Is pandemic impacting your business? How about other things? While the past year has been challenging for us all to varying degrees, it is important to acknowledge that other areas and decisions have impacted businesses and organizations. In many cases, decisions about how to lead, invest, train, market, modernize…and so on have been made for years even though they may have only started to come to light this year.
Think about all decisions, positions, leadership and be honest with yourself and your colleagues if you truly want to grow, improve and succeed.
Every once in a while, do yourself (and those around you) a favor and take a break from social media and other things (and people) who induce stress, unrest, uneasiness and polarizing points of view. Removing content that is centered on anger, fear, hate and blame will do you good and will help you rebalance your priorities and focus on what truly matters for your happiness and success.
As leaders, making decisions and taking actions fall among many responsibilities we are tasked with. However, creating the environment where all members of your team are treated with respect, support and are included in the process is of equal importance.
Balancing empathy and understanding with decisions and actions is important and here’s what I think about it.
Podcast: “The long game” with Milos Topic – Episode 3 with Sharon Pitt, Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at University of Delaware shares her thoughts, ideas and experiences on building inclusive and diverse teams, nudging organizational culture in the desired direction and much more.
Sharon’s question for the audience:
► How are you doing work-life balance while working from home?
Leaders don’t care about being right. They care about doing the right thing and arriving to the desired destination with expected outcomes. It is about doing what teams need to advance, grow and improve, not about them having the final say.
Path to happiness is not always upward. Know yourself, be honest with yourself and then act accordingly in your life and career.
Personal growth, advancement and improvement is not always upward bound for everyone as not everyone will want to take on additional responsibilities and changes that come with that decision. When in doubt, air on the side of true self.
Don’t forget to have fun in all that you do. Enjoy life, move forward with purpose and intent and introduce some levity for yourself and others along the way. Life is beautiful, enjoy every moment you have.
How do I get better?
This question kept coming up in recent conversations with friends and colleagues and it has become apparent that one could do this by being more intentional about their own actions, thoughts, effort and energy instead of focusing on what others are doing. While you need to be aware of plans, strategies and actions of your competitors, that is NOT where your focus should be most of the time. Instead, focus on your own contributions, on your organizations and your teams and the rest will fall in place in due time.
While introducing change and new ways of thinking and doing things it is essential to manage the pace of change. This pace will be influenced by organizational culture, leadership, people and their collective comfort to reimagine how to move forward.
Change, growth and progress could all begin with you. Yes, you, no matter what your formal title might be today. While executive leadership teams have a very important role to play, change, action, leadership can be initiated across many places within an organization and are not limited exclusively to titles or corner offices.
If you believe that your team or a group can do better, begin influencing the progress and necessary advancements. Be the leader you wish you had.
