Doing more impactful work is rarely as simple as setting newer, bigger, better goals. It's much more often about shifting old habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations (HABEs). Often, those HABEs can be virtually invisible to us.
- You have a habit of keeping conversations short in our meetings, so you never get to the important but complex problems. Or perhaps you have a habit of long, detailed conversations that leave little room for making key decisions.
- You have an attitude of optimism or pessimism that blinds you to the realities of a situation and keeps you from reacting realistically.
- You have a belief that your boss is uninterested in your concerns so you don’t speak up when the truth might be that your boss is just unpracticed at asking for input.
- You have an expectation that things will be fine because they’ve generally been fine in the past, and you neglect to address that new risk or opportunity that you haven’t seen before and miss out on taking meaningful action.
It’s like the old story of the two young fish swimming through the water when an older fish passes by and asks them, “Good morning—how’s the water today?” The two young fish swim on for a bit until one finally ask the other, “What’s water?”
The HABEs are our water. Until we get clear about the HABEs that we are all swimming in, we’ll never be able to do our most impactful work.
I help individuals and teams see the water.
If you're on a team or are a team leader, I'd like to tell you about the Team LeaderView™. It's a really powerful tool that helps teams and team leaders get clearer about the water they swim in by measuring your work across 14 key performance indicators. The Team LeaderView™ gives a clearer understanding of how the HABEs your team possesses are impacting Productivity skills including goal-setting, decision-making, and accountability and Positivity skills including communication, alignment, and camaraderie.
What counterproductive habits does your team possess that have become invisible to you? What are positive habits you should amplify even more?
If you're interested in getting clearer about the HABEs that are both driving and holding back the performance of your team, contact me about performing a no-cost Team LeaderView™ assessment. It's a small commitment of time that may start a powerful conversation about how you and your team can do your very best work.