“What were your successes and challenges this week, and what are your new priorities for next week?”
~ Phil Symchych
How Was Your Week?
It’s Friday. What were your major successes this week? What challenges did you overcome? What are your priorities for next week?
I’ve used these three questions in my global coaching practice with business leaders and in my consulting work with executives and management teams.
If you’re running a regular weekly management meeting, these questions can add a lot of energy to the group. Beyond just discussing what someone is working on, people start sharing what is significant for them. We can see what’s working and what isn’t working. Most importantly, we–all of us–can help.
As we identify successes, we can start dissecting them. We can reverse engineer them to make sure we’ve codified (that’s my new favorite word!) the process so we can recreate the results.
Everyone has natural talents that, when aligned with company goals, can create wonderful results. Often, it’s difficult for people to describe their own natural talents, because it may not be obvious to them. Usually, it’s because something is easy for them. They don’t think it’s a big deal. We need to unwrap those gifts.
When we share challenges, I find others are willing to jump in, share ideas, and help out. That doesn’t happen when someone is reading their to do list of items. Sharing challenges also helps to identify when the system or processes aren’t working right or might need updating.
For example, how engaged are your employees who are working from home while home schooling their kids? These are challenges that need corporate resources and the leader’s attention to resolve.
Finally, figuring out what you got done last week can help you to prioritize next week’s action plan. When people share this with the group, the leader can look for alignment. Are your people making consistent progress? Are they working on the most important priorities? How do you know?
If you’d like help personally or with your leadership team on improving weekly performance, that’s right, measurable weekly performance, give me a call.
Full speed ahead!
Thanks for reading.
