Strategy is such a cool topic. I have had the opportunity to work on strategy review and development efforts during the past ten years and find the work to be intensely challenging intellectually. The tools used in these processes are designed purposefully to help you think differently about your business and to search for insights not seen before. They begin by developing a clear understanding of the current state of the business, looking for trends and insights from the current trajectory of metrics or other feedback from the marketplace, customers and non-customers. Gaps are identified and assignments handed out to get them closed. More importantly, a new flight plan for the business is set.
What about you? When was the last time you performed a strategic review of yourself? Well, I think today is the day to make an investment in yourself by taking these three steps:
1. Understand where you are today. Take a look at your latest performance evaluation. Read over it as if were a report on a company's performance by it's customers - that's right your boss is a customer of what your doing everyday. What does it say about your overall performance? If it doesn't read like a glowing report from a customer saying they're going to be a repeat buyer and recommends you to all their friends and coworkers you must figure out why. Your boss may or may not be adept at developing people - you have to be. Leaving this up to others is victimhood. Be honest, if your current job doesn't take advantage of your talents and passions why are you still there?. There's a quick hint here - the best way to your next job is to do the one you have better than it's ever been done. Do your peers value your input, advice and leadership?
2. Look for strengths and gaps - admit your deficiencies. Write down areas of your performance that are simply not up to snuff for a person who wants to be valued and advanced. Heck, look at last week. Were you great, average or just hanging around. Challenge yourself like no manager could. It's not comfortable but there is a fact many of us don't want to admit - we hold ourselves back because we don't want to take a critical look at ourselves. It's liberating to tear off the constant defense of yourself and look hard at what you've been doing. Make sure you give yourself credit for the things your great at, whether at work or away from it. These are clues to what you should be doing more of.
3. Develop a flight plan for excellence. There isn't much sense in doing this little exercise if all your going to shoot for is 'achieves' levels of performance. You may not think so, but your better than that. Set a course to re-define what 'exceeds' performance looks like. Maybe you need to focus on one area of work. There's a story of a man who couldn't win his club's tennis tournament because everyone knew one thing that he hadn't admitted to himself - he couldn't hit a backhand to save his life. Once he admitted it, he played the next 6 weeks hitting nothing but backhands, literally avoiding forehands to run around it to hit a backhand. He lost every match in those six weeks. "How in the heck does that help?" you might rightly ask. As in life you can't win anything just hitting backhands. Our hero played in the club championship the next week, of course returning to his regular style of play, but now with a stonger and more confident backhand. He won the tournament without losing a set. He had a plan and he stuck to it in the face of continual failure, but his goal wasn't to win with backhands but to make himself into a better all around player.
Make yourself a better (insert title here) by admitting your own weaknesses (what's your "backhand"?) and put plans in motion to return to what you are - a champion. Not tomorrow, today.
