If you could improve your performance or the performance of your team by 20-25% by stopping and doing something would you do it? 

Having a regular reflective process can do that for you. 

 

Do you have reflective process?

 

When should you have it and how should you have it?

 

The end of the day for about 15 minutes.

 

How should you go through this reflective process? Think of these three things.

1. A guiding question (I suggest a positive question; What worked well?)
2. Identifying the gaps (how far can we close the gaps)
3. Lessons learned

 

Let’s go through an example.

 

You don’t know everything. As leaders there is pressure to know everything. Do you know too much? Or act like you know too much?  Let’s look at three areas where you can check yourself.

1. Culture
2. Growth
3. Respect

The “Advice Trap” by Michale Stanier is a great resource. He suggests to stay curious longer. Review the above areas, how are you doing?

Your success as a leader is tied to action in these three areas.

1. Vision
2. Values
3. Strengths

Vision- you want to move from fuzzy to detail. What action needs to be taken to build a more detailed vision.

 

Values - they should drive you. Look of your vision, what is driving you to seek that?

 

Strengths - what if you could work 75% of your job using your strengths? Take actions to see if you can do that?

Do you want to love what you are doing, stop doing the things you’re good at. Think to yourself as we go through the following areas: Is this work only I can do? 1. Meeting 2. Managing Projects 3. Independent Contributor Your role as a leader is to set the strategic direction. Stop doing the things that others can do and focus on what only you can do.

How are you doing? We are three quarters of the way through the year. Let’s check in. 1. Your Goals 2. What to Stop Doing 3. Key Relationships How are you doing? Think about you as a leader and someone you are leading. How are you goals? Where are you? Have you achieved them? Have you celebrated them? Any adjustments? What are some things you need to stop doing? Sometimes we become more effective when we stop doing some things. Where are you with key relationships? We can’t do it alone. Who are your key relationship?

A case study in derailing behavior and three considerations to stop it from happening.

 

1. Purpose
2. Team Norms
3. Understanding depth and breadth of your interactions.

 

 

How do you stop derailing behaviors?

 

Does everyone on your team understand your purpose? Is it a topic of conversation and at the top of the mind.

 

 

Do your team norms allow someone on your team to stop a derailing behavior?

 

When your team is interacting it goes beyond the person they are interacting with.

Crisis Leadership:  Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster Case Study

 

Understanding organizational behavior as a leader might help you stop a crisis from ever occurring.

 

Retired Admiral Harold Gehman Jr. chaired the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) that investigated the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, here are a few things he found. 

 

When an organization is under stress, it does the following:   

 

1. Go into self-protect mode.
2. Trivialization of what the problem is

 

Think about your organization and how it might be present there or in your industry?

 

What are the lessons learned? 

1. Be observant. How are your leaders dealing with threats to the organization?
2. Be a bureaucratic warrior. What are ways to solve problems where your voice is heard?
3. When you’re fighting this battle, don’t make it personal? Make it about the mission.

Crisis Leadership:  NASA Case Study

 

We currently have a front row seat of NASA’s crisis with the Starliner mission.

 

Early June NASA launched the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station. They were faced with immediate problems. They have decided to bring back the spacecraft unmanned.  Their eight day mission has become eight months as they crew stays at the International Space Station.

 

Crisis leadership, let’s go through the following steps in this specific case.

 

1. Identify the specific problem. 
2. Damage control & containment
3. Who is going to solve the problem and how are they going to solve it?

 

What can you learn from your own crisis walking through the above steps? 

How do you ensure your organization is learning, especially after a crisis?   Every crisis large and small has an opportunity to learn.   Do you just identify the lessons or do you learn from them?   Are you a learning organization? Think about yourself, your team, your organization and your industry. Build in a culture of learning with a debriefing cycle. You might never have a big crisis, if you are learning from the small ones.

How to be a Crisis Leader during Recovery Phase.

 

I have en executive client that started working with me just two weeks after her home was destroyed by a tornado.

 

Let me walk through how she has been an incredible example of how to lead during the recovery phase. 

 

Think about yourself and your team.

 

What do you need to focus on?

 

1. Analyze crisis from multiple dimensions.
2. What is team or people are needed for recovery?
3. Communicating with transparency and clarity. 

 

Folks want to feel grounded and get back to normal, you have the ability to help them do that.