As I said in the last leadership tip, change comes less from putting your foot on the gas with new behaviours, skills, etc. and more from seeing how you have one hidden (to you!) foot firmly planted on the brake. This is easier said than done. Those old habits are deeply embedded in us and have historically contributed to our survival and success. Those habits often own us, as they are not conscious and deliberate but unconsciously reactive or automatic. So how do we deactivate those knee-jerk responses and behaviours so that we own them and they don’t own us?
- Identify the One Big Thing and write it out as a personal improvement goal for what you believe will give you the most leverage to be more effective at work and at home.
E.g. I need to delegate more work to my immediate team. I will offload these projects, by this date - What are all the actual and perceived behaviours that are part of your reputation that undermine your One Big Thing?
E.g. I hold on to information. I don’t trust my people to do the work like I would. - List all those behaviours as opposites of the undermining behaviours in #2.
E.g. delegate much of the work that I do today. Hold them accountable for outcomes and not dictate how they should do it. - What would worry you if you were to always do all those good things?
E.g. they would screw up and that would reflect on me. I would be seen as out of touch. Not sure what I would do, if I delegated so much more. - What are the Big Assumptions (beliefs) behind those worries?
E.g. If I let go of much of the work I am doing today to my team members, they will do an inferior job. - How might you test this Big Assumption to see if it is true or not?
E.g. I usually do X but will give this to John to do next week.
