by Michael Holland –
In life, as in sports, we do well when we practice like we play. In other words, if we practice desired behaviors in ways that mimic how we’d behave in real situations, we will prepared to fully activate those behaviors at game time. We will have created muscle memory.
As we close out the year, leaders should focus on these 4 activities to make sure they finish the year strong.
Your Sweet Spot
Determine the 2 or 3 things that you do that are your talents and your passion. Approach this process by drawing 10 circles on a piece of paper. Fill in circles with the different “buckets” of work you perform.
- Pick the 2 or 3 circles which contain work where your talent and passions converge.
- Encircle each of these several times or highlight them so that they stand out. You want to do more of this stuff in 2022.
- For the remaining circles, draw up a quick action plan on how to reduce or eliminate this work from your world through delegation, either down, across, or up. (see more info on Managing Up in our Leadwell Knowledgebase)
Make a List and Check It Twice
Take a measurement on the value of the human capital asset you are charged with managing. Where are your employees in relation to where you thought they would be at this point in the year? Is their value increasing or decreasing?
- Make a list of your employees.
- Working quickly, write down where you thought they would be performance-wise at this point in the year. Was there a major accomplishment or activity? Are they trending well or not so well?
- Finally, draw a small arrow next to each employee either going up (value increased through the year), going sideways (neutral value) or going down (negative value).
- Assess the overall trend line for your team.
What can you do to help your employees maintain the trend lines you like or change the trend lines you don’t like?
Your Legacy Speech
Think about the work you and your team have accomplished over the last year. Write up a short speech that your boss might read at an awards ceremony acknowledging the successes.
- What leadership behaviors would she mention?
- What would she say about the strength of the team you’ve built?
- What were the major accomplishments of the team?
- What would you highlight from this speech on your LinkedIn profile and resume?
2022 Vision Pitch
Looking forward into 2022, compose in your own words your vision for the next 8 to 15 months for your team. This is especially important for new leaders and leaders with small teams. Where will you be taking your team?
- Visualize yourself and your team working in the future with successes under your belt and strong team behaviors.
- Prepare yourself to deliver portions of your vision to varying groups at opportune times.
- Refine the pitch to a
- 27-second blurb for “walking to a meeting together” type conversations
- 74-second recap to reorient an employee or the team on priorities
- 2-minute inspirational speech. (FYI, President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was only slightly over 2 minutes.)
- And practice: you never know when the chance to deliver your pitch will come!
Great leaders leading well continually assess how their talents are being leveraged, how their team is progressing, where they are taking their team, and they finish the year strong.
Build the skills and behaviors now to become a great leader or to continue your trend line of great leadership. And remember, practice like you play.
Coaching Thoughts – For You and Your Peers
- Which one of the activities is the most important to you? Why?
- How do the 4 activities listed help leaders to practice how they play? Have you found any other activities that are particularly helpful to you?
- How can you encourage one peer leader to follow the advice in this Leadership Learning Moment?
