Implement Your Resolutions

How do you put your leadership resolutions into action?

Do you know which leadership lessons will help you make lasting change in your team?

The reality is most people have ideas and aspirations, but they never build up enough traction to actually get started. They end up tossing their ideas aside before they even have a chance to see if they will succeed.

At Unique Training and Development and Front Line Leadership, we pride ourselves on being able to see new ideas and insights through and put them into action.

Even the best-made plans tend to go astray.

Here is a formula to achieving your new year’s resolutions:

We call it the Leader Behavior Builder. These are the three parts of the formula:

• The triggering event.
• What you currently do.
• What you would like to do differently.

The triggering event refers to the situation that motivates you to make a change.  For example, you want to focus on being a better listener because a lot of leaders admit that they do not listen as well as they could.

If an employee comes to speak with you in your office, this is the triggering event. Instead of half-listening while you work away on your computer, ask yourself what will you do differently next time?

Perhaps what you should do is: take your hands off the keyboard, face them, and give them your full attention. That is an example of a leader behavior builder.

Pick anything you want to improve.

Another example could be to make sure you do not play favorites with your team. Perhaps the triggering event occurs when you walk onto the floor, and instead of speaking to the same few employees you usually do the next time you walk the floor you will share your attention across your team.

There are lots of strategies that can help you be successful, but make sure you have the things you need to succeed.

Here is a more personal example. In order to commit to a new exercise routine, when you get up in the morning, you can prepare your workout clothes and have them ready in your room. This way, you can get ready and exercise before you do anything else in the morning. These are triggering events, what you currently do, and what you are going to do to make yourself more successful.

Think through the benefits that will come from making a change.

This does not mean you cannot acknowledge some of the obstacles that you are going to run into.

If you think through what the obstacles are going to be, you can use those obstacles as fuel to help you convert them into strategies for success. When speaking with an employee, you might be distracted by something that’s a high priority so communicate that with them. Let them know that you will not be able to be fully invested in your conversation until you have completed an important task. You now have acknowledged the obstacle and have found a solution to it.

Do you want to put your new year’s resolutions into action? Then implement the Leader Behavior Builder 3-part formula.

What are some of your goals for yourself and your team? Hit reply – and let me know.