Operational excellence is only achieved with an honest focus on improving individual performance
As spring begins it is time to take an honest look in the mirror. The second half of the year is rapidly approaching, and it is the perfect time to pause and reflect on the beginning of 2013, and lay the groundwork for a successful second half of the year. Our people are looking for Leadership and its’ implementation with coaching from supervisors. Coaching as a remedial intervention has given way to coaching designed to promote superior performance. It is critical that you are candid – or your plan may lead you off course. Here is a list of questions to answer…completely and honestly:
- Leadership: it’s not just about you! Before you become a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is about growing others. Have you developed your own skills in this area to help your people and your team?
- What areas are you good at and what areas do you really need to work on as part of your leadership abilities?
- Leaders believe in coaching their teams today. They are the examples who set the standard and lead by example and the example is clarified by their ‘coaching.” Are you developing people by “coaching” your direct reports and agents to continuously improve communication and the overall customer experience?
- Where do you stand (at this point in time) versus your plan and versus your client’s objectives? The leadership component stresses your mission and values. The “coaching” goal is to improve organizational results by aligning individual performance with big-picture strategy.
- How willing are you to coach your people on a regular basis and what is the ‘chemistry factor” (rapport, compatibility and your confidence) to help implement on-going change and improvement?
- Have you developed a process for coaching? Does it contain scheduled communication meetings; coaching feedback; skill development goals; learning goals; business reviews?
- Coaching is not only for “problem” employees. In fact “high potential” employees respond positively to performance improvements as well as improved skill development. Are you investing the time with your “high potential” employees too?
- Is your coaching addressing not only diminished behaviors” but also facilitating improved positive performance and recognition with all employees?
- If you examine the key components for improvement: benchmarking vs. standards; accountability; and assessing “performance gaps” with your employees it will help create a bridge to identify which gaps need to be filled to bring back employee performance back in line with your benchmarks and top performance criteria. Have you taken the time to investigate the gaps?
- What are your thoughts and how do you translate and inspire your people in each area above? What are you committed to do to personally impact change and growth for yourself, your organization and with each person?
Remember the words the poet Henry Wadsworth: “ITtakes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong”.
