What is one thing your customers care about that you have not been able to deliver? Consider the reasons you have not delivered on this. Is there a resource problem? If so, could you creatively partner with others to increase the resources available for this customer need? Consider the possibility of partnering to address the customer need by setting up an exploratory meeting with possible partners.
Identify an influential person inside your organization (or an influential stakeholder) whose perspective you don’t understand as well as you might. What is important to this person? Do you respect those things that they find important and communicate your respect with them effectively, or do you have trouble understanding why those things are important to them? Take some time to consider these questions, and try to gain a better understanding of their perspective.
Check in with your employees about their workload, either through an email or in person. Ask them if they feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they are expected to complete, or whether they don’t have enough tasks to fill their day. Be prepared to help them make adjustments.
Think of a time when you learned something that changed the nature of a task or project you were working on. Perhaps someone who was involved in the project had to take time off for a family emergency, or a stakeholder shared a strong preference that you hadn’t known they held. How did you adjust?
Construct a one-sentence unique value proposition about yourself. Similar to an elevator pitch, your unique value proposition is a clear statement that describes the value you add to your employer and/or clients, and what distinguishes you from others. Think of three or four components and string them together into a compelling sentence. Make sure that you are comfortable with the words and can deliver your message genuinely, and choose a combination of factors that truly make you unique. You should be the only person who can say these things about yourself—don’t include obvious things that everyone else also does or has.
Write down the last eight to 10 times you have said or done something at work that you later regretted. Think about what the trigger was for each of these moments. Then try to organize the triggers into two to five trigger categories.
Ask your supervisor (or your controller or CFO, if you have access to them) to see a copy of your organization’s budget. Schedule a 15-minute meeting to discuss how you individually and your department/team fits into that budget.
Review your organization’s Core Values. If your organization does not have specified Core Values, then write down three or four words that exemplify the values your organization holds most dear. Then, consider the following questions. How do you exhibit these Core Values in your day to day work? What actions can you point to recently where you demonstrated each of the Core Values?
Think about one core function of your team and how that function relates to strategic goals of the organization. At your next team meeting, spend five minutes talking directly about the link between this core function and the larger goals, values, or strategies of the organization.
Identify a decision you need to make that has a large number of possible options (say, eight to 12). Write down each of these options on a 3×5 card or half sheet of paper—one option per page. Arrange these in a row in front of you. Choose the worst option and set it aside. Next, choose the option that seems best to you (without putting too much thought into it), write #1 on it, and set it to the other side. Repeat that process (numbering the best options #2, #3, #4, etc.) until all the cards in front of you have been removed. The pile of available options should now be much smaller, and ranked in order of best to worst. This process can be repeated with all of the options in the “best pile” if you want to narrow those down even further.
