Jan Richards

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action-oriented

Focused action produces results

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A strong orientation to action is one of the top ten characteristics of great leaders.

Action orientation is not as common a characteristic as you might think.

“Making an idea work is more difficult and more important than having the idea in the first place,” notes author and consultant Edward de Bono.

At many companies, there’s great eagerness and competition for being involved in new and intellectually engaging assignments. These may include deciding and designing how something will be done, such new products and services, or an entirely new division of a company.

When it comes time, though, for some of the every day, nitty-gritty aspects of turning the great potential of those possibilities into consistently bankable results…and ensuring that they continue to perform…enthusiasm may be harder to round up.

And yet, if you’re an action-oriented leader or a member of a team whose focused efforts yielded great results, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of that collective achievement.

That’s when the responsibility of leadership and the accountability for action is clearly worth the risk that the leadership role – and its need for sustained commitment to positive action – brings.

What works to move good ideas, great intentions and high potential into focused action that eventually produces tangible results?

“The most important and visible outcropping of the action bias in excellent companies is their willingness to try things out, to experiment,” note authors Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

Here’s the bottom line on those with an action orientation: they focus not on the ways things might go wrong, or the risks of the pursuit, or the blame they’ll lay if things go wrong.

They focus on the possibilities, the multiple ways they can get the job done. And then…sooner or later…they do.

They make their way persistently and creatively over, around or through any barrier they find.

That may involve creatively moving forward in ways they did not expect. It may involve changing the timing of their efforts. Or it may mean going back to square one, getting more information, and adjusting, adapting, refining the goal, and they way they hope to achieve it.

Try this quick “Ten A’s” exercise for focus, energy, action, results

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On a whim one recent Monday morning, I brainstormed a list of words to inspire and challenge myself as I tried to get the day and week off to a great start.

It was an accolade and aggravation-filled list, as you’ll see, below. It helped me prioritize and refine my plans…and amused me, too…all in the space of about 3 minutes.

See if this brief exercise works for you, too. If the words I chose don’t work for you, replace them your own.

Here are a few guidelines to make this exercise work best:

– Keep the list short.

It’s a rapid-cycle brainstorming exercise to get yourself warmed up for the day or week.

– Use words that you react to, either positively or negatively.

Success is made up of the ability to respond well to positive and negative situations. You’ll be better prepared or more adaptable if you consider both types of circumstances, right from the start.

– Fill out the list quickly.

You may be surprised at what you learn in this rapid-cycle check-in with yourself. That surprising information may be the spark of energy, or the note of caution that makes all the difference in how you focus and invest your day or week, and the results you produce.

These were the words and questions that I used. Use these, or create your own list, if you like the idea of this exercise, but know that other words and questions will work better for you:

1. Admiration

What can I do to earn my own admiration today? This week?

2. Aspiration

What do I aspire to do, be, or achieve today? This week?

3. Accomplishments

Do I have any accomplishments that I’ve overlooked, or taken for granted so far?

4. Accolades

Are there accolades I should be giving myself for great work done recently…even if the work is not yet complete? What’s an appropriate way to recognize or celebrate them?

5. Action

Are the actions I planned for today still the right actions for moving ahead, given what’s most important right now? What are the 1-3 most important things I must get done, if nothing else?

6. Angst

Are there things I’m worrying about? What can I do to make the situation better?

7. Acceptance

Are there things I need to accept but which I have not actively accepted yet? (Acceptance is a far more active state than many people think of it as being. It’s far from passively giving up).

8. Admonitions

Are there warnings I need to pay attention to, or information I need to get? Are there assumptions I’ve made, but had better double-check?

9. Aggravations

Are there problems that I need to clear away in some way, such as through a process improvement? Is there a task that I need to delegate?

10. Avoidance

Are there things I’m avoiding that I really need to attend to? Is there important information that I’m trying to ignore?

What do you do about a goal you forgot…or have been resisting?

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Are you finding, as you build momentum in this new year, that there is a goal you “forgot”?

It can happen.

It may be a goal that:

– You hoped you could, and others would, forget about.

– Was something you never wanted to do, but knew you needed to.

– Was buried, day by day, as more immediate issues got in the way.

If there’s a goal like this for you as we move farther into 2022:

1. Decide if this forgotten goal is something you still want to achieve.

Sometimes there’s a goal we hope to get to, but it’s big enough that we just don’t grasp quite how to begin to tackle it, much less know how to completely meet it.

At other times, the forgotten goal may be one you once had, but have now outgrown or, for other reasons, no longer hold.

2. If this is a goal you still want, get excited about it again.

Maybe there are great benefits to getting this work done which you haven’t focused on fully yet.

Take some time to imagine you’ve achieved the goal. Experience that feeling of victory in its full glory…all the sights, sounds, and elation.

Also imagine the process of getting there. See yourself rising above each challenge that may crop up along the path.

3. Accept it if this is something you have to achieve, whether you want to or not.

This may be a “should” or “must” that you still have to carry forward.

If so, accept it (easy to say, but hard to do…I know that from experience). And get moving.

There is a lot of power in acceptance. The energy you’ve spent running away can be used in far better ways. You may, and probably will, find that you’ve met your goal far more quickly than you expected, once you’ve buckled down and gotten the work done.

Suddenly, the goal will be met, and the burden will have been lifted, as well.

4. Increase your dissatisfaction with the status quo.

This is the opposite of getting excited about a goal you still want to achieve.

To get to the point of action, sometimes we have to wait until we’re really ready to let go of the past. And, well, sometimes that takes a lot of unhappiness with the status quo. We have to be far more ready to go than to stay in the situation we currently find ourselves in.

How can you increase your dissatisfaction with your current situation, making you less willing to tolerate the status quo?

5. Take your big goal and turn it into a series of smaller, more accessible and achievable goals.

Put those smaller goals on your calendar and work to achieve each of those, one by one.

You’ll create a steady stream of achievements, which has far more benefits than you might realize now.