Provide Constructive Feedback

Providing timely feedback about an aspect of a job done right or done poorly can increase the effectiveness of your employees or direct reports. If you must give negative feedback, neutrally state the result that was undesirable or ineffective, explain how the negative result affected the company, and communicate the way you would like the outcome in the future. If you get to deliver positive feedback, explain the benefits the result had on the company and communication your appreciation for a job well done. Providing constructive feedback can motivate your employees to perform at higher levels in the future. Remember feedback is most useful when delivered in a timely manner, this way corrective measures can be made sooner than later and you won’t resent a poorly done job by the individual.

Write It Down.

Write down what you want to happen for you professionally this year. Write down your quarterly and yearly goals with regard to income, clients, projects, positions, promotions, job growth and the skills you would like to improve. Be diligent about moving forward in each of these goals by creating an action plan containing every step that must be taken to attain your goals. Make sure each step is only a single action that must be taken to accomplish that step. By doing it this way, the ultimate goal does not become overwhelming because each step is a manageable single action. When you are diligent in taking your steps you will reach your goals. Create the career you want to have in 2008. Happy New Year!

Delegate more.

Delegation is one of the most important business skills you should develop. Effective delegation will save you time, allow you to work on what is most important, develop the skills of people around you, and motivate others. When you delegate a task or project, be specific in the outcome desired. Let the recipient of delegated task have the opportunity to learn how to get there on their own. Be sure you have both agreed on the desired outcome. It is important to have metrics and milestones in place so when a person achieves the desired outcome he/she is given recognition for the successful completion of a particular delegated task or given suggested improvements for next time.

Stay focused.

The way to stay focused is to minimize your distractions. When you need to crank out some work or make some serious progress on a project, you must rid your work area of everything but the project at hand. This means you close your browser as to not be distracted by the internet, email, IM, etc., turn your cell phone and blackberry to silent, and clear all unrelated paperwork from your desk. If you are in a busy office, put your office phone on do-not-disturb and kindly let people who come into your office for questions or comments know that you would be happy to discuss their topic in a couple of hours or the next day. When you prepare in advance to minimize your distractions you will dramatically increase your productivity and efficiency for each project.

Set Priorities

Create a list of your tasks and projects instead of relying on your memory. Next to each task, write down the urgency of the need to complete it to keep the task or project moving forward and to meet deadlines. If you would have no consequences by moving the task to another day or week, move it to make room for the more immediate matters. Know the difference between immediate and important. Knowing the difference between the two will make prioritizing much easier and create clarity. Determine if postponing a task would negatively affect other projects you are working in an effort to avoid the domino effect. It is also imperative to make a realistic determination of how long a task will take to complete so subsequent tasks don’t start piling up. When tasks and projects are written down with their correlating urgency and timelines you will become more efficient and productive and encounter less stress and chaos which will allow you to move smoothly through your projects.

Take action everyday.

No matter what, take action everyday towards your career goals(s). Even when it feels like the last thing you want to do, do it anyway. Forward movement creates momentum and momentum creates even greater momentum to accomplish your goals. No matter how big the goal, it can and must be broken down into small actionable steps. Always have at least one action step written down on each goal. When that step is taken, immediately write down the next action. No matter how unsavory it may seem at the moment, bite the bullet and take that next step. It is the only way to reach your goals. To achieve what you want, you must focus on what really matters and take action everyday.

Do Your Best

If you are not reaching your potential or if you are working below your capacity it is because you are not doing your best. Your best is dynamic, it ebbs and flows depending on the circumstances, but doing your best is about honestly putting in your full effort. In order to do your best consistently, you must master your attitudes, decisions, and actions. It is important to take some of the pressure off of you by surrounding yourself with those who encourage and support your efforts and by paying attention to the value and benefits you are providing for others in your effort. Doing your best also is going to require that you consistently improve and develop your skill sets in order to improve your opportunities for growth and learning and in turn your quality of life.

Follow Your Passion

When you are doing what you love, you love what you are doing. Once you find what you truly love doing, then find ways to parlay your strengths with your passion to create an economically sustainable life around that passion. If your work is something that you are not passionate about, you will find it a constant struggle and difficult to get ahead because you don’t have a true interest in putting all your energy behind it to make it work. When you are spending time in your passion you will have the energy and creativity to follow through on tasks, projects, and goals with little effort. Write down what you love doing and what your strengths are then begin to develop and steer your career path in the right direction for success.

Active Listening

This skill is one of the most important skills to develop for effective leadership. It requires fully focused attention on the speaker to understand the subject matter and the message conveyed. The benefits of active listening include getting people to open up, receiving necessary information, avoiding misunderstandings, resolving conflict, and building trust. To prepare yourself for active listening you must follow some simple steps:

First, you must focus your attention on the subject, to do this you must stop multi-tasking and rid your space and mind of distractions, such as your computer, phone, pda, mail, the to-do list, deadlines, etc. Put all the distractions aside while you are listening. A good strategy to accomplish this is to sit close to the speaker and make eye contact. This creates an atmosphere of collaboration and increases the opportunity for mutual understanding.

Second, you must stop the responsive and judgmental chatter in your mind while listening. Hold your opinions and comments to the very end, do not interrupt, unless appropriate, and don’t let your thoughts and opinions stop you from listening to the speaker. You want to fully understand what they are saying in order to make the most effective use of that information.

Third, pick up on the non-verbal ques. The speaker will be sending plenty of nonverbal information, you only have to be aware of it. You will be able to tell if the speaker is confident or uneasy about the information, or if they are angry or excited about it, etc. Note the ways they are trying to convince you one way or the other and how they are feeling about the communication. Part of actively listening is also watching.

Lastly, restate or summarize the message to the speaker to make sure you have accurately heard the message and ask questions afterwards for clarification or additional information. Such questions should not allow the speaker to respond with a yes or no, but rather require the speaker to respond in a demonstrative way by using words like “how”, “why”, “describe”, “show”. Do what you can to encourage and continue the train of thought to pull out more information on the subject(s). Frequently you can get the speaker to disclose more (and at times even more important) information or to dig a little deeper on the subject. And of course always give your thanks for their time and communication.