By AdminAJ 
Imagine a workplace where everyone knows exactly what needs to be done and expectations are met the first time. A clear request also opens the door to building trust, enhancing loyalty, changing attitudes, and increasing productivity. Yes, clear requests are that impactful to an organization’s overall performance!
By AdminAJ 
In our continued focus on Team Leadership, a key component that supports teams working well together such that they can coordinate action with velocity and achieve results is making clear or clean agreements.
Clear/clean agreements create clarity, deepen trust, and improve performance between team members allowing for projects to be completed on time and on budget.
If clear/clean agreements create workability in our teams, we must take the time to find out where a lack of workability exists. Lack of workability might show up as frustration with a program or project that the team is engaged with. Look for weak agreements by noticing workability issues. At Awesome Journey, we have a saying, “if we can see it, we can name it, and then we can do something about it”.
Design a team meeting to talk about agreements. Have team members prepare to share one weak agreement that’s in their space, and the impact it is having on them. Notice if there are common themes like broken trust, performance issues, and people getting upset which can lead to workability decreases. Ask each person what is missing to create a clear/clean agreement and then challenge them to implement the changes and watch workability, trust, and performance improve quickly within your team.
Awesome Resource:
How to Make a Clean Agreement (3-minute video)
Next month we will discuss the components of a clean/clean agreement.
Have an awesome month leading with impact!
By AdminAJ 
This month we start to look at Team Leadership and the challenges of dealing with change as we work to evolve as an organization.
No company or organization can operate the same way forever. Businesses must constantly evolve and adapt to meet a variety of challenges—from changes in technology to the rise of new competitors, to inflation or supply chain disruptions. Failure to change can and most likely will lead to stagnation or, worse, poor results and layoffs. So why do teams struggle with change?
For any organization facing the prospect of change, the first step is to create a climate where your team learns the language of “being with change”. Learning to “be with change” will allow your team to co-create future possibilities.
To support leaders who can build teams that can be with change, begins with learning to listen for what your team’s relationship with change is.
Are they:
1. Coping with Change = A mindset of being closed, critical and judgmental
OR
2. Adapting to Change = A mindset of being open, curious, and in possibilities
Over the next 30 days spend time learning to assess where each of your team members is in their relationship to change. Are they coping with or adapting to change?
Change Video by Malcolm Gladwell — What World Awaits Gen Z
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
By AdminAJ 
This month we are looking at Organizational Leadership and the importance of becoming a “Learning Organization”.
For organizations to continue to succeed in today’s ever-changing landscape, they need to fight the urge to settle or be complacent. Many organizations find success and expect it to just last. Please, go buy a Kodak camera or rent a movie from Blockbuster. Both companies were pioneers in their field; Kodak invented the digital camera technology and dismissed it, not taking the time to “learn” what was happening at the frontline.
The first step in becoming a learning organization is to become a great Listening Organization. The best organizations have processes and structures to listen up, down and outside the entire organization on a constant basis, not just in the boardroom.
Starbucks Execs and head office partners spend time in their stores donning an apron, so they are with the customer and their partners and learn firsthand what the organization needs to focus on.
Ask each of your senior leaders to spend some time in the frontline and report back on what they have learned.
The Importance Of Listening For Organizational Success (5-minute read)
Culture of Deep Listening Video (5-minute video)
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
Next program early 2023
By AdminAJ 
As 2022 nears completion, we invite you to focus on acknowledging all the wins you achieved in the past year…
Acknowledging wins allows you to:
1. Show progress and measure where you are at
2. See patterns and trends in your business
3. Remember what challenges you overcame
4. Assess what needs to be addressed to support future success
5. Reward those who stepped up by acknowledging their efforts
Plan a “Year in Review” team meeting to come together and acknowledge/review accomplishments for 2022. So often the norm is for teams and companies to jump to the next thing (i.e.: executing on next year’s plan) without reviewing what happened, and what you already have. Additionally, without review, you are not taking advantage of the learnings to support a leadership mindset and generate future success.
For the “Year in Review” team meeting, request that each team member bring a minimum of 10 accomplishments they feel deserve to be acknowledged. 2-3 acknowledgments are easy but 10 will require a deeper look which can include smaller things that ended up having a huge impact on the business.
The Awesome Journey Team would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season and thank you for having us as part of your transformation in 2022.
At Awesome Journey, we are deeply committed to creating a powerful future together in our communities. In lieu of gifts, the AJ Team has made donations in support of the Calgary Food Bank & the Eva Sophia Project.
Also, check out our 2023 Book List for the leaders in your life. Have a happy and restful holiday season leader!
By AdminAJ 
This month we are focusing on Performance and how Leadership plays a critical role in its success.
Leadership is the most important ingredient to increase the performance of any organization.
You can tell the level of leadership by the overall success the organization is generating. They are producing consistent, repeatable, and reliable results.
Leadership and performance go hand in hand with trust. The more leaders both demand and demonstrate their trustworthiness by being sincere, competent, reliable, and involved, the better results they will see from employee performance.
Start to measure your team’s level of trust that improve performance by answering these questions:
Answer the questions above and start building trust to improve performance, a key tool to being a great leader!
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
By AdminAJ 
This month we are focusing on Strategic Execution, and the conversations needed to support the success of any Strategic Plan. One of these conversations is feedback and, more specifically, what “breakdowns & struggles” have been seen that need to be addressed by having a feedback conversation.
Feedback is a fundamental leadership practice for improvement! To improve organizational performance, we have to deal with the areas that have low workability. Could you imagine a football team not looking at the game last week to make adjustments for this week?
So, what stops leaders from receiving or giving feedback? The biggest reason is that we have learned from an early age that feedback is negative, demotivating and possibly hurtful. In most cases, the view of feedback is that it’s bad news, wrong or even career-ending – so let’s just avoid it altogether.
As leaders, we have to be comfortable with giving constructive (useful, beneficial and purposeful) feedback and using it as a tool for improvement versus making others feel small, wrong or judged.
Remember, when you have leaders who are open to giving and receiving feedback, overall performance will improve!
In the next few weeks, ask 4 people to give you constructive feedback on your leadership. By modelling to others that you are open to receiving feedback, it will impact others’ listening for receiving feedback in a positive way, and as an important tool for success!
The Joy of getting Feedback by Joe Hirsh
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
By AdminAJ 
This month we are focusing on Strategic Execution and what it takes to be successful at executing a strategic plan.
Some recent findings show that 70% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution!
Companies tend to spend more time planning and building the plan rather than implementing and executing the strategy and, more specifically, don’t plan and design the proper conversations needed for success.
Take the time to plan your team’s communication and engagement around your strategy.
Four intentional conversations that your leaders need to be having to ensure the organization’s strategic plan is being executed per defined timelines:
In your “Strategic Think Time” this week, reflect on which of the four conversations are happening by your team and which ones need to be upgraded to support the execution of the organization’s Strategic Plan.
The Strategy Implementation Challenge
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
By AdminAJ 
This month we are focusing on Strategic Design by creating time in your schedule for Strategic Thinking.
As leaders we create our future, we do not predict our future. Therefore, if you are not intentional about creating time for strategic thinking your future will be the same as the past.
Successful Leaders start by planning their time for strategic thinking. At Awesome Journey we call this “Strategic Thinking Time”, time for reviewing data, time for research, time for thinking about how to connect what appear as unconnected opportunities. It is also a time to challenge your thinking by being in conversations with others who can ask you thoughtful questions to poke at your thinking.
Take some time and answer the following questions:
Awesome Read: Six Essential Skills of Strategic Thinking
https://hbr.org/2013/01/strategic-leadership-the-esssential-skills
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
By AdminAJ 
Last month we shared the importance of acknowledgement when a teammate performs in a manner that supports the team and organization. That is one form of an accountability conversation that reinforces positive behaviours. But what if the opposite occurs, or a breakdown, where someone didn’t do what was agreed upon? Then a different accountability conversation needs to happen.
Account – ability. It’s key to achieving business results and critical in supporting change and growth.
When done right, an accountability conversation leads to business outcomes and increased performance for team members who keep their word.
You will, at some point, need to hold someone accountable. This is simply a part of leadership. The good news is team members want your feedback. They want to know where they stand. They want to know what they’re doing right and what needs improvement.
Identify two accountability conversations you need to have with team members to support delivering the business results that we have promised.
Start by ensuring time is planned for follow-up/fallout conversations, both for acknowledgement and feedback around the specific task which will include accountability.
Awesome Read: How Do Leaders Hold People Accountable?
Have an Awesome Month Leading with Impact!
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