Clearview® Performance Systems brings you ... ... a Culture of Results & Engagement™
Here's the next in our series of weekly managerial TIPS (Techniques, Insights, and Practical Solutions)
to help you better engage your team in the activities that lead to higher performance.
CORE Bites Issue #14
I think it would be accurate to say—especially in the busy, outcome-focused work environments we operate in—that it's easy for managers to be drawn into the day-to-day (even minute-to-minute) aspects of the work done by their respective teams. In essence, drawn into the 'weeds' ... into the minutia ... into the more tactical elements of the work. While there are many causal aspects to this phenomenon, one of the primary reasons is that it's COMFORTABLE. We know what to do; we know how to answer questions; we're adept at problem-solving; the explicitness of the task, process or undertaking makes it easy to see, with clarity, what needs to be done. It's comfortable because it's tactical!
What's ironic here (and worthy of note) is how often I hear senior leaders lament that their front-line and middle managers are "too tactical" and "not strategic enough." I don't know how you're interpreting this criticism, but it sure sounds to me like an opportunity exists to counteract this perception! Ready to start?
Whether you play chess or not, how this strategy board game gets played by the pros might help you to think more strategically. A reasonably good chess player can play forward 8-10 game moves during a competitive game. Notice I said "reasonably good chess player" and not a "Grand Master." Just to put it into perspective, a chess Grand Master can visualize the entire game—and what move to play regardless of where each player's sixteen chess pieces end up—because they typically have thousands of chess games memorized.
So, and you need to track with my thinking here, while I'm NOT suggesting that you become a Grand Master strategic thinker in your organization, I am suggesting you need to be thinking more strategically (longer-term). Instead of looking at the 'next move' (or two) on the chessboard (tactical) you need to start thinking 8-10 moves down the board (strategic). Here's a few pointers on how to make that happen ...
This week (starting today), look at every (important) decision you're about to make and look at it through an 'Orders-of-Magnitude' lens. Here are a couple of strategies to accomplish this:
I'd love to hear how this HVA works for you!
Neil Dempster, PhD, MBA
RESULTant™ and Behavioral Engineer
"Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy."
— Rudy Giuliani —