What New Year Resolutions are you making for your Business Life or Personal Life this year? And should you even distinguish between the two aspects of your life?
How many of us have stood in a slightly drunken state at a New Year Party and declared X or Y as a New Year Resolution?
“I’m going to gain promotion in 2013”
“I’ll lose X kilos or lbs in weight by the end of April”
“I’m going to get fit this spring”
“I’m finally going to sort out the problems with the sales team by the end of March”
“I’m really going to create a great relationship with my boss/the rest of the board/my team”
‘My business will grow by 20% this year despite the downturn”
Or have you gone back to work in January and held a team or board meeting with the intentions of renewed dynamism, direction and results focus only to realise that most of this new found vigour has gone off the boil by the second or third week of the new year.
2012 has been a tough year for most people in business – how can we make 2013 a turnaround year for you and your business? If you put in place a set of stretch goals or even just focus on achieving one extraordinary breakthrough then you are already on track to making a real difference!
So what would make 2013 extraordinary for you and your business?
How will you go about achieving these extraordinary results in 2013?
As part of our coaching we deliver a highly results focused programme designed to get new appointees, either new to the company or promotions, to really deliver in the First 101 Days of their first day in the job.
What’s stopping you thinking of January 2013 as a new beginning in your existing role?
We use the traction created by the universal dialogue (most of which is pretty empty) around ‘New Year Resolutions’ to encourage our clients to look afresh at their career performance. What are their real levels of delivery in their current role? We’ll focus on goal setting and listen to the resolutions being set. But we’ll also put in place a framework of planning, goal setting, stretching, cultural awareness and enrolment that ensures a much higher chance of real bottom-line delivery.
Everyone either makes New Year Resolutions, thinks about making them or has dialogue with others about them – so why not make them effective?
The ten stage plan we use for new appointees to aid delivery in their first three months in a role can, just as easily, be used by all of us to really accelerate our performance in a new year.
Create a ‘Self-Coaching Kit’ to make a difference for yourself in 2013
The 101 Day 10 Stage Plan can easily be used as a self-coaching toolkit to aid success and to create amazing business results we previously dare not dream of. You can read about the Ten Stage Plan here but just consider these two real life stories from our coaching practice:
Client ‘A’ Managing Director, appointed in early 2011 and forced to resign in October 2012.
Client ‘B’ Senior Executive, appointed early 2011 into a new role across EMEA and promoted in the summer of 2012
So what distinguishes one executive from the other apart from the obvious failure of one and the success of the other? Even before we cover off what happened I’d suggest that we can all recognise and have examples of people we know who have been in either or both of these positions.
Managing Director ‘A’
Managing Director ‘A’ went through the selection process and believed that his role on Day One in the job was to ‘change things’ – so he did literally that! He started in the business and ran around at a great rate of knots because he thought this was the thing to do! Pretty much all the clients we have contact with know someone who comes into a business, in all sorts of business sectors, and behaves like this.
It is, of course, an over simplification to say that everything that was black he turned to white and vice versa but this, pretty, much describes his mentality:
• ‘A’ believed that as he’s been appointed MD it was his job to manage the business (true) but that changes needed to be made in all areas and that he was the man to ‘do’ this.
• ‘A’ set about meddling in all areas of the company without any real effort to explain or engage people in his quest. In his rush to ‘make a difference’ he had, of course, forgotten that really making a difference is done through and with the people not by announcing to – or worse – demanding change ever more loudly as things begin to slip. Yes I am overegging this but the principle stands and was, after all, his ultimate downfall.
• ‘A’ chose not to understand the key distinction between ‘doing the job’ and ‘being a leader’
• During the first day there were murmurings, the first week voices of discontent and by the end of his first three months the first impression he’d created was well and truly cemented – so much so it was going to prove near to impossible to turn this around
• And so it proved 18 months later, ‘A’ left the building
• What’s worse he still didn’t see what he had done wrong. In his ‘world’ he’d worked hard and when things got tougher he worked even harder!
• ‘A’ became Client ‘A’ in November 2012
Statistically ‘A’ became one of the 40% of Executives who either fail or know they are in the wrong job within 18 months of appointment.
Statistically it’s also likely his company will have invested 2.5 times his salary in hiring him and then replacing him – let alone any costs to the business during his tenure as an ineffective manager!
‘A’ then entered the world of job search and was recommended to us at The Results Centre. All of the above and more was revealed to him through one-to-one coaching. A mirror was held up to him and when he managed to secure another senior appointment he went in with a different approach founded on a new mindset. So far his new approach is working well. Same person, different mindset, very different results.
Senior Executive ‘B’
Senior Executive ‘B’ on the other hand knew about how to make a success of a new role:
• ‘B’ prepared the ground before he even accepted the job. He did his best to understand both the culture and the needs of the business. He listened carefully to what was being said to him and, equally importantly, how it was being said. He listened and then listened again – as all good leaders do.
• ‘B’ had a good idea what great results would look like even before day one.
• ‘B’ knew the importance of checking what great results would look like in the first three months and the importance of enrolling his new boss and other stakeholders and gaining their confirmed agreement
• ‘B’ then worked on delivering these results as the metaphorical ‘cake’ but ensuring it was delivered with icing. He worked on ‘stretch’ results but focused on quality not quantity
• ‘B’ also understood that relationships, his communication style and who he was ’being’ as a leader was as, if not more, important than the tangible results he achieved in his role as a manager. (Even in the most cut-throat sales organisations this is still true)
• At the end of three months ‘B’ was, by choice, in a great relationship with most, if not all, of his key stakeholders, his team and his boss
• Within 18 months ‘B’ had been promoted and was seen as a rising star in the organization
Did ‘B’ work any harder than ‘A’?
Was ‘B’ cleverer than ‘A’?
What were the key distinctions between the two of them?
What lessons can you take from these 2 examples?
How will you ensure you hit the ground running in 2013?
If you’d like help, know of someone who might or you simply want more information – please get in touch with us today.
The Results Centre provides business coaching that transforms careers and companies. Let us know what challenges you and your organisation face and we will show you a coaching and development solution which meets or exceeds that challenge with a cast-iron commitment from us to deliver results.