Guest post by Steven Simons – Beyond. Action Strategy Consulting
It’s that time of year again; Time to get back to the season of routines and schedules.
Summer has run its course. The mornings are crisper than you remember them being the past couple of months. Or maybe it’s the fact that sleeping in on summer holidays has met its abrupt end.
As the kids get back to school and you are back to pressing your shirts for work, think of this as a good time to scan your corporate priorities, including your approach to them, with a view to starting and staying on top.
Here are half a dozen tips to get you focused, organized and performing for success:
- De-clutter: Take time at the beginning of the week to clean up that desk. Tell your employees to do the same. A de-cluttered desk will help de-clutter your mind leaving you free to focus on your priorities. De-clutter = focus.
- Pare down your priorities: Chances are you are trying to do too much for too many. We’ve seen this before. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, try paring your priorities down to the ones with most impact. Do them well and then add new ones as old ones wind up.
- Priorities with Purpose: Check said priorities for a good fit. Your priorities should be aligned with the corporate strategy and goals. There is no shortage of good ideas out there but if they are not a good fit, they are a distraction.
- Mix up your teams: Re-start the year by sparking some cross ideation. Create a learning environment where you allow skills, abilities, knowledge and competencies to converge. Ideas breed new ideas; practices can be streamlined; workflows can be enhanced; value can be added to services; and on and on it goes.
- Avoid jumping on any and every idea that comes along. This leads to spreading yourself and your employees too thin. It also leads to ‘flavour of the week syndrome’ where nothing gets done well and priorities are seen to be flash in the pan losers that serve no purpose. See #3 above; make sure your priorities have purpose.
- Go old school and start keeping a log. You know full well that you have great ideas, and they come at the strangest times. Simplify your world by writing things down and keeping track. Your log is a good place to park all those good ideas that you can’t action at the moment. You also know full well that you will have to report on the priorities you have underway. Use your log to track and reflect on your progress; note what works and why you thought it did. (Personally, I like to use a Moleskine notebook that is the size of my cell phone).
Feeling refreshed after the summer break is the perfect time to start back to work with an updated approach and a new perspective.
Check out this blog and others at:
http://beyondactionstrategy.ca/blog
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