These 3 Pillars of personal impact and personal agility will help you recognize where you are and where you are going.
Pillar 1:
Capability: Get things done The ability to get things done is the first essential skill. If you are all talk and no action, who will pay attention to you? Who will trust you when you make a commitment if you don't do what you say you will do? At the basic level, getting things done is about being able keep track of and check off items on your to-do list. Beyond that, mastering tools and skills can make you dramatically more effective.
If you need to send a slightly personalized email to 30 people, would you send 30 individual emails, or would you use the mail-merge feature of your mail program?
Pillar 2:
Prioritize: Get the right things done. You could do many things. Some of them matter and some of them don't. On the one hand, you need to be able to prioritize so you can choose the ones that matter. But to prioritize, you need to have some criteria for prioritizing.
Why is this task more important than that task? The answer to “Why” is what really matters. In order to prioritize, you need to know — or be able to figure out! — what really matters.
Pillar 3:
Create Alignment: Listen! If you and someone else agree on what really matters, your decisions will strive to achieve the same goals. You are pulling in the same direction. You are aligned! The key to alignment is asking the right questions and listening.
How often do you just wait for your turn to speak without really listening to what others have to say? When was the last time you asked a powerful question to understand what really matters to your manager, your department or your spouse? It is so easy for people who want 98% of the same thing to get lost in arguments about the remaining 2%!
We all have too much to do. Sooner or later, we run out of time. Sooner or later, we need food or sleep. Some things just won't get done. The question is not will you say no, but when will you say no, why will you say no, and how will you say no. And of course, will your stakeholders — those around you in positions of influence or authority — support your decision?
If your decisions are aligned then they will, because the same things matter to them, so their conclusions will be aligned with yours!
The foundation of impact is trust. If you are good at getting things done, if you understand what's important and can therefore make the right decisions, you create a context where people can trust you. The more they trust you, the more they will be willing to follow your lead and forgive your mistakes and shortcomings.
Alignment with Stakeholders, How can you justify a decision to your stakeholders? How do you know that you are doing the right thing at work? How do you know that you are doing the right things for your customers? The key is creating alignment between you and the people you need to satisfy.
Comentários