How many times have you said or heard it said, "If I knew this was coming, I would have taken actions to avoid this or at least minimize the impact?" We can coast along thinking that everything is just fine and dandy. Then we get hit with the boom! We find that things were not fine and dandy. There may be times that we can recover and get back to where we were. Some of us may even advance after the recovery. Sometimes we never recover.
How can you establish alerts that will allow you to see what is coming? Who are your canaries? How can you establish an Issues Detection System (IDS)?
Your IDS could include any one or a combination of the following components.
- Personal Board of Directors
- Mentors
- Peers
- Current and former supervisors
- Family and friends
- Feedback surveys
- Coach
Companies establish boards of directors to provide expertise, advice and perspectives that help companies address challenges and issues that make up the life of the company. The life of a company includes areas of focus such as audit, governance, finance, compensation and public policy. Just like companies, individuals encounter issues and challenges. These challenges and issues evolve from many professional and personal components that impact our lives. Why can't individuals have their personal board of directors to provide expertise, advice and perspectives to address the challenges they encounter? Why go alone when there may be resources available to help you?
Following are step that you can take to establish your board of directors.
- Determine the components of your life that impact the whole you, your professional and personal life.
- Determine the challenges that you need to address within each component.
- Determine the type of assistance that you need (advice, expertise, reinforcement, encouragement, etc.).
- Establish profiles of individuals who can provide the assistance you need.
- Ask (recruit) persons who fit the profiles to serve on your board.
Professional components that impact your life could include professional development, career decisions, career planning and technical competency.
Personal components could include work/family life balance, relationship management and personal financial management.
Some companies sponsor mentoring programs that match executives and managers with employees. If your company sponsors a mentoring program, volunteer to participate as a mentee. If your company does not sponsor a program, approach a member of management and ask the person to mentor you. Most individuals are honored when you ask them. Many view the request as evidence of the respect that you have for them. (And, people like to feel good about themselves.)
Our minds and our bodies can send messages to us that a challenge or issue is evolving. The body component is also known as the gut. We may feel butterflies in our stomach, a feeling of uneasiness, restlessness or impatience when something unfavorable is evolving. Our gut will not filter or rationalize. It presents things as they are. The mind will rationalize. Rationalizing can lead to minimizing or overlooking what is evolving. If we follow our minds, we can find ourselves delaying the actions that we should take. Peers, current and former supervisors, family and friends can take note of signals from our gut that something is happening. They can alert us and keep our minds from leading us to overlook what is coming from our gut.
Many companies offer surveys that provide feedback to employees on how they are perceived. The sources of feedback are peers, supervisors and subordinates. If you are not aware of the use of feedback surveys in your company, ask the Human Resources representative for your functional area if the surveys are used. If surveys are used, asked if you can participate.
It is difficult to see the picture if you are part of the frame. A coach will provide an objective view or the second pair of eyes that will allow you to see personal challenges and issues that are evolving or ones that you are overlooking or rationalizing.
The first step in dealing with a problem, challenge or issue is recognizing its existence. Surround yourself with canaries.
