What do you want to be known for this year?
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
Right then, we’re into 2021 and by now you’ve probably got the wheels well and truly turning. Your people are underway, you’ve got them setting themselves up for what they want to nail this year, and your calendar is starting to get a bit crowded with all that stuff that you need to turn your attention to.
As that all gets rolling, I think it’s the perfect time to get intentional about what all this action is in service of - what’s it bringing you? How are the experiences you are having helping you become more of that person you aspire to be?
That prompts another question (or two)…who is that person you aspire to be? What’s the identity you are crafting? I don’t believe in crystal-like clarity of goals. It can make us a bit tunnel-visioned and we can miss the cues that point to what we’d be better off spending our energy on. Instead, I’m more about deciding what you want to be known for, and starting to try some things out to make that a reality. It’s a bit like what Dave Gray of Gamestorming.com fame calls fuzzy goals.
Let’s say you want to be a leader who is known for creating a strong sense of belonging in the teams you work with. There’s no one, specific, tried and true way of becoming a leader who is known for creating belonging with their teams. There’s no SMART goal you can write for it. You might not even know if you are ever fully there! But you’ll know you’re making a difference when you hear your people saying things like they have deep connection with each other, they care about the success of each person in the team, they’re clear about what they can expect of each other, and that vulnerability is okay – even expected – when you are part of this team.
How you’ll get there is just as fuzzy. It’s about noticing what’s going on around you, and trying out some things that you think will help make progress; some small experiments that stretch you towards your goal. If you’re building towards belonging, maybe this week you’ll try some different conversations with your people that help you discover more about their past successes – what will that change about how people connect with you? Maybe you’ll share a bit about what you are working on for your own development at the moment, and ask for feedback over the next month – what does that do for people seeing you as a more human leader? One leader told me recently that their experiment was to go from greeting everyone with a “good morning” to making sure they used everyone’s name as well. Simple right? But also really effective, and they found people engaged more as a result. There’s no one magic bullet for success, but there are many things you can try out that will get you progress towards that fuzzy goal of what you want to be known for.
So where do you start with this? Questions is where it’s at. If you want to give this a go, try these out. You could even try them with your team as well. Just swap ‘leader’ for ‘team’, and ‘I’ for ‘we’:
At the end of 2021, what do I want to be known for as a leader? What words would I love people to hear using when they talk about what it’s like to be in the team I lead?
Who are other leaders I can connect with who are known for similar things?
What do those leaders actually do that gets them that reputation? What can I learn from that?
What do I already do that lines up with what I want to be known for?
What can I start doing that will help me make progress?
What do I need to drop or stop doing so I can make better progress?
What’s one thing I can do this week that I think will help me take another small step towards that leader I want to be? (You’ve got 40 weeks until November, so set your sights on small stretches – what will get you 2-3% closer to your fuzzy goal this week?)
Get playful with it and feel free to let me know how you go.
Kia pai tō wiki!