Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year

Article taken from the Harvard Business Review Blog
January 4, 2010
by Melissa Raffoni

It's the end of the year, time to reflect. So I asked myself what have I learned this year about business? Maybe more interesting than that, what have I learned about professional business people? What makes some great and others weak? These weren't idle reflections. I put all the executives I work with on one of two lists, those I felt had performed well and those I wished had done better. Then I thought about at what the top performers had in common.
I came up with eight characteristics:
1. They set clear, measurable goals for themselves and their organization. They talk about these goals often, and hold themselves to them.
2. They seek feedback from others on those goals. I believe that most people are hesitant to ask for help and even find it abrasive or self-centered. Not these executives. They recognize the value of seeking out strong mentors and peers. They are not afraid to ask for help and guidance.
3. They communicate thoughtfully. They understand the power of words to motivate, direct and bring clarity, or when used carelessly, to confuse, alienate and misdirect.
4. They act thoughtfully. Sure, they are opportunistic, but they are not impetuous. Risks are calculated.
5. After they are thoughtful, they are decisive. In short, they can execute and rarely suffer analysis paralysis.
6. They have integrity, and as a result, people follow them. They keep their word and they care.
7. They have ego-less confidence. This is what allows them to be bold and open to feedback at the same time. It's critical.
8. They are smart and they study to get smarter, they are true students of business. Even the best continue to learn and never think they've learned it all.
Then I looked at common traits of those on my "wished they performed better list. I came up with four.
1. They don't set goals with leverage in mind. The article Are You Spending Your Time the Right Way encourages executives to break their job down into categories and to think about how they can best allocate their time to increase leverage. Where is the leverage? In sales? In delegating to your employees? In working on strategy? What steps are you going to take to drive leverage? This is such an important and different way of thinking about goal setting because it forces you to shift from thinking about what you do because you've always done it, to what you really need to be doing.
2. They don't get enough out of the people around them. There are many reasons staff are underutilized — lack of mentoring, poor hiring, accountability — but in any case it's a huge limiting factor, and one that I have seen at all levels from CEO to the line supervisors. This is why management courses harp on delegating, and learning to let go. What's even more challenging is that downsizing has made this worse — in 2010 finding the right balance of doing it yourself and getting leverage is going to be very tricky.
3. They don't listen well. As a result, they miss necessary insights on the business and about their own effectiveness. This information can come from customers, employees, partners, colleagues, or peers.
4. They lack the energy and boldness to try new things. A mentor recently told me, "things don't happen sitting in your office; you need to be out there to find opportunities." He was right. Step change improvements don't happen from doing more of the same. There's a reason "nothing ventured nothing gained" is a cliche. It's essentially true.

In this context, I challenge you to ask yourself the following three questions before you set your goals for 2010 (which of course you will, right?):



1. If there was only one thing I could do to improve my business, what would it be and how would I make it happen?
2. If there was only one thing I could focus on to improve my personal performance, what would that be and how would I make it happen?
3. What messages am I not listening to or refusing to confront in my business and personal performance and how am I going to overcome that this year?


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