How To Get Your Team To Speed Up
One of the most exciting moments in my work with executive leaders and teams is when the epiphany strikes:
Substantial progress can be achieved with modest but meaningful changes.
The fact is, dramatic improvements can be affected with subtle adaptations to mindset and behavior. The key is to rigorously focus on the following:
- What needs to change most quickly?
- Why is it important?
- How will we make it happen?
When was the last time you and your team took a strategic pause in the busyness of leading the business to look past the fires and reflect on the accelerants and impediments to success?
Is your team stuck in a “can’t-slow-down” mindset?
- We are too bogged down to pause and think, let’s just get the work done!
- Let’s get through the next week/month/quarter, and then we will focus on the future.
- Why not do things the way we have always done them? It’s worked well in the past, why change now?
Breaking the team out of this mindset isn’t as difficult as it may seem, but it does require slowing down to approach things differently. I encourage you to protect time to discuss as a team:
- Where do we need to slow down? And where must we speed up?
- How will we lead the organization to drive sustainable sales, create radical improvements in the customer experience, draw amazing talent to the organization, and develop outrageously innovative products and services?
You can’t always control when the “Aha! moments” will emerge, but you can influence the probability of their occurrence. Which small changes in thinking and execution can you make right away?
_____________________________________________________________
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Dr. Liz on Leadership. In each article, I will share new innovative ideas, tools and targeted advice to help you excel in today’s ever-changing healthcare environment. Let me know what’s top of mind and I’ll answer your most pressing questions in future columns. Contact me at liz@lizbywater.com. For additional tools and ideas, visit my website, www.lizbywater.com. And don’t forget to pick up your copy of Slow Down to Speed Up: Lead, Succeed, and Thrive in a 24/7 World!