Optimize with These 5 Questions

Are you interested in getting better results, making a bigger impact, with less time, effort, and angst?

We are in a world that is increasingly complex, unpredictable and ambiguous.

As a business owner, I know how hard it can be to get the best results while balancing everything on your plate, so here are some tips to help you maximize your results.

For leaders and emerging leaders, the most direct way to achieve the best results is to challenge yourself to take an honest look at where you are crushing it and where you are falling short.

A high degree of self-awareness is the most commonly occurring trait of the most successful leaders.

While there are numerous studies generating data to support the above statement, research also tells us that only 10-15% of people are self-aware.

This means that most of us think we are self-aware but we are NOT.

Generating a high degree of self-awareness can be a life-long journey (trust me, I've been working on this for decades) but it is never too late to start or double down on your commitment to understand when you are being ineffective without realizing it.

One way to challenge yourself in this area is to schedule regular private time (ex. 5-15 minutes 3x/week) to slow down and reflect on these 7 questions:

1.?????Why should anyone follow you?

2.?????What impact on the world do you want to have?

3.?????What is working well for you right now and how can you continue to improve?

4.?????What is not working well?

5.?????What can you do differently to achieve better results?

6.?????How will you hold yourself accountable to following through on your new ideas to improve or generate better results?

7.?????What have you learned about yourself during this time of self-inquiry?

For organizations and teams, the best way to maximize results is to create precise team clarity and alignment.

When your team is not clear on your organizational strategy or misaligned, they are wasting valuable resources and most likely the organization is not maximizing revenue or profits.

If you look at organizational strategy, execution, and culture as a three-legged stool, you need alignment between all three elements to have stable footing.

This can be frustrating because it is easier said than done!?

How can you tell if your team is fully aligned in these three critical areas?

Ask them!

According to my colleague Jeff Smith’s research at the Supporting Lines Institute, team alignment starts with your team’s ability to answer specific questions with a high degree of certainty.

Start with these 5 questions:

1.?????Do they receive the information (feedback, data, intel, etc.) they need to do their jobs?

2.?????Are they clear as to how their work aligns with organizational goals and objectives?

3.?????Are they clear on what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors are not in your organization?

4.?????Are they crystal clear relative to what is expected of them in their current roles?

5.?????Do they feel respected by organizational leadership and their colleagues?

Most leaders have so much on their plate that they assume their communications are clear and often forget to slow down long enough to notice if things are not working as they intend.

Generally, most leaders are surprised when they ask these questions because they discover what they think is clear to their employees is not clear at all.

Self-knowledge and alignment are easy concepts to grasp on the surface yet challenging to execute.

Are you up for the challenge?

Please share your tips to enhance self-awareness and team alignment in the comments section and like this if this newsletter if it was helpful.

References:

Harvard Business Review: What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It) by Tasha Eurich

Mastering Leadership by Robert J Anderson and William A. Adams

Scaling Leadership by Robert J Anderson and William A. Adams