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Competence Builds Confidence
By Lee J. Colan
(This report is an excerpt from the best-selling book Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence).
Adherence is a person’s or team’s ability to stick to their plans. The Adherence Equation states:
Focus x Competence x Passion = Adherence.
This report highlights the second component of Adherence – Competence.
Competence describes more than just your team’s skills and knowledge – it means having the necessary abilities and qualities to function in a high-achievement environment. Consequently, competence represents anything that improves your team’s capabilities, including processes, systems, data, and information.
High-achieving leaders know that competence builds confidence to stick to your plans. These leaders build their team’s competence by getting systematic and balancing their view.
Get systematic
Systems help ensure consistent and predictable execution of your plan. Systems go way beyond your technical computer systems and include any defined, methodical, predictable way of doing work and making decisions.
Systems should create positive habits for your team. They should help you efficiently and effectively: make important decisions; prioritize work; develop new products and services; plan new projects; select and develop employees; measure and reward performance; communicate with each other; and resolve conflict.
Good systems don’t appear by accident. Ask yourself, “What systems have I implemented to help my team members consistently execute their tasks?” A sampling of systems that can help your team stick to it include:
Team calendar or project plan; Regular reviews of performance; Defined training plan; Scheduled team-update meetings; Exception reports that identify only tasks that are off-plan; Documented customer complaint-resolution process; Selection and interviewing process; Monthly performance data posting for your team; and Standard way of discussing lessons learned after each project.
Winston Churchill said, “For the first 25 years of my life, I wanted freedom. For the next 25 years, I wanted order. For the next 25 years, I realized that order is freedom.” The right systems create the order necessary to free you up to work on your business rather than in your business. As a leader, you cannot be an expert in everything your team does. Implement systems to help you quickly gauge if your team is on track and, if not, to identify the reasons why so you can take corrective action.
Balance your view
High-achieving leaders are always scanning their environment. They step back to look at the big picture, and they also dive into the details. They look at the past to learn from their experiences while planning for the future. They know that keeping a balanced view hones their competence.
Before you can effectively adhere to your plans, you must understand the details and needs of your team’s operations – your cost, profit and customer satisfaction drivers. Leaders who make a habit of ignoring the little things will eventually find themselves ignoring the big things.
Another way to balance your view is to look at both the past and the future. Every team has a variety of performance indicators. Teams that adhere to their plans understand the different types of indicators, what they mean and, most importantly, how to balance them.
Consider a measurement continuum. The two ends of the continuum represent the two types of performance indicators. Lagging indicators are the results of your team’s past performance – they enable you to see if your plans worked as well as expected. Leading indicators are the drivers of your team’s future performance – they give you early warning signs of problems.
Lagging indicators are important to help you understand how you have performed in the past. However, they must be balanced with leading indicators that tell you how your team will perform six, nine or twelve months from now. A singular focus on lagging indicators gives you little opportunity for corrective action if your team drifts off course. Effective leaders look at both leading and lagging indicators of performance. This balanced view enables them to know what did happen and also anticipate what will happen.
So, as the captain of your ship, keep a balanced view of your team’s performance to increase your competency and adhere to your plans. Chart your course (high-level plan) and ensure the deck is clean (details). While on your journey, check the wake of your ship (lagging indicators) and keep an eye on the horizon ahead (leading indicators).
Get systematic and balance your view to build your team’s competence. Your team’s competence yields confidence - confidence to perform, overcome obstacles and stick to it!
Click here to take a free Adherence Assessment.
Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence is filled with examples, illustrations, useful tips, inspiring quotes and a self-assessment. Click here to view sample pages from the book and read what influential leaders are saying about it.
Copyright © 2003 by Lee J. Colan
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