AICC Boxscore 2013

Leader’s Guide: Your Leadership Preventative Maintenance Plan By Scott Ellis, P-Squared USA

In most of the manufacturing plants I have visited there has been one machine that is the heartbeat. You can tell which machine by watching what people do when it stops. Meetings are interrupted, resources reassigned, and blood pressures are checked until that heartbeat is reestablished. We react this way because we know that this machine is a key part of our ability to produce. To keep the process healthy we create a Preventative Maintenance Schedule to perform daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly cleaning, lubrication, adjustments, and parts replacement. Some invite experts in on an annual basis to audit the machine. Some even go beyond the attitude that they are avoiding costly unscheduled downtime to develop process improvement plans that ensure the machine will continually improve on its original capabilities. In the corner office there are equally important processes going on. It is very likely that the leader who inhabits that office has high expectations and many measures of personal performance. Standards for their own performance usually exceed those that others would impose. Performance is not the issue. Consistently maintaining the ability to perform at peak levels is the issue. Performance capability will become the issue for most of us if we do not practice personal preventative maintenance. So as not to further belabor the machine analogy, suffice it to say that avoiding unscheduled leadership downtime is the minimum requirement. Your standards likely demand continual improvement to your leadership performance. This will require a plan. To build your leadership PM plan you will need a trusted colleague to help keep goals achievable, measurable, and rewarding. You are probably more complex than the heartbeat machine in the plant so set goals

accordingly based on who you desire to become physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Note: if you believe yourself to be less complex than this follow these instructions: 1. Ask your trusted colleague to hit you in the nose. 2. When you awake describe the physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of the experience, which will depend on how hard you were hit. You have a significant impact on the people around you. Professionals with far less impact have certification requirements that dictate a minimum number of Continuing Education hours per year. Consider a personal, or even a management team, CE requirement to maintain the edge. 1. Define Peak Performance. What will success look like when you accomplish the desired result in each key leadership area? You are likely your own worst critic and while you certainly must perform to a minimum requirement in each area it is important to focus your goals on optimizing your strengths. A good rule of thumb is to focus on developing two areas of strength for each weak area. 2. Guidelines and Guardrails. Describe any limits to stay aware of. Avoid the thoroughness that would make this sound like the ridiculous list of disclaimers you hear on a medication ad. Stick to failure paths and distractions you have faced when tackling tough goals in the past. This would be a good time to give your colleague permission to challenge you when you start down a familiar failure path. 3. Resources. What additional tools, training, or coaching will you need to accomplish these goals? What allotment of Building Your Leadership Preventative Maintenance Plan

Performance capability will become the issue for most of us if we do not practice personal preventative maintenance. “ ”

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