“I’m afraid of what I don’t know,” the CEO of the rapidly growing company said to me.

“And I’m afraid of what I can’t see.”

He feared dire circumstances could wipe out his thriving company.

This CEO was worried enough that he longed for an early warning system…if there were a way to create one.

So I did. It was like solving a high-risk puzzle, or providing an action-oriented dashboard that would guide them through improvements, gradually.

And then we made sure the decision-making and prioritization framework would serve his company.

Do you, too, long for a sense of command in otherwise challenging and unpredictable circumstances?

Do you ever wish for an early warning system such as this CEO had?

If so, here are the basic steps we used to create this busy company’s early warning system:

– Start with your fears

We called this the “edge of cliff” analysis, and started with the CEO’s greatest fears.

He had lived with heavy but ambiguous worry for some time.

He hadn’t yet articulated his fears clearly, so that he could turn them into something positive and actionable.

– Turn them into scenarios

We considered his worst-case scenarios and the probable consequences of each for his clients and company.

We also considered best-case scenarios (they are so much more fun to think about…and we needed those for a bit of relief).

And then we considered what would happen if the best were even better, and the worst were even worse than we imagined.

This stretched our sense of what the early warning system needed to accommodate, and flag for preventative, or adaptive action.

–  Make your early warning system goal clear

Identify what you want your early warning system to do for you.

Then consider who will use the information, and what they will do with it.

Check in with the future users of the information to see what they need to make the information readily usable, and actionable.

– Gather external information

I had to find a proxy for customer satisfaction and frustrations, in lieu of talking directly to customers.

I looked to see what promises were made or implied to customers through the company’s marketing and advertising materials.

This told me what processes inside the company had to work flawlessly, under all different circumstances, no matter what was happening outside the company.

– Synthesize

Working with the leadership team, I verified and clarified which processes had to be top-notch in order for them to continue to thrive.

We mapped this to the most likely scenarios they might face, and identified which processes put them at highest risk, if they were not strengthened and improved.

– Organize and communicate

We organized and simplified the work, making it easy to understand and use.

We had no interest in creating a system that just looked good on paper. We wanted one that would be successful in real life and real business.

We then trained people, helping them see what valuable part they played in making the early warning system work successfully.

The early warning system turned out to be a combination of crystal ball, fire drill, and strategic change management system all rolled into one.

If you need an early warning system, and would like guidance and support as you do so, let me know. 

If enough people are interested, I’ll create a class to teach and guide you through the process.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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As year-end looms and you work to meet the year’s final goals, here are two of many possible scenarios:

You’re:

- Good for the finish line.

You have the right time, money, energy, attention, skills and other resources you need to get the job done.

- Hoping miracles are real…because you need one now.

In this case, resources may be limited, or poorly aligned with your goals.

Priorities may be unclear, or absent.

Skills, knowledge and experience available to get the job done may be less than what you now know are necessary to be successful in the way the year has worked out.

If you’re in that hoping-for-a-miracle situation, well, remember that you’re not alone.

Many people and teams are discovering the same thing at this point in the year, like it or not.

Sometimes circumstances and priorities in life get all tangled up. And when a deadline is looming – like year-end – the situation only seems worse.

You can improve next year’s plans.

You can improve next year’s implementation.

For now, focus on doing the best you can in the situation you have.

What, then, can you do to untangle the knot and get as much done as possible, as well as possible, before the end of the year is here?

Here are a few ways to tighten your focus and increase your chances of success:

1. Remember – or get clear about – what your goal is.

2. Recall who you’re doing your work for, and what they consider success to be.

3. Get out your map (or, more likely, project plan) leading you to to the finish line.

4. See if it still makes sense, and if not, adjust it so it will work in present circumstances.

5. Figure out where you are on that map or project plan.

6. See and take the next most natural, most obvious step.

7. Repeat as needed.

And all of that is easy to say…but sometimes hard to do.

Wires can just get crossed, and the primary target lost in the confusion, disarray or shuffle.

When that happens find ways to go back to square one to review and recharge, renewing your strong sense of your target, purpose and path there.

Let extraneous things fall away.

Focus your attention, resources and energy on what’s most important.

Here are just a few simple things that may help you regain perspective:

- Take a drive.

Sometimes when you see your office, home or city in the rear view mirror, perspective “magically” returns. Distance and movement away from present circumstances can bring much-needed perspective.

- Take a walk.

The same perspective-gaining principle applies here, except that you’re getting the big picture from nature, and immersion in it, even briefly.

- Review your vision.

If you have a vision of your desired outcome – in whatever form you recorded and saved it – review that.

Pre-experience it, and imagine achieving it, in great detail.

- Listen to satisfied customers.

Remind yourself why you do the work you do.

Review reminders of the great work you’ve done for customers in the past, and are doing in the present.

Listen to or read customer testimonials and review customer feedback.

In easy but effective ways, remind yourself once again why you do the work you do, for the people you serve through it.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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“I have feedback for you.”

When you hear those words, what do you think?

And what do you feel?

Your reaction may be similar to what many other people report: the idea of giving or receiving feedback makes you cringe.

If you’re a manager:

Providing feedback, including annual performance reviews, may be one part of your job that you’d love to skip.

Yet providing high-quality feedback is essential for your team’s and individual employees’ success.

If you’re an employee:

Receiving feedback, if it’s poorly provided, may make you feel smaller, less able, somehow diminished.

On the other hand, if feedback is well-done, you feel stronger, more capable and more likely to make the requested improvements.

With feedback there is – at least, in many people’s minds – the possibility that there will be tension and conflict.

Just remember that compliments are feedback, too.

Watch out for these five ways feedback can go off-track the next time you’re giving feedback, of almost any kind:

1. Feedback is not clear or specific enough to be understood or actionable

One colleague reported that when she lost her job during a round of layoffs at her high-tech company, it was not at all clear what had just happened.

She wasn’t sure whether her manager was telling her about THE layoffs, or HER layoff.

2. Feedback is focused on the person sending the message rather than the person receiving it

Nervousness or fear of possible conflict can play a big part in this.

If you’re a manager or leader, your job WILL include providing regular and timely feedback.

Get used to it, and learn to provide it well.

Plan and practice.

3. Feedback is not connected to the “big picture” or overall goals

All too often, when I hear about clients, colleagues, family and friends receiving feedback, I hear their frustration with changes that seem small, focused on matters of personal style and opinion.

I’d love to pull their managers aside and advise them to explain the context of the feedback, and the change they would like to have made, and why it is important.

A manager can and should describe, for example, how the change links to the organization’s long-term goals and priorities.

In addition, the person receiving the feedback should be clear about how the change supports his or her personal objectives.

4. There’s not enough time provided for good feedback

Important discussions take time, especially when changes are involved.

Make the time, and take the time to do the job well.

5. There’s no coaching or mentoring, just a “gotcha” style of feedback

“Gotcha” feedback is all too common, in all types of human relationships.

Make sure you’re not guilty of it.

Provide positive feedback along with information you’re providing about improvements you want the person to make.

Make feedback easy to take, and easy to use for good results.

Leave the person whole, feeling positive about his or her ability to successfully make the changes that are ahead.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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We’re human. All of us.

(You, too).

And sometimes we find we can’t do it all, after all.

So how do you ask for help?

Maybe the thing we should focus on is why you don’t.

It’s easy to think these things if you’re the leader of a company or team:

–You have to have all the answers.

–You’re supposed to be done learning.

–You’re being watched and being judged.

And on that last count?

You probably are, if we’re honest.

Yet the surprising thing is that your team would rather you took the time to get the help, or to learn to delegate well…or to learn whatever leadership skills you may lack that are holding them back.

Why do people have a hard time asking for help?

Here are just a few possibilities:

- They’re angry that they need it.

- They’re embarrassed that they need it.

- They don’t see or admit it.

- They don’t see, or admit how they’re hurting others with their insistence that they don’t need to grow or change.

There are other reasons, too.

How do you ask for help, or to change, and then receive that well?

It’s really a matter of learning to let go, being clear about the goal – which should be directly tied to what’s important to your customers – and being flexible in how you meet it.

And humility helps, too.

Here are a few other guidelines if it’s hard for you to delegate, which is just one of the skills that many people need to learn and practice:

1. Define the customer-focused goal or target.

2. Make it clear what the boundaries are for this work, and how it fits into the whole.

3. Envision the situation working. If you can’t imagine that it will, the odds are, it won’t, or you may find ways to mess it up, “proving” that it doesn’t work (strangely, but, yes, seriously).

4. Figure out the communication flow and follow-up mechanisms, including how and when you’ll check in, and what measures or other indicators you’ll use as the basis of communication about progress and status as the work proceeds.

5. Know what information and contact you need while the work is underway to feel comfortable, or as comfortable as you’re going to be, letting go.

6. Be clear about who’s going to do what. It’s easy for two people to be waiting for the other to finish the same thing…each thinking it’s the other’s job. In that case, deadlines are missed, among other things. Or it’s possible for two people to be doing the same work, each thinking it’s their job, so the work is duplicated. Spell it out, then play it out.

7. Be clear about work and quality standards, and what they’re based on. These standards should in some way be directly tied to what’s important to your customers.

8. Be honest about the things you’re concerned about, as the work begins, and as it proceeds. And those things you least want to talk about? Talk about them. These discussions could be essential to success, if you do, or directly lead to failure, if you don’t.

When your fears see the light of day, you may realize they’re nothing to worry about.

And if they are worry-worthy, well, the sooner you get to work checking them out, and changing, the better.

Keep in mind your overall goal, and the customers for it, as you consider what help may lead you to succeed even more.

Sometimes your own short-term comfort is what you most have to let go as you reach for change, and then stretch and grow.

Change just feels different…temporarily.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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