Behavioral scientists tell us that an average person uses about 3% to 25% of the total resources of their talent and abilities. If you are running your business, sales territory, or departmental area based on 3% to 25% of your talent and abilities, how much business are you leaving on the table every day?
Challenging the assumptions you make in your own situation is difficult; however, it's doable. You have to step back and be willing and able to think creatively in terms of how to solve the challenges in your organization or area and what are the obstacles that you have to overcome.
If you could find a way to use more of that untapped potential in you, what would it do for you? Quantify the amount of lost revenue, waste, or expense reduction that you are suffering. Is that figure sufficient to create a sense of urgency to address and correct it? In other words, what differences would I see in you and your organization six months or a year from now?
If nothing changes, nothing changes. For you to become what you're capable of becoming and to succeed, change is needed. One change is attitude development. Another is interpersonal skills and the third is goals achievement.
Attitudes are seen as outlooks or feelings and they are internal to us. Attitudes are not opinions. Opinions may change rapidly from week to week, while our attitudes a more stable and a little more fixed. Attitudes are habits of thought. There is a link between the way we think and the way we behave.
Interpersonal skills that contribute to your success evolve as your career does. At the entry-level, 90% of your success is from the job and the technical knowledge and 10% from people or management knowledge. By supervisory and middle management, that may be 50/50 and for top management it is people issues 90% vs. technical issues 10%, that will determine if they are successful.
For many, the skills and knowledge that got them hired is not what will propel them in the future. Its attitude and behavior that causes us to quit or get fired from a job, just as it is attitude and/or behavior that cause you to fire a subordinate. That employee possesses the same knowledge and skills that they were hired for... what went bad was their attitude and behavior.
Top executives must be on guard that their skills and knowledge are current and the responsibility is theirs alone to remain employable. Attitude and behavior can slip and people at the top of the organization usually have nobody brave enough to tell them so.
Humans are goal-directed. Most of us prepare shopping lists and plan vacations to maximize the time off. Many people will spend more time planning a vacation than what they do the other 50 weeks of their life.
Our approach to goal achievement involves both personal and organizational goal setting. Achieving a balance between home and work is one of the primary motivations that most executives express to me.
Many executives are great at directing others, but not so well at self-direction and role awareness. The value of goal setting is that as you become more competent professionally, the organization should get better results. That gives the organization more money to increase compensation, benefits, promotion opportunities, etc. As your personal compensation is increasing, you have the wherewithal to satisfy more of your personal goals and objectives. When you get better professionally, it adds to the balance in your personal life.
Use attitude development to change your potential, and management skills to affect confidence and knowing how to communicate, make decisions, and how to manage. Finally, use goal setting as a tool to force you to use that attitude along with a plan, or road map, for your life that will get you from where you are today to where you want to go.
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