Are you still heading in the right direction?
As we move towards the end of the year, there’s a likelihood that some of the ambitions we had for our strategic direction and performance get buried under the delivery.
I see this coming up for ourselves, our coaching and programme clients at CLPL, as well as hearing about it as a common challenge within panel discussions that I’ve been a part of. The question is, how do we stay strategic, and keep our eye on the bigger picture, instead of purely moving into reactivity or the operational? AND on top of this, how do we bring our people along with us- a key aspect of Positive Leadership - in the best possible way ?
Getting the balance right is important. It ensures that we move in the direction we actually want ourselves, our teams, and the organisation to go in. Furthermore, we know from the evidence that staying relational and compassionate in the process will help us optimise this forward movement for each other.
So even though you might feel as though things are even busier than ever, we need to lean into and develop certain Positive Leadership behaviours that will keep us on track strategically and collectively as a tribe.
This is about developing three resources of the Positive Leadership jigsaw puzzle:
Grand Design
It’s important that you remain clear on the WHY of what you are doing, and what those around you are doing. This includes the meaning, the purpose and putting that into play constantly and consistently. For example - what is your major mission? How will you deliver on the priorities of the current strategy for this? And how can the team all connect back to this, be aligned on this, and prioritise this?
Some actions you can take:
Re-familiarise yourself and your team with the vision and strategy as it stands (if it’s out of date/ sync, how can this be quickly re-focused) in a team meeting
Ask yourself, what is taking up your time now and is it contributing to your overall vision? Encourage your team to do the same too
Decide on the key priorities collectively and give permission to de-prioritise distractions
Limberness
How can you remain adaptable, emotionally agile, and resilient?
Where are the pockets of deep thinking time in your diary? What needs to be moved out? Furthermore - health has a part to play here: how are you keeping active to take care of yourself at this time of year? What are the rest of your team doing? How thoughtful are you about meeting times etc to allow for this?
Some actions you can take:
Give dedicated and specific time in your calendar every week to reflect on wins and losses against the strategy, and plans for the following week
Role model this process for your team and include them in the process where possible
Stay on your healthy habits - where is your exercise coming in on a weekly basis, and can you support your team to think about this too? It’s not a distraction, it’s an essential resource to keep us cognitively performing and feeling better.
Tribe
How can you both remain compassionately connected with colleagues, and challenge yourself to get the best from them and each other? How can you support and challenge everyone to make time for and to deliver on strategy? How can you also acknowledge that it’s a busy time, support morale and make sure that this is a keenly monitored indicator at this busy time?
Some actions you can take:
Create a weekly connection opportunity for your team or bi-weekly at least. Ask how everybody is doing, scale this 1-10 and be curious about results (ask this ahead of diving into functionality or operations)
Show your colleagues gratitude for what they have done so far - celebrate the wins of this with them - and help them understand the important part they play in what is to come
Encourage colleagues to be compassionate and kind to one another in this busy time, and show acknowledgment that it is a busy time
Reiterate that challenge is about growth and there for good intention to best serve all rather than personal criticism.