How do you, as a leader, recognize when your leadership has
matured?
Are you making better decisions? Can you react quicker and better than you did yesterday, a month ago, a year ago? How do you know?
An self-evaluation of your record is called for and most of the time it is only you that can provide the appropriate answers to the questions. Oh, you might be lucky enough to have a mentor that keeps you posted on your development; but most do not. They have to rely on the old routine yearly evaluation by a supervisor or manager who hasn’t kept track nor has just too many evals to do at the same time to put the appropriate effort into each one.
Here, let me point out, that I am fully behind hire-date evals or anything approaching a schedule that does not call for all evaluations to take place at the same time of year. If management is going use evals for a purpose, then they should make them worthwhile and well worth the effort.
But back to you: Take time to routinely evaluate your own actions. I have mentioned before the use of logs or self supporting records maintained for historical purposes. This is an especially good area where a log comes in handy. Routinely jot down some notes of the who-shot-John variety and be especially critical of yourself when doing so. Often, the notes will come in handy later on when there is a need to fill in some details of the goings-on. You just never know. If you don’t have the notes, you just may be SOL. I have always found logs to be beneficial.
Logs may also be handy to use as weekly//monthly activity report feeders. Recording actions and the who did best//worse can often document subordinate evals also.
I believe it was Mark Twain that once said something like: “Experience is what allows me to recognize a mistake when I make it again!” This is often credited to Twain and a few others; but it really doesn’t matter who said it first—it still bears consideration. Evaluate your leadership routinely and see where you stand.
Are you making better decisions? Can you react quicker and better than you did yesterday, a month ago, a year ago? How do you know?
An self-evaluation of your record is called for and most of the time it is only you that can provide the appropriate answers to the questions. Oh, you might be lucky enough to have a mentor that keeps you posted on your development; but most do not. They have to rely on the old routine yearly evaluation by a supervisor or manager who hasn’t kept track nor has just too many evals to do at the same time to put the appropriate effort into each one.
Here, let me point out, that I am fully behind hire-date evals or anything approaching a schedule that does not call for all evaluations to take place at the same time of year. If management is going use evals for a purpose, then they should make them worthwhile and well worth the effort.
But back to you: Take time to routinely evaluate your own actions. I have mentioned before the use of logs or self supporting records maintained for historical purposes. This is an especially good area where a log comes in handy. Routinely jot down some notes of the who-shot-John variety and be especially critical of yourself when doing so. Often, the notes will come in handy later on when there is a need to fill in some details of the goings-on. You just never know. If you don’t have the notes, you just may be SOL. I have always found logs to be beneficial.
Logs may also be handy to use as weekly//monthly activity report feeders. Recording actions and the who did best//worse can often document subordinate evals also.
I believe it was Mark Twain that once said something like: “Experience is what allows me to recognize a mistake when I make it again!” This is often credited to Twain and a few others; but it really doesn’t matter who said it first—it still bears consideration. Evaluate your leadership routinely and see where you stand.
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