PeopleTek Tip - 4th QTR Is Here - Are You Ready?

“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out”.
- Stephen Covey

Dear Leaders,

It’s hard to believe we’re in the 4th quarter of 2009. It’s certainly been an interesting year filled with challenges requiring adaptability and flexibility.

This is the time to take a pulse on both your successes and unfinished business. What have you accomplished this year? What has your organization accomplished this year?

Have you taken the time to recognize and reward the successes? This could be from a financial perspective but may also be from simply sharing your successes with others (team members, support teams, business partners, your leader and the leader of those that supported the effort).

Recognition is even more effective if you can quantify the value provided (ex. timeliness, accuracy/quality, cost savings, reengineered processes) which is extremely useful for annual performance evaluations.

Next is to identify the targets / goals that have been either missed or neglected. All of our behaviors are intended to support our goals, mission, and vision. Unfortunately we sometimes get derailed by responding to urgent issues, making them a priority over important issues.

As a reminder:

IMPORTANT issues contribute heavily to our goals and objectives and have high value.

URGENT issues require immediate attention but may or may not contribute to the success of meeting our goals and objectives.


After reviewing your goals, review your organizations needs for:
• Talent retention
• Technical growth
• Leadership Development and Bench Strength
• Relationship Enhancements

We also suggest identifying what you must accomplish before the end of the year, and began to plan what you view as important for kicking off 2010. Don’t wait until 2010 to begin planning!

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Tips to stay on track:

• Invest the time to assess what’s important; you will almost always have sufficient time for these.

• Start your day with the important tasks instead of the “fast, enjoyable and easy to accomplish” ones.

• Distinguish between urgent and important; help your team and organization understand this and engage other leaders if in doubt. (Or help them understand the difference!)

• Don’t let the priorities of others replace your own top priorities; learn to say no firmly and tactfully.

• Recognize that readiness levels and skill-sets may need to be developed and honed.

• Be willing to invest the time and resources that will enable you to be a highly successful leader and have a high performing team.

We’re here to help!

Sincerely,
Jan Mayer-Rodriguez and Michael Kublin
www.peopletekcoaching.com
Learning Leading Succeeding



“One of the challenges of good leadership is maintaining priorities. Many things compete for your time, energy, money, and learning to say no to many good things is hard to do”. – Doug Dickerson