Rising Above Disappointments

We all deal with little victories and disappointments on a regular basis, but every once and a while a biggie happens. It’s easy to celebrate the big victories, but it’s much more challenging to manage big disappointments.

This could be the expectation of receiving an important promotion, a new and better job, or an opportunity to break into a new client relationship. It doesn’t matter what “it” is; if you had your heart set on it and it doesn’t happen, it can feel like a setback.

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Do You Need to Unstick?

As much as a new year can inspire a fresh start, sometimes it has the opposite effect. For example, if you took it easy during the holidays and haven’t yet gotten up to speed, even consistent high performers can get complacent.

It’s worth seeing whether such a malaise is affecting any of your people (or you, for that matter), and if it is, you need to help them snap out of it immediately. The longer it drags on, the longer it will take to reverse course.

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What Do You Know Now?

Something that helps people make progress is to consciously think about what they know now that they didn’t know last week (month, year, etc.). Incremental knowledge – no matter how small or big it may be – accumulates and adds to your professional development.

Why not ask this question in your weekly team meetings? If you take time to have a quick round robin, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you hear.

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“I’ll Take Care of It”

To succeed in today’s workplace, people need to demonstrate their value and curtail any hint of dispensability. At a minimum, they need to at least act the part.

Here is a personal example to illustrate the point. I needed help to remove a piece of furniture from my apartment. I asked Joe, who works in my building, if he’d like to make a little extra money by assisting me.

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Management Myopia

Have you ever faced a situation where you’ve clung to an old “story” about an employee even if the circumstances have changed? For example, let’s say you’ve been dealing with a “renegade” employee for at least a year.

You don’t want to loosen your grip over him, because you believe this old scenario is still current. From your perspective, “He’s still out of control” or “I don’t want the management headache”.

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Revealing Mistakes

Do you often succumb to “I’ll do it myself”? Sometimes, hard-driving managers become frustrated when their staff makes mistakes, and as a result, they sing the refrain of “it’s easier to do it myself.”

This is usually a bad idea. Of course, there are exceptions, but overall, it’s better to take time to coach someone about what was done incorrectly and how to do it accurately the next time.

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It’s All in the Details!

Even if you don’t see yourself as detail oriented, paying attention to details can make a difference between average and outstanding communication. The expression, “it’s all in the details” takes on fresh meaning in these situations. Consider these examples:

The executive who isn’t clear in his instructions but expects his assistant to know precisely what he has in mind. The assistant books his travel and the exec yells at her because it wasn’t the exact schedule that he wanted (which he, of course, never mentioned).

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The Domino Effect

Team members rely on each other. When everyone does what they commit to doing, the results can be fabulous. On the other hand, if one person neglects to hold up his or her end of the bargain, it can create a domino effect where the house of cards tumbles down.

If your organizational structure is built around teams, as the leader, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the teams function to their best advantage. There isn’t room for prima donnas, lone rangers, or slackers. They need to understand that no matter how talented they are, they will drag down the team if they behave in such fashion.

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