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Are You a Self-Aware Leader?

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Are You a Self-Aware Leader?

Are you a self-aware leader?

Answering yes means that you recognize what you’re good at and what you’re not. It means that you understand what you know and what you don’t. Most of all, it means that you’ve learned what you can do yourself and what you should give away to others.

Self-awareness multiplies your capacity to lead and makes you a more effective manager, relator and communicator. The personal and professional implications are staggering:

  • You understand the truth about yourself. You see your own strengths and weaknesses and confidently hire team members who compensate. You readily acknowledge the strength of the team over and above your own agenda.
  • You recognize how other people perceive you. You moderate your behavior with keen situational awareness. You are sensitive to team culture, work relationships and collaborative opportunities.
  • You see reality for what it is. There’s a ready willingness to explore, listen, measure and investigate. You listen to the truth and accept constructive criticism leading to better outcomes and greater effectiveness.
  • You have clarity about your environment. Where others see confusion and get lost in the whirlwind of day-to-day busyness, you have clarity about where you are and where you’re going.

What can you do to improve your self-awareness quotient? A few ideas include:

  • Assess yourself. Plato said it well, “know thyself.” Commit to learn more about your personality—your character, feelings, motives, habits and skills. Learn more about yourself with personal assessments such as DiSC, Myers-Briggs and StrengthsFinder 2.0.
  • Engage a coach. There’s a reason that high capacity leaders and self-aware people have personal and professional life coaches. It works. Engaging a coach to ask probing questions from a neutral point of view leads to increased clarity and awareness.
  • Ask a co-worker. A sure sign of leadership maturity is a willingness to engage your supervisor in frank discussions about strengths, weaknesses, blind spots and workplace perceptions. If you have a good relationship with a supervisor, direct report or co-worker, then make yourself vulnerable enough to start an introspective conversation.
  • Talk to a friend. People who know you best are uniquely qualified to provide honest feedback on your self-awareness IQ.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Awareness about yourself and how you’re perceived by others is important. Self-awareness multiplies your capacity to lead and makes you a more effective manager, relator and communicator.

Resources

Set SMARTer Goals

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Set SMARTer Goals

Many goals fail because they aren’t clear, don’t seem important or aren’t likely to happen when you need them to. The solution is to use SMART criteria to make goal setting, well, smarter.

SMART goals use a mnemonic acronym to guide the setting of objectives:

  • S = Specific
  • M = Measurable
  • A = Achievable
  • R = Relevant
  • T = Time-Bound

The first use of SMART criteria to describe goal-setting occured in the November 1981 issue of Management Review in George Doran’s article, “There’s a SMART Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives.”

Doran wrote that objectives should be:

  • Specific – They should target a specific area for improvement. Exactly what do you want to accomplish? Who, what, when and where?
  • Measurable – They should quantify or suggest an indicator of progress. How will you track your progress? How much and how many?
  • Achievable – They should aim for a realistically achievable result. Do you have what you need to achieve your goal? Is your goal too challenging? Is it too easy?
  • Relevant – They should be goals that matter. Does your goal matter to your supervisor, team and organization? Is your goal aligned with organizational vision and values?
  • Time-Bound – They should specify when the result can be achieved. When will you achieve your goal? What is your time limit?

How do your 2016 goals stack up against the SMART standard?

Make your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It’s a fact: SMART goals make goal setting smarter.

And that’s the Big Idea.

Resources


Source

“SMART Criteria,” Accessed August 20, 2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria.

Use Medium-Term Goals to Stay on Target

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Use Medium-Term Goals to Stay on Target

Medium- term goals are a natural extension of weekly goals, details and to-do lists. They are the incremental checkpoints that have to be reached on the way to annual goals and objectives.

Let’s define the duration of goals this way:

  • Short-Term – 30 days or less
  • Medium-Term – 2 to 11 months
  • Long-Term – 12 months or more

We often associate goal-setting with annual goals—the type of goals typically set as a part of performance review processes. But while annual goals are important, they aren’t very effective as standalone objectives. In fact, recent evidence confirms that goal-setting should happen more frequently than once a year:

The traditional once-a-year setting of employee goals and performance review is totally out of date,” says Kris Duggan [co-founder of Silicon Valley startup firm BetterWorks]. “To really improve performance, goals need to be set more frequently, be more transparent to the rest of the company, and progress towards them measured more often.

Consider 3 ways that medium-term goals help you stay on target:

  1. Medium-term goals bridge short-term and long-term goals. While short-term goals form your daily and weekly nuts-and-bolts task list, you need bridge goals to steer you toward your long-term objectives. Medium-term goals fit the bill, providing a progress report at set times throughout the year.
  2. Medium-term goals are a natural time to make adjustments. If there’s a problem with your “big picture” plan, you’re more likely to discover it as you set and evaluate medium-term goals. Intermediate goals help you adapt to changing conditions and, if necessary, adjust the long-term objective.
  3. Medium-term goals focus on quarterly results. A study of big companies by consulting firm Deloitte found that: “Those which set quarterly goals are nearly four times more likely to be in the top quartile of performers.” It pays to set incremental checkpoints as you strive toward annual goals and objectives.

Quarterly and semi-annual goals can be applied in your personal, professional and organizational worlds. Whatever the area of your life, apply medium-term goals to stay on target:

  • Personally – Family, self-improvement and life development goals
  • Professionally – Career, work and leadership development goals
  • Organizationally – Business or ministry vision, values and OGSM-driven goals

So what’s the Big Idea?

It pays to set medium-term goals, especially quarterly and semi-annual ones. They bridge short-term and long-term goals and provide incremental checkpoints to make adjustments as you strive toward annual goals and objectives.

Resources


Source

“The Quantified Serf” (Schumpeter), The Economist (March 7, 2015), 70.

5 Reasons Why Short-Term Goals Matter

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5 Reasons Why Short-Term Goals Matter

Most people need something to aim for. It’s the reason organizational vision and values are important. It’s also why we develop objectives, goals, strategies and measures (OGSM and other strategy plans).

“Big picture” objectives drive most of the goals we set. That’s a good thing. Each type of goal—short, medium or long-term—has an important place in the process.

Let’s define the duration of goals this way:

  • Short-Term – 30 days or less
  • Medium-Term – 2 to 11 months
  • Long-Term – 12 months or more

Recognize that every long-term objective rises and falls on details, next steps and daily to-do lists. If the small things remain undone, the greater goal simply won’t have traction.

Here’s why you need short-term personal, professional and organizational goals:

  1. Short-term goals create a “next step” culture. It’s helpful to think in terms of next steps. Ask youself: What’s the best thing I can do to move one step closer to a long-term goal? It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you spend intentional time every day on smaller goals, inching ever closer to larger objectives.
  2. Short-term goals provide a psychological boost. Long-term (think annual) goals and objectives may seem unrealistic or difficult. Adjust your thinking with a focus on the day, week or month ahead. Be specific with short-term goals and due dates, but don’t be anxious about the long-term objective. Instead, give your mind a mental boost by focusing on achieving this week’s goals.
  3. Short-term goals prioritize daily tasks. Daily and weekly goals are a great way to sort through the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Recall that what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important. Short-term goals help you prioritize important/urgent things first, important/not urgent things second, and least important things last. Read more
  4. Short-term goals provide for supervisor-employee feedback. Most of us need objective feedback and accountability to stay on track. Short-term goals provide for that in small, timely and specific ways. Monthly supervisor-employee coaching, mentoring and other feedback built around a discussion of short-term goals helps you know where you’re succeeding and where there’s room for improvement.
  5. Short-term goals create space for adjustments to “big picture” plans. Annual goals and objectives are the “big picture” plans you’re striving for. Breaking down those long-term goals into smaller segments is a good idea. If there’s a problem with your “big picture” plan, you’ll discover it as you implement the plan and aim toward a short-term goal. Short-term goals help you adapt to changing conditions on the fly and adjust the long-term objective.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Establish short-term goals as a first step towards achieving larger personal, professional and organizational goals. Spend intentional time every day on smaller goals, inching ever closer to your long-term objectives.

Resources

Servants Make the Best Leaders

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Servants Make the Best Leaders

Can a person lead effectively without the attitudes of humility and service? I don’t think so. Jesus said it: “Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

Noted author Oswald Sanders reminds us that the word “leader” is used in the Bible just 6 times.  The word “servant” is used more frequently, and that’s a revolutionary leadership idea.

Servant leadership doesn’t appeal to everyone. Jesus knew that it wouldn’t. And yet that’s what he calls a godly leader to be. According to Sanders, the attitudes and inner motives of a true servant are:

  • Dependence – Emptied of self and dependent on God
  • Approval – Reciprocal delight between God and his servant
  • Modesty – Neither strident nor flamboyant
  • Empathy – Sympathetic and understanding
  • Optimism – Hopeful
  • Anointing – Spirit-filled

Here’s what the Bible says about leadership:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. – Mark 10:42-44 (NIV)

Those words are a reminder to rethink marketplace ideas about leadership. I’m a “doer” with a tendency to eschew the divine, spiritual parts of leadership in favor of wisdom from the experts, so I need a regular reminder to evaluate my heart.

Don’t get me wrong, practical help and wisdom are important. I’ve learned volumes about teamwork, management and leadership from countless seminars, conferences, podcasts, blogs and books. But most of it rarely addresses the heart motivation at the core of effective leadership.

What’s your expectation: To serve first or lead first? It’s a question every aspiring leader has to ask. The “lead first” attitude is about a desire for power and status. The “serve first” attitude is about something else entirely.

My servant leadership takeaways are simple.  I will:

  1. Demonstrate “serve first” leadership at every opportunity.
  2. Serve my leader with humility.
  3. Encourage a “serve first” attitude in the people I lead.
  4. Seek a “serve first” attitude in potential hires.

So what’s the Big Idea?

The best leadership flows from the attitudes and inner motives of a true servant—dependence (on God), approval (from God), modesty, empathy, optimism and anointing. Servants make the best leaders.

Resources


Source

J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership: A Commitment to Excellence for Every Believer, rev. and exp. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007), 21-26.

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