As we develop and grow our career, most people fall into a trap:
1. We tend to create a comfort zone that makes our workday easier.
2. Your Comfort Zone is typically full of people who think and act like you. When others are comfortable with your Comfort Zone, they tend to not rock the boat either - meaning little confrontation or accountability.
So, what are the natural consequences?
1. Being comfortable means coasting. Coasting means going (slowly?) downhill.
2. Lack of brutally honest feedback means you are operating in a vacuum - disconnected with what's really happening. All decisions are a result of informed choices. Those choices are only as good as the information.
So, what's the solution? We need to seek out sources of brutal honesty - by getting R.E.A.L.:
Review - What aspects of your current workday are you depending solely on information others give you about a situation? Make it a point to experience that (customer experience, employee experience) personally as often as possible.
Engage - Create ways to connect with various types of people throughout your organization - in a way that cannot be predicted! This will prevent you from being "handled" so that people are telling you what they think you want to hear.
Align - Consider your organizations Values and Vision. Align your actions with those elements (in relation to your industry environment and the ultimate customer experience you desire) instead of only the immediate political circumstances you deal with close in.
Leverage - Use the support you have from the many different perspectives of your boss/peers/team to spark making the best FULLY INFORMED decisions. Create an accountability of open communication (like posting your commitments/results status so everyone can see them as things progress) with the opportunity for everyone to comment freely.
Focusing on creating a REAL world dynamic will keep you from staying in a make-believe world - and making dis-connected decisions that make you (and your operation) vulnerable.
Think about it. But more importantly, do something about it...today!
1. We tend to create a comfort zone that makes our workday easier.
2. Your Comfort Zone is typically full of people who think and act like you. When others are comfortable with your Comfort Zone, they tend to not rock the boat either - meaning little confrontation or accountability.
So, what are the natural consequences?
1. Being comfortable means coasting. Coasting means going (slowly?) downhill.
2. Lack of brutally honest feedback means you are operating in a vacuum - disconnected with what's really happening. All decisions are a result of informed choices. Those choices are only as good as the information.
So, what's the solution? We need to seek out sources of brutal honesty - by getting R.E.A.L.:
Review - What aspects of your current workday are you depending solely on information others give you about a situation? Make it a point to experience that (customer experience, employee experience) personally as often as possible.
Engage - Create ways to connect with various types of people throughout your organization - in a way that cannot be predicted! This will prevent you from being "handled" so that people are telling you what they think you want to hear.
Align - Consider your organizations Values and Vision. Align your actions with those elements (in relation to your industry environment and the ultimate customer experience you desire) instead of only the immediate political circumstances you deal with close in.
Leverage - Use the support you have from the many different perspectives of your boss/peers/team to spark making the best FULLY INFORMED decisions. Create an accountability of open communication (like posting your commitments/results status so everyone can see them as things progress) with the opportunity for everyone to comment freely.
Focusing on creating a REAL world dynamic will keep you from staying in a make-believe world - and making dis-connected decisions that make you (and your operation) vulnerable.
Think about it. But more importantly, do something about it...today!
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