Management tools

Whether you are leading a small team in one location, or regional managers in remote locations, there are some fundamental principles for success.

1. Start with a Strategy session

Getting everyone round the table in one location is worth the time and investment that it takes.
To get sustained results, it’s important to have an ongoing focus on achieving these results. Is your team on the same page regarding which results are most important?
Results also come from re-evaluating past performance, taking stock of where you are right now and setting goals each person can get passionate about. Three days works best if you haven’t done this before. If your team know each other quite well, then we can cover your strategy adequately in two days.

For your core team – if you would like better results, then critical and strategic conversations is the only way  to do this.
You know your business better than anyone else does – When did anyone challenge your thinking?
Do you buy into the same limiting thinking that everyone else in your industry does?
By getting an outsider to challenge that thinking, you can establish what the facts are, and which of your thoughts are based on limiting beliefs or paradigms.

2. Engage an external facilitator

If you want to make the most of the time with your team, engaging a skilled strategic facilitator will keep the conversation on track and also challenge conventional thinking. In order to flesh out a robust strategy, you can’t keep doing things the same way you’ve always done them. Whether you have had some quick growth or been through a challenging time, it’s important to allow each member of your executive team to have their say.

Strategic Conversations with Jill Hutchison has a number of benefits:

• Sustained Results. This comes from a long-term focus rather than short-term excitement.
  If you want to see and evaluate improvement and progress. Shifting thinking shows results many months after the change has been made, although some instant benefits are evident to yourself and those around you.

• Paradigms and beliefs have been layered into your subconscious mind over many years – most of your life (and some are from previous generations!).   It takes a while to change these into more empowering paradigms. If you want ‘microwave results’, let’s look at the quick wins that are going to benefit you. In the longer term, real results are from constant improvement and sustained actions and effort.

• In the short term we are likely to uncover some superficial beliefs that will assist you –  like layers of an onion. Working together with your team over a sustained period allows us to really get to the core of your beliefs and paradigms and establish which ones are working for your company, which ones will get you where you want to go, and which are simply holding you back. On the surface, all your beliefs are serving you – they have got you this far, but they are also holding you back from getting to the next level of success in business particularly.

• It’s tempting to “go-it-alone” when work gets busier, challenges come up or the economy changes – but when are feeling most stressed or challenged, this is the very time when we are about to break-through to the next level. The larger the step that needs to be made, the more challenging it feels. The more fear, doubt and confusion you’re facing, the closer you are to breaking through to where you want to be. This is where having a coach can make the biggest difference of all – to pull you through, cheer you on and challenge you when you need to be challenged.

3. Utilise each person’s skills, expertise and diverse thinking

Each person has a unique set of skills, experience, perspective and personality. To ensure you cover all the bases that are needed in business, you need a diverse team. You also need to appreciate what each person brings to the table. As I heard recently: We believe in gender and cultural diversity because it allows us to tap into all the talent we have in our staff. If we don’t, then we only get part of the value. It becomes a business imperative to engage and encourage diverse view points.

4. Adjust your Attitude

If you would like to energise and engage each person on your team, then you need to be energised and engaged. Does your  attitude do this?  Attitude is determined by our thoughts, feelings and actions. It’s our thoughts that determine our actions and hence our results.

5. What do you want?

If you, as a leader, can tell me where you want to be, I can help you get there. Do you know what kind of person you need to be to get there and  what you can be doing right now to move in that direction? You will succeed in anything you set your mind to, provided you take the right actions.  If it’s in line with your own values and personal purpose, then you’re more likely to do what it takes to get there.