By Elizabeth Jeffries, RN, CSP, CPAE
Part III of a Three-Part Series
Keep strategizing and planning
This season of disruption will eventually come to an end and the new beginning is around the corner. Don’t wait! Think about the future now. Start building your new normal today.
Anticipate potential problems and needs. Hiring will escalate at some point. Does your hiring and onboarding process need revision? Is Working from Home likely to go on, at least in part, in your agency? Do you need guidelines and structure to make it work more productively?
Have a back-up person for yourself and talk with them now. Make sure they know the intricacies of your role and the priorities as owner/CEO so they can step in if need be. If you lead a very large agency, you may need a second person at the ready.
What have you learned from this experience? What can and will you do differently in the next phase of work? What roles and responsibilities will change in your team? It’s a good time to write out the roles and responsibilities of your position and other positions in the agency.
- What roles and responsibilities will change in your team? It’s a good time to write out the roles and responsibilities of your position and other positions in the agency.
- What have you noticed about your team members?
- Has someone unexpected surprisingly stepped up to take charge or volunteer for a project? If so, is there a better or new role for this person now?
- Any disappointments in someone? What are you going to do about it, if anything? (Remember, what you permit, you promote).
Be prepared. Evaluate and revise your disaster plan. Put someone in charge of this and set up a task force.
Keep and show an Attitude of Hope in every conversation. Hope and a Can-Do attitude need to start with you, the leader. Be aware of your own attitude and beliefs. Stick to your Agency’s core values. One of our client organization’s values are “Do Right, Work Together, Own It and Always Care.” They remind each other of these daily so they can remember who they aspire to be. Your role as a leader is to be “a merchant of Hope,” said Napoleon.
This is not a time to just manage, but it is the perfect time to lead, to revisit/realign your vision, take charge and influence intentionally.
“. . . To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot
Your Journey: A Call to Action
- What is the next step in your plan for the future of your agency?
Elizabeth Jeffries, RN, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame is an Award-winning Keynote Speaker, Executive Leadership Coach, and Author of What Exceptional Executives Need to Know. Elizabeth is the CEO of Executive Mastery … a Tweed Jeffries company.
