The annual January 1 calendar reset is the time many of us vow to do better. Whether it’s getting in shape, waking up and pursuing a dormant goal, or, as in the case of the leaders I work with, striving to be more effective for themselves and their team members in the upcoming period.
The thoughts are nice. The follow-through is typically short-lived.
If you are in management, whether at the frontlines or the C-Suite, you know there are endless things you can strengthen. Some of the most common areas of desired improvement described by my clients include:
- Spending more time in one-on-ones
- Giving more and better-quality performance feedback
- Coaching individuals for career growth
- Working harder to recognize and leverage people’s strengths
- Sharing more context on the organization’s strategies, goals, and results
- Making tough decisions on people
- Doing a better job creating and supporting goal pursuit
- Strengthening personal professional (executive) presence
- Working harder to network across the organization
- Ensuring their people and projects are in the spotlight more often
There’s more, but you get the point. Whether the resolution is to work harder for and with team members or on your efforts to increase your visibility and influence and strengthen your presence, these important issues get lost in the daily workplace maelstrom. Yet, with a simple adjustment to the front and back of your daily routine, you can keep these issues in mind and, importantly, keep working on them daily. Here’s one approach you can put to work in just a few minutes daily.
My Favorite Daily Hack for Leadership Success
In a workshop program with a major electronics retailer, one individual—a senior manager— volunteered her daily hack for success. She described taking just a few minutes before starting work to sit in her car, push out the morning’s stresses, place yesterday’s problems and miscues in her mental trash can, and visualize emptying it.
And then, she asked herself the same question every morning: “What do I need to do to succeed at every encounter today?”
Six Questions to Bring Key Leadership Behaviors Front-of-Mind
She confessed that the list was almost identical every day. The power in her approach was asking the same question and running through the set of behaviors she needed to employ that day to create value in every encounter. Her list included:
- Listen fiercely to every person I encounter
- Dial up my empathy and meet them where they are
- Manage me even if the topic is triggering
- Strive to understand their interests/needs
- Offer ideas or suggested resources, but don’t take on their work
- Ask them if I’ve helped or what I might do to support them better
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OK, that’s a great list of behaviors to remember as you start your day. But wait, there’s more to this leadership success hack:
Frame Your Days With Success
I encourage you to take a few minutes at the end of each day to consider how you created success at every encounter. While your tendency might be to focus on what you didn’t do, ask yourself: What worked great today that I want to do more of tomorrow?
Congratulations! You framed your day for success and set the stage for more of this goodness tomorrow.
The Bottom Line for Now
We build success one day and one encounter at a time. Find a way to incorporate this approach into your life. (It works for your personal life as well!) I recommend writing down the behaviors daily to imprint them on your mind. Several clients use a spreadsheet checklist to monitor their progress. Use whatever works best for you. It might be the most important 5-10 minutes per day of your career!
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In coming articles, I share guidance for succeeding with long-range goals, strengthening your professional presence, growing your influence, improving your confidence for challenging conversations and more.
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Art’s popular New(er) Manager and Senior Manager programs are ideal for strengthening and growing your success as a leader. Join an upcoming cohort or contact Art to discuss a program for your team.
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