What’s your leadership vision?

What’s your leadership vision?

December’s here, and all eyes now turn eagerly, yet perhaps with some trepidation towards 2014. No doubt you have long completed your organisation’s plan and budget for 2014. Perhaps you are now subsumed in a slew of parties, performance appraisals or a last ditch effort to make 2013 budget. (If you have a Christmas business, you are probably too busy to read this, and will be reading this in early January).

As 2013 edges closer to oblivion, it’s a good to reflect on your leadership. Actually, any time is a good time to do this but let’s just go with now. How have you led your team this year? Have you coached them regularly and given feedback that helped them to improve their performance and grow into their potential? Did you attend any leadership development courses? Have you read any books on leadership, watched talks with or spoken with any great leaders? Have you taken time to contemplate who you are and who you want to be? Do you yearn to be more than you currently are as a leader?

If so, then NOW is a good time to create a vision for your leadership. Stephen Covey said “Begin with the end in mind”. Here’s a very powerful exercise that I ask my coachees to engage in to define their desired end state as a leader:

1. Schedule an hour of quiet solitude within the next few days.
2. On a blank sheet of paper (or a blank document if you do this electronically), describe in detail who you want to be as a leader in 2023. Think about:
   What type of leader do you want to be?
   What are your values?
   What impact do you want to have?
   How will those you lead view you?
3. Read your Vision statement out loud, proudly.
4. Write down one number – how you rate your current performance as a leader using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being “I am light years away” and 10 being “I’m there”.
5. Develop your own plan for 2014 to start this quest towards your leadership vision. No need to wait for your boss or the HR Department – this is your vision, your plan, your life.
6. Read your vision once per day to keep you focused and inspired.

THE BALANCED SCORECARD

“Don’t be afraid of zero” I advised my client as he grappled with his first Balanced Scorecard Report. “If your results are zero, then say so and move on”.

I have noticed that this type of response is quite typical with my clients in the early days of reporting on their Balanced Scorecard. The first impulse is to try to find a more palatable ways to present the results. But there really aren’t … the Balanced Scorecard presents the cold hard facts of performance – you either did, or you didn’t. The second impulse is to change the measures and targets, which I urge against so early in the process. You need to test the strategy first, and you do so by tracking results over time.

The real value of the Balanced Scorecard is that it generates a shift in focus from past performance to future performance grounded in learning and insight about your strategy. Past performance just is. We can’t change it. Think about it – if your monthly financial accounts are completed 15 days after the end of the month, what can you do about the results then? Nothing. So stop focusing on the accounts, and instead have important discussions with your team about what you are learning about the drivers of performance. As this discussion advances, you and your team will start to have powerful insights about what actions you can take to fix the root problems.

Zero tells a story. Listen and learn.

TAKE ONE ACTION

Identify one action you will take over the next 7 days to start you on the journey to becoming a better leader. Here are some ideas:

1. Interview a leader you admire
2. Read the biography of a great leader
3. Participate in a webinar on leadership
4. Ask your team members to give you feedback on how you could become a better leader
5. Ask your boss for feedback
6. Watch a TED or TEDx talk on leadership

Decide; and just do it!

INTERESTING LINKS

I am in no way advocating that deserving employees should not be given raises. However, I found this article very interesting as it outlines 7 non-monetary ways to increase employee satisfaction. What’s interesting (but not surprising to me) is that all of the factors identified involved LEADERSHIP and/or CULTURE, yet again highlighting how essential these are to an organisation’s success. – click to view article

Can you imagine an organisation without bosses? Maybe we should, with the amount of complaints, grudges and bad jokes we get about bosses. Check out this article and tell me what you think. – click to view article

Do you work on weekends? I do, and happily so. Why? Because I LOVE my work. This article puts a different spin on “work/life balance”, positing that choosing to work on weekends is quite consistent with being happy. I can attest to that. Can you? – click to view article