April 18, 2013 – ISSN# 1545-2646
Mirror, Mirror…
One of the most difficult activities for a leader to do is look in the mirror at themselves and do and objective evaluation of their performance. What have they done right? What have they done wrong? How do they achieve results? Would their staff give the same rating? Are they respected for their interpersonal skills? Do they have the ability to admit when the outcome was not the best and they did not allow for other input?
The list of questions to ask oneself on performance and results could be rather lengthy. The real question is – are you as a leader stepping back, looking at yourself in the mirror and challenging your results with how you achieved them as a leader?
Sometimes the results can be very defined and in the plus column but the method for arriving there had many casualties along the road to get there. Is this success? Are the deliverables independent of the actions to realize them?
We have all seen the movie depict the general giving the directive to charge the position on the battlefield only to have many soldiers wounded or killed in the process. Maybe the position on the map may have been secured but at what cost? Obviously the cost of lives in the battle setting is far different than the business context but not all leaders see a difference. The causalities of growing the business to some are just a calculated risk in the process. The challenge is at what total cost to the business?
On the soft side of the business there are very few organizations that track the hard cost of the soft side of the business. Some do track turnover and retraining and that is a good start. The reality is that sometimes decisions are made with tangible goals in mind but without the cost of the impact to the organization to arrive at the destination.
This week, look in the mirror at first yourself and start asking yourself the tough questions about your leadership style. Then ask yourself the questions about what cost on the soft side you might ignore for the perceived benefit of the hard bottom line goal. If you are objective the answers just might be a clue to growing your business in 2013.
Not objective enough to look in the mirror and get real answers about yourself? Give JKL Associates a call at (313) 527-7945 or send us an email to discuss.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2013
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