Every team has a pulse point. Some are fast, some are slow. Sometimes pulses are erratic. They are signals for us as team leaders. Taking the pulse of the team regularly is critical
Questions to consider: What is important for them collectively at the moment? Individually? One on ones play a key role in taking the pulse regularly – If you had to characterize the pulse of the team, what would it be?
Plan – As I said earlier this week in giving a presentation on time management and personal productivity, 10 minutes of planning can save up to an hour of unfocused effort. Planing as a daily practice is key as a leader and shouldn't just be left to ourselves.
Questions to consider: What is your plan over the next quarter How are you measuring them? What does the longer term strategic plan say? Considering these longer term plans, how does it link to your strategic priorities?
Praise - One of the most common challenges I hear from new and experienced leaders is around how to praise people. Positive recognition is key for morale, engagement and performance.
Five quick tips around praise:
1. Make it specific - be specific with your examples of what you are providing positive feedback around
2. Make it regular - Don't wait for performance review time. Provide positive (and constructive) feedback regularly.
3. As several leading businesses say today "Catch People Doing it Right!"Don't always be looking to find people doing it wrong. Notice when people are doing things right. This ties into our focus on strengths.
4. Be authentic and real in your feedback - Authenticity is key. We can probably all think of times when false praise has been given.
5. Look to build a culture where it's not just the leader giving positive feedback, but peers are giving each other feedback as well. A quick and easy practice is to spend 5 minutes at your regular team meetings on acknowledging positive events/actions that week - whether it is done collectively or individually
Question to consider: What can you do around praise this week?
Performance - At the end of the day we are measured on performance. I continue to hear leaders who step into the training room with me that the relationship stuff is "nice" BUT!
At the end of the day, we need to make sure everything we are doing - wether it's planning, or getting to know each other, providing feedback, or measurement, connects into performance.
Questions to consider: What does exceptional performance look like for each one of your team members? Would they define it the same? Are they achieving it? If not, what's getting the way?
Finally, the word pivot. Pivot is defined as: "A person or thing that plays a central part in a situation or enterprise" in the Oxford Dictionary OR as the point at which there is a turn?
Where might you need to pivot this week? Who is the person who is playing the central pivot role in your most important project?
Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time
Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching(Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-TEAM (8326)
Have your spring flowers started to spring? I'm hoping they will do so here anytime soon. Spring is a great time to do some business planning and personal development. Join me for the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat which you can complete at your own pace. More than six hours of structured activities for you to complete. Save 50% until the end of the month on the program.
Priorities – Most of us operate in an environment where time is a challenge, and prioritization is key. I’ve written past blog posts which include some tips on prioritizing your time. You can access an "oldy-but-a-goodie" post from my older BizToolkit blog on Four Tools for Prioritization here.
March 22nd Sunday audio post also addresses the topic of priorities. Listen into the Teams365 call which is dedicated to giving you 12 minutes to pause and reflect on your achievements from Q1 this year.
Questions to consider:
What are your top three priorities right now? What resources do you need in order to be successful? What is going to support you in keeping these in focus? What might you/do you need to say no to in order to be successful with these priorities?
Pulse – Every team has a pulse point. Some are fast, some are slow. Sometimes pulses are erratic. They are signals for us as team leaders. Taking the pulse of the team regularly is critical
Questions to consider: What is important for them collectively at the moment? Individually? One on ones play a key role in taking the pulse regularly – If you had to characterize the pulse of the team, what would it be?
Plan – As I said earlier this week in giving a presentation on time management and personal productivity, 10 minutes of planning can save up to an hour of unfocused effort. Planing as a daily practice is key as a leader and shouldn't just be left to ourselves.
Questions to consider: What is your plan over the next quarter How are you measuring them? What does the longer term strategic plan say? Considering these longer term plans, how does it link to your strategic priorities?
Praise - One of the most common challenges I hear from new and experienced leaders is around how to praise people. Positive recognition is key for morale, engagement and performance.
Five quick tips around praise:
1. Make it specific - be specific with your examples of what you are providing positive feedback around
2. Make it regular - Don't wait for performance review time. Provide positive (and constructive) feedback regularly.
3. As several leading businesses say today "Catch People Doing it Right!"Don't always be looking to find people doing it wrong. Notice when people are doing things right. This ties into our focus on strengths.
4. Be authentic and real in your feedback - Authenticity is key. We can probably all think of times when false praise has been given.
5. Look to build a culture where it's not just the leader giving positive feedback, but peers are giving each other feedback as well. A quick and easy practice is to spend 5 minutes at your regular team meetings on acknowledging positive events/actions that week - whether it is done collectively or individually
Question to consider: What can you do around praise this week?
Performance - At the end of the day we are measured on performance. I continue to hear leaders who step into the training room with me that the relationship stuff is "nice" BUT!
At the end of the day, we need to make sure everything we are doing - wether it's planning, or getting to know each other, providing feedback, or measurement, connects into performance.
Questions to consider: What does exceptional performance look like for each one of your team members? Would they define it the same? Are they achieving it? If not, what's getting the way?
Finally, the word pivot. Pivot is defined as: "A person or thing that plays a central part in a situation or enterprise" in the Oxford Dictionary OR as the point at which there is a turn?
Where might you need to pivot this week? Who is the person who is playing the central pivot role in your most important project?
Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time
Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching(Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-TEAM (8326)
Have your spring flowers started to spring? I'm hoping they will do so here anytime soon. Spring is a great time to do some business planning and personal development. Join me for the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat which you can complete at your own pace. More than six hours of structured activities for you to complete. Save 50% until the end of the month on the program.
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