10 Ways Managers Operationalize Their Intentions

I was talking with a client today about her senior management team - what they do well and what they don't do well. The company spends a lot - terms of resources and time in helping leaders be self-aware (using various assessments and instruments, followed by facilitated discussions). But what they don't do very well is CHANGE as a result of the self-awareness. Their awareness never turns into learning and does not change how they manage and lead.

I know a lot of managers who suffer from low self-awareness. And then I know many managers has some self-awareness but who fail to modify their practices and habits to improve their results - how they manifest their intentions.

Here is a quick top 10 list for ways to operationalize - make real - your managerial intentions:

1. Communicate your managerial goals and intentions to your employees, peers, and manager on at least a quarterly basis. Be specific. these goals and intentions should ties to the organization's strategies and unique challenges.

2. Ensure your communicate messages are received as intended. I wrote about this here.

3. Talk about, act on and measure those things that you say are important.

4. For every goal or intention, write down three ways your management habits should change to better support the goal or intention. Do those things. Hint: Your managerial practices OUGHT TO CHANGE if you want to get a different result.

5. Articulate your goals and intentions in the "goal setting" section of your performance evaluation - hold yourself accountable!

6. Seek feedback from your employees and peers during one-on-ones regarding how well you are focusing on and reinforcing your goals and intentions.

7. Implement structure, when needed, to support implementation of goals (for example, changing the structure of your team meeting to facilitate team collaboration or changing a report to emphasize the most important information or reinventing a process to better support goals).

8. Block out time on your calendar to focus on the tasks that best support your goals and intentions. Even 30-minute blocks, once per day, will help.

9. Ask yourself: What can I do today to best move the most important work forward? How can I be a catalyst for excellence? Do those things.

10. Be cognizant of the difference between self-awareness and personal growth. Awareness is critical, but can be a waste of time and resources if you do not learn how to be a better manager and then change as a result.

Self-awareness should not lead to excuses for why you aren't changing to accomodate the needs of others. The opposite! Self-awareness can and should help us become more nimble and flexible professionals by helping us understand how our tendencies impact others and when alternative approaches would better serve our goals.

Comments

[greg]

If a supervisor ever asked me to "operationalize objectives" I'd either think that they were an idiot or that I'd wandered into a Dilbert cartoon - or both.

It would be rapidly followed by my "application for constructive redeployment".

In the meantime I would continue to "do work", "perform tasks", and - from time to time "achieve goals".

[lisa haneberg]

Greg - that's very funny and I get your point about terminology. That said, I know a lot of managers who do a lot of work, perform a lot of tasks but who don't achieve goals. As Dilberty as the word "operationalize" is, I like it, because it means putting the right work and tasks into play.

As a manager, I would not ask someone to operationalize objectives. I would ask, "are we doing the right things?"

Thanks for the comment!