Episode #66: How well did you generate business results through others in 2023?
Welcome to THE CAREER ACCELERATOR, the podcast where corporate managers will find tips and tools to deliver results through others.
How well did you generate business results through others this year? Today I will provide three sets of tips on how you can assess your 2023 performance.
I’m your host, Percy Cannon.
In our last episode I shared the top three messages I took from the excellent book No Rules Rules, by Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings with Erin Meyer.
1. Build up your “talent density.” Employee quantity is not the way to assess your talent strength. What counts is the quality of the people on your team.
2. Err on the side of providing feedback, above, below and sideways. Start with one baby step: Take the initiative. Ask to receive feedback from your employees.
3. Treat others the way they, not you, want to be treated. Become aware of the way you treat others and decipher how each person prefers to be treated.
Switching to today’s episode, I want to give you a head start on analyzing how well you generated business results in 2023 through three key audiences: your team, your colleagues and your boss.
1. Generating business results through your direct reports: Unlike individual contributors, who mostly deliver results by themselves, as a people manager, you are largely dependent on the business impact generated by your direct reports. I suggest you rate yourself, high, medium, or low in the following three areas:
a) Set Clear Expectations and Goals:
· Did you set clear goals at the beginning of the year, both in terms of business results and personal development?
· Did your direct reports understand the connection between their goals and yours?
· And did you establish a process where progress toward their goals was reviewed frequently, and adjustments were made when there was a need for them?
b) Empower and Develop your Team:
· Did you provide your direct reports with the tools, resources, and training they needed to excel in their roles?
· Did you delegate frequently, based on their individual capabilities, to encourage autonomy and decision-making within their roles?
· Did you reward them for their achievements and provide constructive feedback when needed?
c) Foster Vulnerability-based Trust and Collaboration:
- Did you establish a culture of trust and open communication with each direct report?
- Did you create a collaborative environment where team members can share ideas, expertise, and best practices to solve problems and develop innovative solutions?
- Did you address promptly and constructively the so-called “elephant in the room”, those difficult issues that are obvious but are being avoided by the team?
Don’t be shy about the quantity and quality of the time spent coaching your direct reports. In my personal experience, first as a people manager and now as an external coach, the ROI obtained through working and developing this audience is extremely high.
2. Generating business results through your colleagues: As a team member, your objective should be to ensure alignment on the few important collective priorities that the team will pursue and the role that each person will play in delivering such goals. As with the previous audience, rate yourself, high, medium, or low in the following three areas:
- Build Collaborative Relationships:
- How well do you know your colleagues?
- Can you hold open and productive debates on important decisions to be made?
- Are you proactively seeking ways to contribute to the success of your colleagues’ projects?
2. Encourage a Culture of Accountability: - Did you finish your meetings with clear commitments on who does what and by when?
- Were you clear on the inter-dependencies you had with each colleague?
- Did you provide constructive feedback to your peers when a deadline was missed?
3. Promote a Positive Team Culture: - Were you and your colleagues aligned on the team’s top three core values? Did you and your colleagues live and breathe those values?
- Did you and your colleagues treat your team as their No. 1 priority, ahead of their individual functional groups?
- Did you celebrate individual and team successes, acknowledging and rewarding contributions to business achievements?
Delivering results through your colleagues is not easy. You have to fight against the prevalent silo approach, where team members prioritize individual objectives over the collective ones. High-performance teams do the opposite: They make the goals of the group top priorities and contribute to the overall success of the organization.
3. Last, but not least, is generating business results through your boss: This was probably the most difficult audience for me in my early years in the corporate world. However, it does not have to be that way for you if you work in the following three areas. Again, rate yourself, high, medium, or low:
- Understand Your Boss's Goals and Priorities:
- Did you help your boss shine by exceeding his performance goals or over-delivering on a key corporate initiative?
- Did you hold regular one-on-one sessions with your boss to track results, align expectations and priorities, and make course corrections
- Were you familiar with the company's strategic objectives and how your role contributed to achieving them?
- Align Your Work with Company Objectives:
- Did your projects and daily tasks directly contribute to the overall business goals?
- Were you able to clearly map the connection between your initiatives and the company's strategic vision?
- Were you able to impact both the top- and bottom-line results of your organization?
3. Provide Clear and Actionable Updates:
- Were you able to “feed the lion” during the year? By “feeding the lion,” I mean using data and metrics to demonstrate to your boss the impact of your work and highlight your achievements.
- Did you show a sense of urgency to address those internal and external challenges faced by the organization?
- Did you seek your boss's help when needed?
Building a strong working relationship with your boss is crucial for success. Understand their communication preferences, seek feedback, and show a genuine interest in the overall success of the organization. Become the person whom other senior managers would like to incorporate into their teams.
Summarizing, in 2023, how well did you do at generating strong business results through your three key audiences: your team, your colleagues and your boss. Use the set of questions I have shared with you to gauge your success.
1. With your team:
a. Did you set clear expectations and goals?
b. Did you empower and develop your team?
c. Did you foster vulnerability-based trust and collaboration?
2. With your colleagues:
a. Did you build collaborative relationships?
b. Did you encourage a culture of accountability?
c. Did you promote a positive team culture?
3. With your boss:
a. Did you understand your boss's goals and priorities?
b. Did you align your work with company objectives?
c. Did you provide clear and actionable updates?
Take note of those areas where you scored yourself high so you can leverage them in 2024 and beyond.
Likewise, choose one or two of the low ones and work on improving in those areas next year.
Leverage the script of this podcast to make it easier for you to assess your scores.
In our next episode I will provide more tips on how to accelerate your career growth in 2024.
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This is Percy Cannon, working to help you make the rest of your life…the best of your life®.