Recently I watched my husband complete a crossword puzzle. He started with four down because that is where it was easiest for him. Then he focused his efforts on a small section of the puzzle trying to respond to both the across and down clues until he got stuck.

After awhile he moved to another section of the puzzle with the intent of coming back to the earlier section when he acquired some additional insight. He changed his mind on several occasions and needed to erase two previous answers. In frustration, he put the puzzle down to eat lunch, did some errands and then went back again.

What I realized is that completing crossword puzzle has many of the same aspects as managerial work. The process is rather messy in nature and can lead to frustration. Sometimes you think you’re going in the right direction and then you find that you need to backtrack. Decisions are made that don’t lead to the desired outcome and you may have to return to the “drawing board”.

Being wrong is not necessarily bad!

Some manager may think if it doesn’t go right the first time then the project or the team is failing. You may need a different approach especially when new information comes in that does not fit nicely in the original plan. In truth, knowing something doesn’t work is valuable insight. You can then fix it before it does great damage.

Managers need to continually keep their antennae up for information that alerts them to possible problems – the things that can grow into big headaches. For example, if you’re about to finalize a change in a major business process to enhance customer satisfaction, take a break and get input before making decisions. Find out from the folks who will be carrying out this new process where the possible glitches are and if it might do more harm than good.

Management Success Tip:

The fact that many management situations do not lend themselves to quick easy solutions can be frustrating. However, once it’s accepted that problem solving and decision making are messy processes, it is easier to cope with the complex nature of managerial work. When was the last time you did a crossword puzzle? Is it similar or different from your work as a manager?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
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• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

I am currently reading The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner, I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in how life adapts and changes.

As I contemplate the implications that Darwin’s work has on species, it occurs to me that leaders are a “species,” so to speak, and the future demands that leaders evolve, and fast.

To understand the evolutionary pressures that leaders face, I pulled out seven books I have on the future, not leadership, but the future. They are certainly not definitive, but they help us understand the evolutionary pressures on leaders today.

In response to the pressures of social and business evolution, leaders need to be able to:

– Identify and respond to new rules, patterns, dilemmas, paradox, unsolvable problems, and weak signals as they arise

– Operate with a beginners mind (intentional operational naiveté), be knowledgeable but not captured by the current business model, paradigm, or strategy

– Confidently make good, not great, decisions with incomplete data and course correct as quickly as possible by learning from your actions (“Decisions, once made, create a new environment with no opportunity to replay the old.” Peter Bernstein)

– Actively find ways to challenge your filters of reality and get the blinders off to see what is happening in the world

– Be someone who can go places no one else will and bring others along with you (perhaps there is something here about returning safely as well!!)

– Define what may happen in the future, choose among unproven alternatives, explore the consequences of each, and act fast

– Capitalize on differences; assume that everyone has a different set of “facts” and that choice and decision require you sample the perspective of as many different people as possible

– Understand that the conditions under which a “solution” worked cannot be generalized; nor can we extrapolate past trends into the future, but we can learn from them nevertheless

– Recognize that the whole is the product of interaction among its parts, organizational structure must be in the mind of the leader not on a chart

– Reinvent, reinvent, reinvent – imitation will not lead to success

– Figure out how to develop knowledge nomads, who are free to come and go as they like, into leaders that will take your company into the future

– Make sense of information, meaning out of knowledge, and convert tacit into explicit so it can be passed around and applied – “The unseen and the unknown do not have any competitors.” Karaoke Capitalism)

– Support individualism and create community – enable networks, tribes, and meet-ups

– Remember that wealth is created by wisdom, the few people (talent not titles) who are able, and willing, to make things happen…find them

– Become a master story-teller, translating information into emotion that produces action

– Operate at the working surface – where in-depth knowledge meets the need to make choices and act

– Hire attitude train skills – it can’t be done the other way around – mindset is what lets you see in new ways

– Replace brands and job descriptions with experiences, dreams, and emotion – combine transactional and relational

– Position yourself to be exposed to luck, change before you have to, and be ready for quantum leaps when they show up

– Embark on difficult journeys (strategy, re-organization, change) with no clear destination, take clues from the environment as you go to determine the path forward

– Acknowledge, explore, and understand VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) without giving in to denial or being overwhelmed by analysis

– Continuously challenge your personal mental models, deep assumptions, and unquestioned truths

– Resist the temptation to use fear and confusion to motivate people, maximize trust and minimize ego

– Admit mistakes of interpretation, judgment, and choice openly and seek council from others; and when you fail, fail in interesting ways, extract the learning, and move on

– Treat reputation, truth, and integrity as strategic resources to be protected – balance market wisdom with moral wisdom

– Be comfortable with doubt, tolerant of differences, and open to alternative interpretations of “reality”

– Understand that big, powerful systems have their weak spots and a small force can bring them crashing down – think global financial systems

– Operate in the “intangible” economy (services, experiences, and relationships)

– Filter signal from noise, scan, scout, and be nimble

– Recognize and accept the new role of business a global power acting on the world stage and responsible to stakeholders as much, more (?), than shareholders

– Embrace multiple truths and ask new questions rather than provide certain answers

– Openly question the traditional models of power, leadership, and business in order to creatively meet the challenges of a world that is interdependent, complex, unpredictable, and diverse

– Identify and manage multiple, conflicting dilemmas without losing sight of the competitive marketplace

– Identify, tap, and amplify emerging abilities before the “job description” is needed

– Develop bio-empathy – understand, learn from, and respect nature’s patterns

– Act to calm situations (internally and in partnerships) when differences dominate and communication is strained

– Create constructive engagement and a collective stance

– Broaden everyone’s concept of self/US to include larger systems of which they are apart

– Give up control and seek to influence, connect, and collaborate

– Learn by doing, think future-back, rapid prototype ideas and products, and avoid over-standardizing

– Create common ground – link public and private sectors, co-create with customers, partner with competitors

– Successfully manage your own response (emotional, psychological, physical) to being challenged, surprised, or disappointed

– Imagine what you can make happen rather than speculate on what might happen

– Surface the dogmas, slay the dragons, expose the elephants

– Understand the gap between what you want/need to achieve and what your organization has the competency to deliver, and then close the competency gap

– Invest in business performance using leadership strategy and development

I promised myself I would stop at 1000 words!

References available on request, carol@cairnconsultants.com

If I was a fly on the wall what would I hear your employees say? Would it something like this? “He won’t allow me to make even the simplest decisions. She has to sign off on everything. It’s hard to do my job because there’s too much red tape.”

Is it possible your staff is talking about you?
A very common problem with many managers is micro-managing – thinking that you have to be in control of everything. For example: You check everyone’s work, even when you don’t need to. You need to know where everyone is at any given moment. You watch people closely and tell them how they could improve or what they should change. You pay attention to all the details wanting to make sure everything is done just right.

Why do so many managers get hooked?

• The way we manage around here. Senior leaders micro-manages their direct staff. The staff adopts the same management style with their direct reports. The practice spreads and becomes part of the culture.
• Get results or else. In today’s difficult economy, managers live in perpetual fear that their department better produce or be out of a job. This fear drives them to constantly check on their staff and their work.
• A wrong belief. Many managers think success is based on authority. So they don’t allow their employees to make decisions because they believe that would be giving up their own power. The irony is when your people shine and do well, it enhances your reputation as a good manager.

Of course, there are situations where it’s important for you to be in control – a crisis situation you must take charge of immediately or a confidential project given to you by your boss. But, there are also situations, when you could relax a little, loosen the hand cuffs and let your people find and implement the best solutions.

So how do you manage less which is really managing better?

• Start at the top. Hire an executive coach to help senior leaders learn to trust and delegate to subordinates. Managers will then likely follow suit with their own direct reports.
• Put yourself in their shoes. It is very easy for managers to lose perspective about what decisions their staff can make on their own. Managers should ask themselves, what decisions would I need to make if I were doing that job?
• Minimize the risk of things going wrong. Have them talk through their plans and get them to think of the possible consequences before they move forward. Also, schedule regular updates so you can see the progress and catch possible problems before they become full blown crises.

Management Success Tip:

Control and micro-managing kills the spirit of of competent and committed people. Morale goes down, people get disengaged and mediocrity sets in. Instead, allow others to find their own way while you’re there to offer support when asked or needed. A great manager helps their people grow and develop their own strengths and talents. They are pride-builders. Are you?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Here’s a Riddle…

Everyone has experienced me, but few people know how to find me. I cannot co-exist with anxiety, fear, anger… or multi-tasking. I don’t cost a dime, but if I could be bought, people would pay small fortunes to create me. I can show up any time, any place, and during any activity. I am the difference between “good” and “great.” What am I?

The Answer

I am ‘Flow.’ The state of peak performance. First proposed by one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ‘flow’ is defined as:

The experience people have when they are completely immersed in an activity for its own sake, stretching body and mind to the limit, in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

It is the place where your attention, motivation, skill set, and the challenge before you collide. The result is a joyous, productive harmony, where you are at your best – your most innovative, most productive, and most brilliant. A ‘flow experience’ is often characterized by words like “rapture,” “timeless,” and “single-pointed-focus.”

Whoa. Sound like a magic elixir? Too good to be true? It is not. And it is a key differentiator between those who are “good” at what they do, and those who are recognized and celebrated as “great” at what they do.

Components of Flow

According to Csikszentmihalyi, there are three components that are necessary to generate a ‘flow state.’

1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.
2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable of doing the task at hand.
3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.

As can be seen in this graphic, flow state occurs when you have the courage to embrace a higher than average challenge, while, at the same time, stretching your skills to meet that challenge.

High challenge, but it requires low skill? Flow is blocked and the experience instead is one of anxiety or worry.

High skill, but not a challenge? Flow is blocked and instead the experience is one of boredom.

The Four Elements to Creating Flow

While a flow state can never be forced (how about that for an oxymoron?), you can intentionally set yourself up to create a state of flow by incorporating four key elements:

1. Intrinsic Motivation. Take on a goal or challenge that you are intrinsically-motivated to achieve. This is different than a goal that motivates you because of an external reward (like money) or recognition (like an award).
2. Uni-task. Choose to create a single-pointed focus during the times you are working on that goal or challenge (no email, no phone, no multi-tasking).
3. Stretch. Select a goal or challenge that makes you stretch. You know what that is – it’s the thing that keeps knocking on the back of your mind and it has the power to both excite and scare you at the same time.
4. Build skills. Is there is a system you need to implement, a mind-set you need to adjust, or a skill you need to build? Do it. Then get to work.

Where are you experiencing flow in your work? What’s keeping you from having more flow experiences? Is it time to change something up?

Management is a team sport not a superstar sport. What happens over time is that some managers begin to believe it’s all about them. It’s not, it’s just the opposite.I t’s about the people they lead.

Allan Ditchfield, former executive at AT&T, realized that you cannot lead without getting involved.

“When leaders remain behind their desks, they loose touch with reality – the key issues with their employees, and most importantly, the key issues with their customers.”

So he created “Donuts with Ditch”. It was a regular scheduled coffee and donuts session with no more than 10 people, chosen randomly, from different parts of his business unit. He asked one question:

“What’s getting in the way of you doing your jobs well and serving our customers?”

He listened, took notes, and followed up with solutions. The most important ingredient for success was not the donuts but rather the trust that had been established between him and the employees. He had what he called a sacred open door. No ones’ going to be hurt by what they say. That there will be no retaliation. He lived by that rule. He walked the talk and therefore people believed him and trusted him.

Management Success Tip:

This simple two way communication tools was the grease that kept the operational engine humming. It’s a great example of how leaders can build relationships with their people, create conditions that encourage two-way communication and also get real time information about problems before they turn into big hairy monsters that will eat up their time, energy and resources. Also see Are You Getting the Word Out

What’s your version of Donuts with Ditch?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach

Every year thousands of change initiatives are undertaken globally in the form of reorganization, structural and procedural change, new product and service launches, and the setting of strategy, goals, and objectives. Yet, according to Harvard Business Review, and the experience of many of us, 70% of all change initiatives fail. The financial cost of failed change to organizations, the economy, and society is enormous. The human cost – measured by employee lack of trust, disengagement, apathy, turnover, sick days, depression, and burnout – is even higher. Why is change so hard to successfully implement?

Change has a dynamic and logic all its own – the more you try to control it, mandate the timeline, or predict the outcomes the sooner you become part of the 70% failure rate. Success lies in implementing a new model of change, rather than repeating the same model better and faster, that embeds Adaptive Change into the organizational culture; creating resilience and agility in a world that is increasingly volatile and unpredictable.

As we traverse the second half of 2012, a year that has significant change elements geopolitically, spiritually, and perhaps even cosmically, it makes sense to review change from a fresh perspective. This perspective is not “new”, like most innovation its components have been around for years, what is new is their combination and the insight they produce. I have written before about Adaptive Change (see previous posts), but as Kevin Kelly points out: change changes change. I am constantly learning more about the dynamics of change. The next few blogs are recent learnings…just in time for an adaptive year.

Overarching Drivers of Adaptive Change

I have been thinking more about the forces of Adaptive Change lately and how they drive our ability to embed the process of change during implementation. This is critical now more than ever, as pace of change in business is accelerating.

Organizational Purpose binds together Performance, Leadership, Culture and Values, aligning present and future goals.

Adaptive Forces, arising from the External Environment, Internal Response, and Organizational Knowledge and Learning, generate the energy that drives Adaptive Change to the cycle’s conclusion, a higher level of organizational performance and increased coherence with the external business environment.

Together these two generate the content and context of the six components of Adaptive Change that each organization works with during the process of achieving higher performance.

Six Components of Adaptive Change

Performance – Change is an Experience: Calling change a process to be managed ignores the emotional and psychological aspects of each individual’s experience of change. Adaptive Change provides individuals and groups with language and metaphor to bring them into conversation about change and to collectively manage their experience during the process. In this way, behavioral change drives improved performance.

Leaders – Enroll and Enable Others: The mandate from the top is directional – aligning change to the organization’s purpose. The positive energy of Adaptive Change comes from the functional sponsors’ creation of a collective vision that can be implemented across the organization. Individuals voluntarily emerge to create a group of “possibility seeking” change agents. In this way change changes change and the organization adapts based on the interplay of Organizational Purpose and Adaptive Forces.

Culture & Values – Embed the Process of Innovation: Adaptive Change is a long-term value proposition that impacts the organization’s function and structure. When the forces of change are no longer an Us-Them dilemma for people to resist, then product, process, and business innovation are unleashed. Additionally, when Adaptive Change becomes a cultural norm, it emerges when and where it is needed – naturally – creating a sustainable competitive advantage.

External Environment – Generation of Organizational Strain: Adaptive Change is a systemic evolution that occurs when organizations encounter destabilizing events in the environment causing the whole system to move away from the Status Quo. Discontinuities initiate the change cycle, however, unpredicted and uncontrollable VUCA elements arise quickly to shape both the experience of change and the transactional events that resolve it.

Internal Response – Engineering the Experience: Adaptive Change produces transformational opportunities that require leaders to “engineer the experience” in order to realize the full potential of the moment. Managing the internal response provides Vision (Where), Understanding (Why), Clarity (What), and Agility (How) – VUCA Prime. This work presents leaders with their own personal Adaptive Change journey as they learn to lead in a collaborative culture.

Knowledge and Learning – Convene the Adaptive Center: The process of Adaptive Change is the same as the process of organizational learning. It involves a repeating knowledge management cycle: generation of a vision and concepts for change, management of the human experience, making sense of the transactional journey (doing the work), and solving for contradictions and dilemmas.

Next we need a process for implementation, one that embeds Adaptive Change into the culture and daily activities of all employees. Until then, what is your experience of change? When has it worked? Why? When have you struggled? Can you identify one of the six components that was instrumental in your challenge with change? Let us know so we can all learn together about how to make change adaptive.

Recognition: For something so simple why is so hard to compliment people when they do something well or to encourage them as they work to improve their performance?

I’ve have heard a variety of reasons, in my training and coaching, why some managers let encouragement and recognition drift.

• “I don’t need recognition. I am self-driven. My people should be the same.”
• “If I recognize them, they will let up and performance will drop.”
• “Recognizing individuals will only create more problems with those who don’t get it.”
• “Why should I recognize people for doing their jobs.”

The bottom line is this: If you want people to give their very best, you better be recognizing their efforts and contributions regularly – not just once a year!

Here are three things to keep in mind about recognition.

1. Recognition and reward are not the same thing, although many use them interchangeably. Rewards are best used when high achievement standards are met or exceeded. For many managers, monetary reward is the only recognition strategy they know. In those circumstances, recognition is very black and white – exceed your numbers and get recognized (usually with more money); come in at 99% and be labeled a marginal or poor performer.
2. However, recognition serve many purposes. With simple words, short notes, public applause or even little trinkets, you can let people know when they are making progress, , serving as role models for important values or showing extra effort. It’s acknowledging and encouraging people for their time, effort and commitment. Look for opportunities to help people soar and let them know when they do.
3. You cannot delegate recognition and encouragement. You must get involved one on one whenever possible. Dropping a note of praise in an e-mail is one thing. Personally handing it to the other person, with a proud look in the eye, an affirming handshake or a genuine pat on the back is something entirely different.

Management Success Tip

Write down the names of at least two people whom you know deserves some praise, recognition or encouragement from you for something they have recently done or are about to do. Now go out and recognize them. Let them know how important they are. Then find 2 more people. In other words, set daily or weekly goals for recognition. Get it in your planner like you do everything else that is important. Also see Employee Motivation: one Size Doesn’t Fit All and Enthusiastic Employees Do Yo Have Them?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

You know that feeling? The one where your heart feels tight, maybe your head spins a bit, it feels like someone has placed needles between your eyes and clamped a vice to each of your shoulders?

When you feel like this, your focus is fractured and everything, even the lint in between the keys on your keyboard, is more interesting than the task you have before you. Sound familiar? That’s stress.

Bless us. The power inside each and every one of us is inspiring. However, like the excess of anything, that same power can be self-defeating. Sometimes we allow ourselves to believe that our greatest asset is our ability to “pony up”—to keep our eye on the prize and not stop pushing until we get there. And, sometimes it is. But not always.

The Gift of Stress

Stress is a gift. A what? Yep, it’s a gift. When used appropriately, it helps to “rally the troops,” to gather our mental and physical resources and focus them with laser-like precision. It fuels creativity, action, and immense productivity. The problem is not with stress, but with our seemingly diminishing ability to oscillate between periods of stress and recovery. To know when to leverage our stress response in support of a goal and when to allow our bodies the grace of recovering and repairing from the onslaught of cell-damaging stress-related hormones. In fact, many of us are so chronically stressed that we’re unaware of the level of stress we’re experiencing this very moment.

A 60-Second Experiment

Sit back in your chair. Put two feel flat on the floor. Roll your shoulders back and away from your ears. Close your eyes (well, finish reading the experiment first…). Now, take three deep breaths. Pull air all the way to the bottom of your belly, hold it there, and let it go. Try two more, just for good measure.

Feel any different?

Deep breathing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to mitigate the effects of stress, bring oxygen to your brain, and regain your focus and clarity. Do you think there’s any coincidence that “inspiration” is used to describe both the inhalation of air as well as a timely and brilliant idea?

So, when cleaning the lint from your keyboard becomes more compelling than the proposal you’re in the midst of writing, be gentle with yourself. Your lack of focus isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s your body’s way of telling your brain to take the backseat for a minute. Your body is smart—trust it and it will certainly continue to inspire your brilliant brain.

“I have begun enforcing disciplinary measures on an employee due to her lateness and absenteeism. I know the employee is telling ‘her side of the story’ to anyone who will listen. How can I make my small team aware of this appropriately?”

My advice would be not to make your team aware of another employee’s discipline plan and/or issues, despite how tempted you might be to defend yourself. When dealing with employee discipline, it is very important that you stay focused on your role as a manager and not get sidetracked by gossip that may be circulating among your team. Remember, how you handle this situation is being watched by the rest of the team.

Here are three guidelines:

• Meet with the disciplined employee privately and review expected behavior, as it relates to the job and her performance. It is important that you give very specific performance expectations and a specific timeframe for making changes.
• Make your manager and the Human Resources Department aware of the situation. Be crystal clear on what the disciplinary steps are for your organization. For your own protection, document everything.
• Gently confront the employee with what you are hearing and let her know that her comments need to stop. Give her a strong message that this behavior is un-acceptable and distracting to the team. Focus on expectations — be clear on what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. As a manager, your role is to coach this employee and guide her.
• Review performance expectations with the entire team (including the disciplined employee) as well. Perhaps it is time to give them a pep talk and reinforce positive behavior.

Management Success Tip:

It may be time to let this employee go. But first consult again with your manager and human resources to make sure they are on board with it. Then follow the proper procedure. Hopefully the team will see you as manager who has corrected an unacceptable situation that was impacting the performance of the team. That is the strongest message that you can give to them.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach

It’s that time of year again – time to create your Individual Development Plan or IDP. Staring down at the “official” corporate IDP form, one is reminded how limiting management theory has become (see Gary Hamel’s new book and website for more). So here’s a thought, for yourself and your key talent, do some management 3.0 pre-work before you fill in the blanks.

IDP 3.0 Structure

Before you get too SMART, get out your MAPS – Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose, and Strengths. Blending Dan Pink’s Motivation 3.0 with Gallup’s StrengthFinder gives you something to write corporate about.

Mastery – “Solving complex problems requires an inquiring mind and the willingness to experiment one’s way to a fresh solution. …Only engagement can produce Mastery [which is] essential in today’s economy.” Dan Pink

Autonomy – “…no one can plan effectively for someone else. It is better to plan for oneself, no matter how badly, than to be planned for by others, no matter how well.” Russell Ackhoff

Purpose – “Ultimately, each person has a significant degree of control over how many challenges she deals with. Even the simplest task, if carried out with care and attention [Purpose], can reveal layers and layers of opportunity to hone one’s skills.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Strength – “Building on your strengths isn’t necessarily about ego. It is about responsibility. …It is your opportunity to take your natural talents and transform them through focus and practice and learning into near perfect performance.” Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton

IDP – The Prequel

Start with Purpose. For the foreseeable future, and these days 12-months is a long time horizon, what is your calling? How do you fit into the organization’s “grand design”? In the position you currently occupy, what is the source of your power and how will you use that to accomplish something significant? Becoming aware of your Purpose, you can design an IDP that generates conscious competence.

Layer in Strengths. This ensures your performance plan is both excellent and personally fulfilling. To do this you have to, first, know your strengths. But don’t just read the results…really digest them, embed them into your leadership IDP. How can you naturally combine these five elements to create a synergism that supersedes what they accomplish singularly (conscious competence)? Is there a shift in emphasis that, combined with the context of your current role, can catapult you to a new level of performance? Can this year provide you the challenges to polish one (or more) themes to produce real growth – growth of Phoenix proportions? Looking at your profile what complimentary strengths are essential to your work and WHO in your network has them? How do you enroll these folks to your cause this year?

Mastery generates the Plan. Into this fertile ground ask:

• What available challenges excite me? Be curious.
• What work leaves me deeply satisfied? Be engaged.
• What performance goals led to learning? Be mindful.
• What fuels me and gives me energy? Be joyful.

Autonomy delivers the Plan. Every day for as long as the plan is relevant, autonomy adapts the plan to change over the course of the year. What choices do you make, daily or hourly, to keep your plan in play? How will you achieve both autonomy and interdependence – the reality of working in a network organization? What boundaries exist and must be worked within? Are they negotiable? Shifting focus from “what” you must do to “how” you can do it places you squarely in Intrinsic Motivation, a learning mindset, and a positive attitude.

So there you have it, the MAPS of you – today, in this job – that will produce a SMART IDP and a successful, fulfilling year of work.