BREAKING BAD: Creating Leadership results
When I work with clients, I set up a cadence for meeting every two weeks. This rhythm is by design, allowing clients time to apply key insights back into their world. From there, like a bespoke science experiment, they pay close attention to what occurs as a result of their action.
And here’s the hitch—no NEW action, no new results.
And yes, I hear you. Taking action can be scary. Until it isn’t. A client of mine, we’ll call Jo, came to me keen on creating her next career opportunity. The challenge for her was that she felt like no one else within her company was paying attention to her desire. In her words, “it’s just not happening!” So we dove in, and identified all the ways in which she’d been waiting … waiting to be invited, waiting to be shown the way, waiting to be taken under someone’s wing.
In a moment of coaching tough-love I declared to her, “Okay Jo, no more talking, no more waiting—action.” To Jo’s credit, the “action campaign” began. And she ran directly into her fears, resistance, desire to hide, avoidance, self-doubt and “confusion”.
No, those feelings didn’t magically disappear. And so what.
Jo was clear. And for her it didn’t matter. Her action campaign was about action, not feelings. Action begot more action. And action begot results. And Jo found her sea legs.
What’s your next big goal?
Where do you want to make an impact—within your team, industry, and community?
What’s the impact you want to have as a leader?
Are YOU ready to strengthen your leadership?
THE Leadership Lab:
The Four A’s OF leadership impact
Every leader needs ACTION in her toolkit. We define action as: any specific word or deed that supports your leadership intention. Here we go!
Action: Choose an action that supports your leadership intention and put a metric to it.
Example: If you want to increase motivation among your team. Acknowledge one thing each individual does each week that drives your stated goals and objectives. Track each day, and counted how many times you acknowledged your team for 21–28 days.
Awareness: Drive your awareness of the value of this new practice—in short, are you cultivating the practice? Once you can confidently say “YES”, then you can ask whether the practice is creating results.
Complete this statement on a weekly basis: “Through this practice, I am becoming aware of ______________. I’m also becoming aware of ______________.”
Acknowledgment: Don’t forget that acknowledgment makes new habits “sticky”. If we pass over new (wanted) behaviors like a speed bump only to race on to the next task, we’ll rarely provide ourselves with the dopamine/serotonin hit required to make new habits stick.
Complete this statement on a weekly basis: “I acknowledge and appreciate myself for ______________. Pro-tip: Acknowledge your effort, willingness to persist, your courage—NOT your results. Stay with me here. Consider that thsi acknowledgment is about your leadership practice, not your leadership results. We’re cultivating leadership as a practice, when revenue is up or down. Long game.
Accountability: We need not walk alone. Sharing our intentions, practices and results leads to a greater level of awareness and stickiness when it comes to creating new behaviors that then become ingrained, generative habits.
Complete this statement on a weekly basis: “I am sharing my insights with ______________ (a trusted confidant, inspiring leader, coach). I am also exploring further action with them, to deepen in steps 1–3.”
We invite you to share with us: what has occurred for you as a result of taking ACTION?
The next installment of “Breaking Bad: Retiring Old Habits for Renewed Leadership Impact” drops in 2 weeks! See you there!
