Focus on establishing your major goals and accomplishments in life and reverse engineer the steps you need to take to be able to get there one day. In my opinion, happiness should be front and center, not accumulation of financial resources and things.
Take the steps needed so that you will be proud of this period of your life and career a decade or two from now. Furthermore, your place in the future depends on your actions today so proceed accordingly.
Play your part on your team and make sure your responsibilities are attended to accordingly. While you should be collaborative and helpful to others, you should not try to do their jobs for them. You win or lose together as a team and everyone has a role to play.
Do you know who is in it (at the very core) and have you recently asked each of them individually to share what they truly think about you? It is important to go through this exercise at times in order to supplement your own self-awareness about your strengths and areas for improvement.
Be courageous and speak. Share your thoughts in meetings and speak your mind. Say what you think and believe and listen to others’ points of view. Share your thoughts, that’s why you have them. Don’t be shy, scared or embarrassed to talk in front of other people, no matter what positions they might hold in your organization. Speak the truth, it will serve you well long term.
How and when should you protect your team? The answer is almost always, always! Even when you collectively under-perform or fail, it is up to you to face those consequences and address any criticism publicly while resolving any challenges internally and privately. Furthermore, don’t allow anyone to badmouth your team publicly, especially if they haven’t had any common decency or professional courtesy to come to you first.
How you treat and respect your team has a direct impact on how far you will progress and advance, together, as a unit.
Empower others to contribute and succeed. Share, delegate and scale your operations for growth, size and relevance. Don’t do everything alone, invite and welcome others to join you on this collective and collaborative journey towards growth, improvements and success.
Done is better than perfect. We have all heard that over the years, but what I have come to realize with my own “quests for perfection” is that they were almost always nothing more than excuses. I didn’t have enough time; it wasn’t important enough; it’s difficult; it’s Friday, I’ll do it on Monday and the list goes on and on. If it matters to you, finish it!
Podcast – Episode 2: Paige Francis, Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the University of Tulsa shares her thoughts, ideas and experiences on building relationships, providing opportunities to all, leadership, innovation, culture and much more.
Having options to choose from is a good “problem” to have. However, it is important not to spend too much time dwelling on options as some of them will go away with time. Do your due diligence and your research on each of the options; speak with your trusted circle of family and friends and then act.
Take a shot, embrace the unknown, live a little. 😉
Experience is a great teacher, but it can at times lead us to jump to a conclusion which is inaccurate. Instead, do your best to remain cool, calm and collected, gather evidence and research the problem before taking any radical actions.
