After the year-end crunch attention naturally shifts to focusing on goals for the new year and professional development opportunities. However, this is also a great time to reflect upon both accomplishments and “misses” over the past year. For this reason, I’ve chosen “self-management” as the theme for this upcoming series of blogs.
Post year-end crunch in addition to leading in a year of a pandemic presents the perfect opportunity to reflect on the previous year, attain closure from events that didn’t go as planned, and get aligned for the upcoming year. As a leader, this is your time to lead by example. Model the behavior that leads to continued personal and professional growth that leads to your success! The competencies we’ll cover this month include positivity, self-awareness, stress management and self-accountability.
Positivity
As a leader, your employees watch everything you do. Your behavior and choices serve as examples and are broadcast to those you lead every day. Consequently, it helps to keep an upbeat attitude and atmosphere in the office. This positively affects others and can lead to more creativity and appropriate reasoning and problem solving.
Here are a few tips on how to lead with and encourage positivity:
Optimistic Reflection- Reflecting with optimism helps illuminate the positive aspects of situations. Often, we have no control over tough situations, so we choose to approach them with unforgiving positivity. However, be careful not to let this overwhelming positivity mask important information and insights. Optimistic reflection allows you to reframe a situation from several different perspectives. It is a more holistic approach to evaluating your circumstances rather than convincing yourself your current course of action is best.
Highlight and Reward Behavior- Negative events are often the most memorable events. The details of negative experiences and events are often much easier to recall than details of positive ones. This coupled with the typical manager’s workload, dealing with performance and behavioral issues can create lingering negativity. So, flip the script. Bring a positive atmosphere to the office by dedicating some time every day to recognizing employees for doing the right thing.
Letting go- Leaders have many responsibilities and are expected to produce the desired business results. However, despite your best efforts, not everything is controllable. Learning to let go and resist the urge to have a hand in every situation relieves stress and leaves room for positivity. So instead of pouring energy into being involved in everything and micro-managing, focus on providing enough training and tools so that your employees can manage situations themselves. In addition to leaving room for positivity in your interactions with your employees, you’re also elevating the competencies of your team. This benefits the team and the organization.
By encouraging self-management among your employees, you become their model of positive behavior, like well developed emotional intelligence. The behaviors they learn from you enable their success and can also be beneficial to them in their personal lives.
If you’d like to discuss other ways to encourage positive self-management, contact me.