The Globe and Mail
Published January 2, 2021
What if you were to make being a better leader your New Year’s resolution?
Even if your performance evaluations are stellar, you can always improve in the important but highly complicated art of managing, with benefits for yourself and subordinates. As with anything, it requires deliberate practice, although that is difficult to weave into the roller coaster of the day and not easy to do alone.
To be effective, you need to give some thought to triggers. First, what precipitates your worst managerial moments? Is it, for example, tiredness, arrogant comments by others, or certain colleagues you have lost patience with? Now you can be on guard. A second aspect of triggers to consider are reminders you might give yourself to be your best throughout the day – to keep practising the new skills you want to adopt. Wearing an elastic around your hand might be a helpful nudge. If you want to listen better in meetings, would a computer prompt five minutes before each meeting help?