5 Small Changes to Boost Your Leadership Results
As a leader, you are always under pressure to keep delivering results. In the busy work environment, it is easy to be running so fast that you fail to stop and reflect from time to time on what adjustments you might make to boost your performance.
So what 5 small changes could you make to boost your leadership success?
Small Change 1: Get crystal clear on priorities
When you started in a job, you probably were clear on what your priorities were. Over time, you take on more and more and, at this stage, your priorities can become more blurred. Periodically, sit down and re-evaluate what your priorities are.
Small Change 2: Do a time audit
When I worked in professional services, we had to account for how we were spending our time in 15 minute blocks. While it sometimes felt a bit of a bind, it meant you knew with clarity how you were spending your time. Record your time over a one or two month (or week) period and see where your time is going. Armed with this information, you can see if your time is going on your priorities.
Small Change 3: Avoid calendar overload
In any day, you might have meetings to attend, reports to produce, briefings to be delivered, documents to be reviewed or projects to be progressed, to name just a few. You will also get a certain level of unplanned or emerging events. If you have left some space in your calendar for these unplanned events, you are much better at getting these done and still getting the scheduled stuff done.
Small Change 4: Start planning
One of the challenges that I notice amongst professional people is that they love to get into action. The trouble is that this means that they sometimes don’t spend enough time planning their day, week or month.
Small Change 5: Reflect regularly
At the end of the week or month, set aside a short period of time to reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t worked. Then decide the changes that you need to make to get even better results in the future.
The Bottom Line: With leadership there are no guarantees. At the same time, some simple changes can make a huge difference to the results that you achieve.
Duncan Brodie helps accountants achieve more career success by helping them develop the skills to move beyond being just a technical expert. He invites you to check out his free report The 7 Biggest Barriers To Having A Successful Career In Accountancy
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.