vision

You Have a Great Vision and an Aggressive Plan: Why Are You Stuck?

July 6, 2016 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

You are a seasoned professional who is intelligent and skilled. You have a world of opportunities ahead, and have set some high goals for greater success.

You’ve envisioned what you want success to look like, and you have drawn up a great action plan to get there (many of you have actually hired someone to help you with this!).

Yet, you find yourself stuck and unable to move forward. What’s more, you aren’t sure why. Here’s what we know: When there is an internal conflict or fear that you have not yet confronted, you will not move forward easily.

And here are 5 possible reasons why:

1. Your vision doesn’t align with your values.

Surprising, but true. Many times, we don’t cross-reference our vision with our values. When this happens, and our values collide, the internal conflict that follows keeps us from moving forward. We may not even understand why – it just simply “doesn’t feel right.”

Coaching tip: Find a list of personal values, and determine which top five you hold in highest regard for your life. Now review these as you look at your vision. Is there anything about the latter that does not align with one or more of your values? If so, what needs to shift or change in your vision to support you?

2. You just aren’t that into it.

When you created your vision and considered the change it would make in your life, how important was succeeding to you? Many times, we set goals because these are important to others in our intimate circle, and we want to please and keep the peace. This doesn’t work in the long run, and it doesn’t ignite passion for achievement, even in the short term.

Coaching tip: Revisit your vision. How important is reaching this to you personally, on a scale of 1-5? If you respond with a number less than 4, odds are that you are not going to achieve your goals.

3. You are listening to too many voices.

Everyone has an opinion. When others hear about your work, some will be quick to share how strategy A never works – strategy B is always best. The next person will tell you the opposite. Every opinion will begin to sound right – and you can’t go down two paths at once. Result? A confused mind does nothing.

Coaching tip: If your plan reflects sound strategies, then give those a chance. Work them for at least 90 days, then assess to see if they are working as they should.

4, The payoff is too great right where you are.

Let’s face it – change is uncomfortable. And if you are receiving some sort of intrinsic reward or emotional payoff for staying stuck, you are not going to move forward.

Coaching tip: What’s comfortable about your discomfort? Are you on top of your responsibilities, and afraid of failing if you move forward? Are you getting emotional sympathy from others about your current situation? What payoff are you receiving for remaining right where you are?

5. You are afraid to succeed.

This one is challenging. It means you are afraid of losing something you currently have – a key relationship, a lifestyle, or even your identity.

Coaching tip: Acknowledge your fear, and then ask yourself what you will lose by not moving forward. What will yield the greater return for you? Staying where you are – or moving toward goal?

What keeps you stuck? And what do you need to change in order to move forward?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Taking Your Problem-Solving From Good to Great: The Missing Step

June 29, 2016 By Patti Cotton 1 Comment

One of your managers has two employees who argue often about which one of them is responsible for certain tasks assigned to their area…not just once, but a few times over a span of months. Other employees are complaining.

The manager has reported to you that he has had to intervene more than once to solve this, and finally sent them to a conflict management seminar last month. Yet, you just received a report that the two employees are at it again.

You’ve summoned the manager, and will ask him to terminate the two immediately.

But – are they really the problem?

Sometimes the conflict or challenge we think we have identified is not the real problem at all.

Problem-solving is a critical skill that does not receive enough attention in most executive development programs. Yet this one area is the one that most often holds professionals back from being more effective.

Most often, poor problem-solving can be due to just one critical step that is overlooked – getting to the root cause.

You see, the two employees aren’t the root cause of the problem. And because they are not, the problem will arise again and again, no matter who replaces them.

A classic problem-solving model will look something like this:

Identify the problem.
Determine the root cause of the problem.
Come up with possible solutions.
Select what you feel is the best solution.
Implement the solution.
Evaluate the outcome.

Many people will jump over the second step, reacting to what they see as the problem, but which is actually just a symptom of the root cause. This means that any solution they attempt may stop the immediate crisis, but it won’t really fix things.

So how do we get to the bottom of things?

A simple “5 Whys” technique will solve quite a bit.

The 5 Whys technique was developed by Sakichi Toyoda and used within the Toyota Motor Corporation at a critical stage in its manufacturing development. It’s a technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem.

Let’s see how it works with the example of the two employees:

Two employees continue to create a disturbance in the workplace (the problem).

Why?
They continue to argue with one another.
Why?
They do not agree on who will perform which tasks in their area.
Why?
Each thinks he knows who should perform which task, and their opinions differ.
Why?
Their roles and duties are not well-defined so as to clarify who owns what responsibilities within the area.
Why?
The manager has not taken the time to review roles and responsibilities and to clarify these with his reports.

Now, we could carry this further and add a couple of “Whys,” and this would show that the manager’s boss has not taken the time to investigate why the manager cannot stop the problem.

You see, even though the employees are adults and they are responsible for how they conduct themselves, the root cause of the conflict, unless remedied, will tend to fuel more conflict, no matter who replaces these employees.

So before you react to a perceived problem next time, try the “Five Whys” exercise. I’m interested to see what insights this might provide for you!

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

The Problem With Women and Visionary Thinking

April 12, 2016 By Patti Cotton 1 Comment

Women are limiting their own progress by not considering themselves as “visionary thinkers,” according to researchers Ibarra and Obodaru. In fact, these professionals reveal that the female majority does not value the more abstract “visionary” thinking as much as they value their practical orientation toward solving problems.

This is a game-changer, if we want to elevate women to higher leadership. It means that even if you are a highly-successful female professional, you are no doubt keeping yourself from an even more incredible future, simply because you may not be developing your visionary thinking.

Vision is the driver for inspiring and engaging your team to move forward together with purpose. It’s the foundation for creativity and innovation. Lifting your thinking from simply what’s in front of you to a world of possibilities is necessary to help you and your company remain relevant and positioned for the future.

So if you are a woman who seeks to expand your leadership capacity, you must cultivate visionary thinking as part of your toolkit.

Here are 5 steps to help you begin to make this shift:

Make room for creative space. Schedule this on your calendar regularly, and give yourself permission to daydream, and to dive deep. This may be a big shift for you if you are accustomed to operating from a “get-it-done” mindset. Recognize that without this space to look beyond what is, you will remain right where you are. And if you find it is a challenge to make this happen at the office, schedule yourself outside the office for it. This is foundational.
Make your creative thoughts relevant. How might the ideas you come up with relate to your company, and to your own leadership? If you catch yourself limiting ideas because of current practices or parameters, ask yourself what might be possible if these were not limiters.
Leverage your thinking and creative process with a brain trust. Utilize the concept of brain trust, forming a small circle of trusted professionals both inside and outside of your industry to discuss ideas. This one move not only supports synergy, but also begins to develop a forward-thinking network to incubate ideas and innovation.
Develop your outside-in lens. As you go about your daily work, approach it with new eyes. If you were looking at your company or initiative from the outside, how would what you see compare to what could be?
Disrupt the rules of engagement. Challenge process and protocol. Ask why, when your team opts for the standard, preferred way of doing. Ask why not, when you hear someone saying that it simply can’t be done. Mix up your taskforces, hold meetings in unconventional spots when you want creative thinking. What else can you switch up that disrupts the status quo?

Cultivating visionary thinking is not an overnight switch. Developing new habits to shift mindset take time. But the results are worth it, if you are ready to get from where you are, to where you want to be. I challenge you to begin cultivating your visionary thinking, and to let me know what shifts you are experiencing.

“The possibilities that tomorrow brings are proportional to the beliefs you hold about them.” – Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.