You Can be Great If You Really Want To

It would be hard to measure the public’s surprise at the recent call for supervisory leadership training in Federal agencies.  Fair or not, the persona of federal management practices does not encourage the idea of “soft skills” used to develop employees and the success of their tasks.  At a current event sponsored by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service attention was highlighted on federal agencies’ front-line supervisors.  Citing the ‘relatively neglected strata in the management hierarchy’ James Thompson, associate professor of public administration at the University of Illinois-Chicago asserted that front-line supervisors have a bigger influence on employees’ day-to-day performance than management at other levels, and they provide the most relevant leadership, hence the need to train and develop supervisors as leaders.

“Though not a new concept in business, this may herald a paradigm shift for government agencies and leadership at the supervisory level for using a mission statement and vision statement in achieving greater inter-compartmental communication.  This typically results in increased job satisfaction and ultimately, a higher realization of successful performance” said Don Midgett, veteran business and government leadership consultant, and author of ‘Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path to a Successful Business Future.’  Midgett recommends a tiered approach for using the mission and vision statement process with supervisors.  “Personnel at any level can begin with the organization’s top level mission and vision statement, analyze their role (mission) then communicate how what they do will support (vision) the organization’s top level statements.  An organization that can employ a tiered concept of leadership will notice improved performance levels.  They will have a pyramid of mission statements and vision statements to better define their purpose and desired future.” 

As a consultant to government organizations, Midgett has seen positive changes in leadership and organizations that used mission and vision statements, tiered the concept throughout their organizations, down to the supervisor level, and successfully employed their vision driven strategic planning process.

Implementing vision driven leadership and the strategic planning process instituted at the supervisory level speeds up vision driven change. It allows everybody to get on board faster with a better understanding of their need, performance expectations and contribution.  A tiered approach to your mission and vision will promote collaborative communication, feedback and coaching. 

For more on mission and vision statements, strategic planning and leadership development go to http://www.missionvisionstatement.com.

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin:  Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior highschool student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.