Success should not be left to chance
Speedchange Performance Coaching
This blog post has been produced for the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce as part of the 2019 Growth Through People campaign.
Growth Through People is the Chamber’s annual campaign aiming to help local firms boost productivity and grow through improved leadership and people management skills. In 2019 this involves 15 free events, workshops and training sessions taking place between 25th February and 26th March, along with thought leadership videos and blog content such as this.
Thanks to our Sponsors – the University of Birmingham, Aston University, Curium Solutions and CIPD - all events are free to attend. Interested readers can find out more here.
Catherine handed in her notice. It was a shock to put it mildly! She was a very busy lady and always talked about how much she had to do. However, if you looked back and asked yourself the question 'what was she actually achieving?’, it was really hard to quantify.
Anyway, she left and that was that, but how were we going to cope in the short term whilst we found a replacement? What this meant in reality was that her department were going to have to cope and get on without a departmental head for now and thankfully, her deputy Alice accepted this situation and agreed to fill in for the short term. As time went on, incredibly there were no noticeable performance failures and actually, I noticed that there were some very positive results.
I was puzzled by this, so asked Alice about how she was doing. She smiled and said that she was coping just fine and was feeling very fulfilled by her new, ‘temporary’ role. Alice was beginning to satisfy some of her needs by feeling more connected to the organisation that she worked for, plus with the team around her, she had certainly experienced growth as she was beginning to fulfil her true potential. Her contribution had increased greatly as she now had the freedom to think for herself and make key decisions that were bringing about great results.
Very, very few people should work in a world created by themselves for themselves. We need each other and we all need to be given the freedom to be a leader, making decisions that will contribute to the overall mission of our organisations to bring about growth and success. Alice was a huge success, yet she was not recognised as having that potential before this event happened. It could have been her that left the organisation frustrated and unfulfilled, and that would have been a tragic loss for all concerned.
Now she is working to her true potential. Her company is getting the great results it needs to be successful and sustainable into the future, and in the background, Alice knows how to work with her team to enable them to work at peak performance and feel very satisfied too by their working life.
Imagine what it could mean for your organisation if everyone of your employees operated at their peak performance. The cost to achieve this shouldn't be great, but the return on your investment will outstrip it many times over if you take the plunge and see what the future could hold for you. Don't let it happen by chance because it could go seriously wrong that way. Plan to do the right thing and get the results that you both deserve and need.
Paul A Freeman
Performance Coach
Speedchange Performance Coaching