We’ve come a long way to ensure we are motivating others and instilling a sense of pride. How successful have you been? As you look back over the past few weeks and notice the steps you have taken to: create a positive environment, recognise and reward others, involve and inspire them and take time for development too… where would you still like to improve? Instilling PRIDE is an on-going journey, one we must continuously evaluate because we can always get better at it. And that’s your final step this week…
Evaluate and Encourage
Your Key Steps Coaching for the week ahead:
P = Create a positive environment.
R = Recognise and reward.
I = Involve and inspire.
D = Develop.
E = Evaluate and encourage. This final step is about adopting the ‘Spirit of Kaizen. Kaizen is the Japanese word that translates into English as ‘continuous improvement’ or ‘change for the better’. Both a philosophy and practice that can help us achieve greater innovation, productivity, general excellence and increased efficiency. To lead others effectively, we must observe their activities and continuously assess progress or blocks to progress. Because you may have a very limited amount of time to observe, you need to develop tools, strategies and support for obtaining and maintaining information about your team’s various activities. Quarterly reviews or discussions with individuals can be helpful in obtaining such information but they are definitely not enough.
How can you do this? Make it your daily habit (not just your task during quarterly reviews) to pursue excellence. Spend time every day managing performance – this could be activities such as, setting clear goals, communicating expectations, clarifying responsibilities, creating monitoring systems, coaching, mentoring and assessing training gaps. And remember that often the things that get ‘requested and rewarded’ are the things that get done. Also, help people to evaluate themselves. Continuous improvement is not your responsibility alone; empower those around you to continuously assess, evaluate and improve their own performance. Together you can…