PAUSE TO
REFLECT
Another
year is about to end and another year will soon begin. It seems the wheel
of life turns faster and faster every year doesn’t it? But before you
prepare to enter another year and start the cycle all over again, take
a moment to reflect on the past year.
If you’re like most of us, some things didn’t go as planned this year.
Don’t ignore your failures because we can all learn from our mistakes.
Which decisions should have been made differently? Where are your processes
letting you down? Who on your team needs further training or coaching?
Have the courage to admit your deficiencies. The first step to fixing
a problem is to face it.
On the other hand, you don’t want to dwell on your mistakes either.
Someone once taught me that you should allow yourself 30 seconds to experience
regret, remorse, guilt or anger, and then move on. As Henry Ford once
said, “Mistakes are just an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
Make sure you take time to look after the people who were involved
in your organisation’s failures. As a manager, one of your key tasks is
to keep your people motivated and the best way to do that is to recognise
the effort people make, even if that effort didn’t produce the desired
results. At least people are trying, and if they keep trying, they might
eventually get it right. But without encouragement, they are likely to
just give up.
I’m sure a lot of things your organisation did in the past year were
successful. Did you celebrate your successes? In my experience, organisations
are not very good at doing this. Yet, if you want to keep morale high,
celebrating achievement is essential. If you don’t seem excited about
your achievements, people will think succeeding doesn’t matter, and that
attitude won’t help you become a high performing organisation.
Of course, successes don’t just happen by themselves. Did you reward
those people whose expertise and hard work made those initiatives successful?
Most of us are slow to praise and quick to criticise, but praise is what
gives people the desire to keep working hard and the confidence to keep
taking risks. Look after your people. They are not your biggest asset,
they are your organisation. Without them, absolutely nothing would happen.
Even if your organisation performed extremely well this past year,
you know you cannot relax. Complacency is a killer and what worked for
you this year could be the death of you next. We don’t know a lot about
the coming year except that it will be challenging. Your customers will
demand more and your competitors will get better. Continuous improvement
must be your driver. “There has to be a better way,” must be your mantra.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone. There are two
key groups who can help you find a better way of doing business. Firstly,
turn to your customers. They will tell you everything you need to know
to improve. If you have a customer feedback system, look at the complaints,
suggestions or questions your customers made during the year to see where
you need to improve. If you don’t, organise some focus groups to hear
what your customers have to say.
Next turn to your people. What ideas do they have? What would they
do differently if they were running the company? Be prepared for ideas
that are quite different from your own. After all, if they thought the
same way you do, there’d be no pointing asking for their views, would
there?
You’ve worked hard this year and you deserve a break. But sitting on
the beach or in a boat, or walking through the beautiful New Zealand bush
will give you more than just a chance to unwind. It will give you the
chance to reflect.
And that might make all the difference.
I wish you great things for the year ahead.
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