Marcia's Leadership Q and As: What are some basic strategies I can use every day to succeed as a leader?
/
Q. What are some basic strategies I can use every day to succeed?
A. Start with thinking about how you define success, then follow these five steps:
At the beginning of your day, identify a few actions you plan to take during the day, and write them down.
Work to implement your plan of action.
At the end of the day, assess how well you implemented your plan. Did you accomplish it? What worked? What didn’t? Did you stay focused or lose your focus with issues you reacted to? Allow time in your schedule for unplanned events. For example, a dental office will schedule unplanned time to accommodate the patient that calls in an emergency in the morning.
Based on your assessment, identify what you improve for the next day.
For the people you work with, appreciate them. Share your gratitude. Recognize their work or the effort they put in to make a difference on the team, in the organization, and for your customers.
These are five easy strategies to make a difference as a leader. A leader is clear about what the team need to accomplish, communicates it, removes barriers to delight the customers, recognizes people, and works to improve tomorrow.
To understand an improvement model more clearly, think about the PDSA. It means Plan, Do it, Study how it went, Act or standardize what went well.
Then appreciate yourself and your team for learning and leading together.
