When was the last time you read a book or attended a training session on Situation Awareness (SA)?
Unless you work around the military, aviation, or in crisis management situations, chances are the answer is never. That’s a mistake. Increasingly, I see what I interpret as the skills to assess, understand, project, and act based on that analysis as a critical set of behaviors for leaders at all levels.
The sooner you figure out which race to run in your career, the faster you succeed. The right race is to chase your potential. It’s the only one that matters, whether you are leading, serving, or contributing.
Yet again, we are faced with a firm that potentially allowed the pressure-to-produce force decisions that impacted not only lives but all of the organization’s stakeholders. As a manager, you may not face life or death consequences, however, manage long enough and you will encounter situations that challenge your ethics and values. Here are six ideas to help you navigate a situation where the prevailing approach is one you believe detrimental to the firm.
Delivering quality constructive feedback is elusive for many managers and much desired by individuals striving to strengthen performance. In this article, I share an overview of the four core processes around effective feedback development and delivery.
Instead of letting your days just happen, invest a few minutes before work to prepare your attitude and strive to succeed at every encounter. Here’s how I do it:
It happens to just about everyone during their careers. Those who say it doesn’t are fooling themselves. The “it” I’m referencing is a period of doubt about where they are and what they are doing in their careers. It’s a period of self-questioning that can lead to change or just more of the same. If change is the answer, you have to rewrite the story you’ve been telling yourself about you.
The question, “Do I have to be a jerk to get ahead?” is spoken out of frustration. There’s no doubt that in sharp-elbowed organizations, noisy, manipulative individuals can be the ones gaining the plum assignments and key promotions. If you want to get ahead, you don’t have to mimic their behaviors, but you do have to choose a strategy to compete. Here are some ideas to help you get ahead without compromising your values:
Every year I read Peter Drucker’s classic article, “Managing Oneself,” as part of my personal-professional career navigation process. His powerful questions and frank commentary on what we need to do in our careers helps me reorient and reset on my priorities and activities. I’ve added five questions of my own that are relevant in our emerging world.
Reinventing yourself in your career is hard work and best done with a guide. If you want to get started on your career makeover, here’s an exceptional limited time offer for a few individuals.
There are more than a few reasons your firm or industry won’t make it through the next decade. While you won’t derail or defuse the power of the many disruptive market forces swirling in our world, it’s the lack of imagination for harnessing these forces that may ultimately relegate your firm to the business history books. Ironically, imagination may be the most controllable and most important of the tools you need to survive and even thrive in this world.
