As you continue to implement and start using S.T.O.P., you need to take a good long look at yourself and determine how you are currently performing in each the critical “Part 1” areas discussed below. Next week, we will work on “Part 2” of this evaluation process. As you go through the first part of this exercise, it will be beneficial for you to rate yourself on a scale of one to 10, where one means you do very poorly and 10 means you do very well. Your score on each of these will help you to determine your strengths and weaknesses. When you are evaluating yourself, remember the words of Eric Hoffer – “We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves” – and be brutally honest with yourself.
Once you have honestly assigned a numerical value to each of the areas below, you have started the process of developing the starting point for knowing the areas in which you need the greatest improvement. You also start to discover what your true talents are – talents you can use to develop plans and systems and quickly become more effective. Document the results of this week’s evaluations and add them to the second exercise next week.
Your goal from this and next week’s exercise is to help you identify and prioritize the things you need to change in order to become more strategic and effective as you re-engineer yourself from who you are to who you want to be. Also, as you are prioritizing them, ask yourself which of these when changed will have the greatest potential to significantly and quickly deliver the greatest results.
Now is the time to start evaluating yourself. On a scale of one to 10, how do you rate yourself in:
• Knowing yourself: How well do you really know yourself? Do you really know your talents? Things you do very well, almost as second nature and that come easily for you? Have you indentified your limitations and are willing and able to devote time and energy to improving on and reducing your limitations?
• Thinking and acting like a CEO, not an employee: Are you thinking and acting like a strategic business person that takes the time necessary to work “on” your business and can see the big picture of what changes are to required make it grow and become more profitable? Or are you more like an employee trying to specialize in doer-ship?
• Defining a vision for your business and life and setting goals: How good are you at defining your vision for your business life and your personal life? Do you have a written mission statement, your vision, and have you developed your plan and written down your goals that, if reached, will lead to the fulfillment of your plan?
• Managing priorities: Are you good at managing priorities? The most important thing in managing priorities is knowing how to correctly prioritize them. At the end of the day, can you honestly say you got the greatest results from what you accomplished?
• Delegating: Is there someone in your organization that can successfully complete some of the day-to-day tasks you are currently doing? Or would hiring someone with the needed skills to complete some of these activities free up enough time to allow you to become more strategic and effective in your business so that you can increase revenue quickly and exceed the cost of the new employee?
• Providing leadership: Have you given your employees a clear message of where you are striving to take the business? Have you convinced them that everyone benefits when they all work together as a team as you guide the team to greater success?
• Holding others accountable: Have you given each employee a clear description of what their duties are and timelines for completing them? If completed as expected, do you acknowledge that they have done a good or great job? If expectations are not met, do you review with the employee what the expectations are, where the shortcomings are and help them to learn to meet expectations?
Next week, we will work on the second part of rating yourself as a Strategic Business Person. Now, however, give honest and serious thought to how you should rate yourself in each of the above. Then prioritize them based on their importance and potential positive impact. This begins the process of developing a system that helps you to improve in the areas you can and delegate the ones in which you can’t improve. If there’s anything you can’t delegate, then take steps to minimize the amount of effort spent on them to reduce their impact as much as possible and then find someone to whom you can delegate them.
“When you’ve finished changing, you are finished.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Rick Brines is the owner of The Growth Coach of Chattanooga. He can be reached at 423-886-6095 or at R.Brines@TheGrowthCoach.com.